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What are your favorite "pet" monitors?

What monitor(s) do you keep? More than one OK

  • Ackie (red and/or yellow)

    Votes: 39 26.5%
  • Argus

    Votes: 14 9.5%
  • Black Headed

    Votes: 4 2.7%
  • Black Throat

    Votes: 26 17.7%
  • Freckled

    Votes: 4 2.7%
  • Kimberley Rock

    Votes: 6 4.1%
  • Mangrove

    Votes: 14 9.5%
  • Nile

    Votes: 15 10.2%
  • Ornate

    Votes: 2 1.4%
  • Peach Throat

    Votes: 6 4.1%
  • Roughneck

    Votes: 9 6.1%
  • Savannah

    Votes: 45 30.6%
  • Timor

    Votes: 11 7.5%
  • Water

    Votes: 17 11.6%
  • Other...Please specify in a post below

    Votes: 15 10.2%

  • Total voters
    147

Jim O

Careful with that axe...
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I'm just curious about what monitor keepers keep. I keep ackies (red and yellow), timor monitors, and freckled monitors (V tristis orientalis).
 
im used to houseing savs but i love ackies. there a smaller speicies so there easier to house and take care of. and they are very calm if you tame and treat it right.(well the ones i held where very tame) not sure about the rest. but i would have to say ackies are the best.
 
I just have my Nile. She's four years old this month. I raised her from a hatchling. I would like to try my hand with Freckels one day and maybe.......don't stop dreaming!....dare I say it.....a Lacie....and make it a Bell!

wayne
 
Well, I had a Varanus salvator. Kali. She looked unlike any other water monitor I've ever seen. She was predominantly sunflower yellow with the rosette patterns in black/dark brown. Her belly and neck were pink and a very pale blue.

Kali had been advertised as a "free iguana" in a newpaper ad. My son's father went and got her. Very soon he realized that he was in over his head so he offered her to me.

Kali lived in my bathroom. I had a small dog crate with her heating pad in there. When she couldn't be supervised I just kept the bathroom door closed. Every day when she woke up she'd go into the bathtub. I'd turn the shower on for her. After she pooped I would fill the tub. Man she loved that tub of water. After her soak she would head out onto the sunporch to lounge on her branches and watch the neighborhood. Kids would come by and look at her and bring their friends and family.

Kali was not a biter. She tolerated being touched, even liked to have her neck scratched. I would brush her when she was shedding to help get the skin off. She loved it. She would splay out her legs and just lie there. She could be vicious with her tail though. Whacked me good one time on the temple. I thought I was going to pass out.

She would go after feet in white socks because she thought they were white mice. Caused some dancing around my house!

I took Kali into the schools for educational talks and because the kids could touch her. She was big and impressive. Sadly, Kali died last spring. And, quite frankly I have been so grief stricken that I haven't talked about her much with anyone. We miss her.
 
I have only ever owned 1 monitor which was a mangrove. I like those, ackies, and the argus monitors. However, I didn't like my mangrove's intelligence and ability to escape from it's cage, and from it's travel carrier into the dashboard of my car. It took a couple of days to catch him while he was sunning near the back windshield. :hehe:
 
My monitors..

Young male flaviargus, around 4ft and about 1.5 years old.
3310_1024.ts1126413406000.jpg

My newest aquisition, was given to me a few weeks ago, male blackthroat, missing alot of tail, should be 4ft or more.
3516_1024.ts1130482504000.jpg

Very large male Storrs monitor, 16.5 inches,lol.
3403_1024.ts1128834179000.jpg

Red Ackie parents..
2803_1024.ts1111731418000.jpg

The kids, 13 days old, already grown 2 inches.
3537_1024.ts1130560907000.jpg

My fiancee attempting to hold Sobek, shes a big strong gentle sweetheart, now 6ft 3.5 inches long.
3427_1024.ts1129276469000.jpg
 
Oh, my favorite among these by far, hmmm.

Sobek my hybrid BT/WT/WT cross, Ive had her since she was 2 months old. All are great though, family members to say the least.
 
Favorites

I am kept by the ultimate green arboreal reptiles, emerald tree monitors. They were the first monitors I ever bought and the only ones that I am kept by at the moment. I sold my 3 white head water monitors because they didnt get the white heads. The green trees have bred over the years!

Digby Rigby

Keeping reptiles is just practice for being kept by monitors!
 
Niles especially what they call

the ornate Niles in which I've only seen a few of. just to bad they aren't as tame as other monitors are still.
 
I would have to go with the sand monitor, nice size, around 4-4.5 feet. Very nice dispositions and good feeding response. Not as crazy as an argus and easy to breed. Probably the most intelligent of the varanids.
 
Don't own any yet, but...

I am getting a pair of red Ackies in the next month or so, when it warms up a bit. I have been dreaming and wishing and trying to convince myself that I have the room and resources for a black throat though for quite some time. If I could have any monitor I pleased it would be a black throat, or maybe a lace. But seeing as though I can't, Ackies are my choice. I'm sure they'll still be a ton of fun!
 
My Favorite has to be Argus. The intelligence and curiosity is hard to beat. My guys where pretty tame too, althought they arent exactly known for that.

Second on my list would be Ackies, floowed closely by White/Black throat and Savs.

Green and Blue trees are awesome but they are more of a display animal then a Pet.

Back in 2002-2003 my monitor collection was quite big.

1.2 Argus
1.2 Western Giant Yellow Ackies
1.1 Freckled and 0.1 Black Headed housed together
1.1 Blue Spot Timors and 0.1 Spotted Tree (V. Similis) housed together
0.0.1 Mangrove
1.0 Black Throat
0.0.1 Savanah

Unfortunatly, at the end of 2003 surgery required I sell all but the Black Throat. I wound up giving him to someone who had a female in early 05 though for a breeding project, so I have no monitors at all right now :(.
 
favorite monitors

well id have to say my nile monitors. ive gotten them to be hadable and they are the best ive had.

i also have

3 coman niles
1 ornate nile
4 sav's
2 timor
1 dusky monitor (newly reclassified mangrove)
1 yelloe ackie (my little adhd monitor)
1 water monitor
not to mention 1 red tegu and 1 blue tegu
 
i've raised savannahs niles and mangroves in the past and i'd have to say that mangroves were always my favorite .
 
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