Need some ackie hatchling help please

I'm new to reptiles, but I'm doing my best to try and provide this animal with a great home and life. I've done well over 6 months of research on just about every article I could find about the species, but every caresheet, forum, message board, and person seems to have slight variations on monitor info, so I'm just looking to get some solid, credible, straight forward answers to some questions.

I've had my ackie hatchling for a little over a week now. At first I was concerned about it's appetite, but figured it would increase as the baby got more comfortable to it's new surroundings.

In the week it's been here it has eaten 3-5 medium crickets, 2-3 mealworms, and the head of a pinky mouse. I'm under the impression that it should be eating this much if not more every day.

It used to come out and explore / eat a little / bask / etc about 3-5 hours a day for the first 3-4 days that it was here. Then, it discovered that it could climb where the door frame and side wall of the enclosure meet to slip out about a milometer size opening at the top of the door where it meets the front of the enclosure. I found it on the outside of the door the other day when I came home from school. I have since fixed that problem, and for a day or so after that everything was fine, except for the small appetite still.

Now, I have not seen it in over 3 days. My mom said the last time she saw it was Friday morning for about 10 minutes. I'm guessing that it is just working hard on it's burrows / tunnels and sleeping, and that this is normal, but I'm just a bit worried because of how small it is. I did notice a small twig from the substrate in the water bowl and what looked like a dirt trail near the basking spot yesterday, but I can't be sure. I've left some crickets in the cage periodically over the past few days just in case it decides to come out and is hungry. I don't see any crickets in there now, so either it ate them or they're just eluding me. I also have a few dishes of appropriately sized chopped up pinky and fuzzy mice around the cage for the same reason, if a few pieces are gone, but I still don't see it, at least I know it's still okay. I don't want to dig it up and stress it to hell for no reason if this is normal behavior, but I also don't want anything bad to happen to it.

Someone suggested that my ambient temps might have been too high which would cause it to try and escape / burrow longer, so I dropped the ambients by about 5-8 degrees.

Here's what my setup is after making the changes.

5' x 3' x 2.5' (LxWxH)

3/4" cabinet grade plywood w/ plexiglass doors.

Ambient temps: 72-90F (they were 74-98F previously)

Basking spots:

Left: I have a cave under the light, on top the cave is 133-145F, in front of the cave is 125-132F, inside the cave is 92-95F

Right: I have a very narrow cork log under the light, on top the log is 137-142F, to the right of the log is 124-140F, inside the log is 88-90F

Humidity is 65-78% depending on how long it's been since I've added water / misted.


Some people tell me the enclosure is too big for a baby, some people say it's fine. Finding food is not a problem, it stares at it, chases it, sniffs the chopped up mice, but just rarely eats.

My main concern right now is the duration of burrowing, 3+ days seems like a REALLY long time even for a burrowing species. I'd assume it would come out at least for a little bit. So I think that covers it. I've been really stressed out and worried about the little thing, from the lack of appetite and prolonged burrowing. I'm 99% sure it's still in the enclosure, it was seen inside after I fixed up the place it escaped from. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

This is not some impulse pet store buy asking for advice because I have no clue what I'm doing.


I really care about this animal and want to see it thrive into a happy healthy adult. The ONLY times I've handled it were when I unboxed it from shipping, and the few times it slipped out the top to get it back into the enclosure. I'm not treating it like a puppy and doing my best to be a responsible pet owner. Thank you for your time, please help if you can!

The styrofoam at the bottom of the doors was to keep it from falling between the door and the front of the enclosure and getting stuck, it has been working fine and has caused no problems that I can see.

Here is a picture of the lizard on the top of the door after climbing up trying to get out, and a few more in case anyone can tell anything about the behavior from the pictures. It seems to love the enclosure when it isn't burrowed for days on end or trying to escape >.> haha

He looks fine to me, has a nice fat tail and body, just remember that these guys as hatchlings weigh no more than 10-15 grams, so they really cant eat that much food as some people think they might regardless of metabolism. Hydration is critical in the hatchling stages for success. For my ackie baby i mist down the enclosure with warm water every morning, and i soak him weekly to encourage hydration and shedding. They say change is inevitable and i find this very true with ackies and their enclosure, ive changed the setup for my ackie three times before i found a set up that worked well for me and her. My advice is dont worry too much, chances are you are doing right by your animal and you just need to let him get used to his surroundings.

Oh and get some uv lighting on him too, i know a lot of monitor breeders say nay to it, but if you want to do the best for you're animal, then leave no stone unturned. I recommend the powersuns by zoomed, all of their research that went into the bulbs were conducted on komodo dragons in zoo's, so it kinda makes sense to provide uv for any monitors since these results were proven.