For Sale Beautiful Argus Monitor with Custom Enclosure. - FaunaClassifieds
FaunaClassifieds  
  Tired of those Google and InfoLink ads? Upgrade Your Membership!
  Inside FaunaClassifieds » Photo Gallery  
 

Go Back   FaunaClassifieds > Reptile & Amphibian - Classifieds > Lizards For Sale/Wanteds > Monitors

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-04-2013, 06:55 PM   #1
socalvaranid
Beautiful Argus Monitor with Custom Enclosure.

I am gauging the interest for my 2 year old female Argus monitor (Varanus panoptes) and her large custom enclosure.

First about the Argus Monitor. She is a 2 year old from Justin "Krusty" Burokas. She is about 3 feet head to tail and in full health. She is eating 3 large mice every other day and is a voracious feeder. She regularly burrows to lay eggs although I have never mated her. I don't handle her, but she is very inquisitive and will come right up to me when I am changing her water.

Now for the enclosure. This enclosure is the culmination of 7 years of learning and testing things out to get the best result. The enclosure is made of wood with a metal horse trough for the substrate. The enclosure was custom made to fit in my reptile shed outside, so it has a steepled roof. It is 8 feet wide, 4 feet tall at the ends, 5 feet tall at the middle and 3 feet deep. I have it on cinder blocks to get it off of the ground.

The base again is a 8'x3'x2' metal horse trough with a wood frame around it. The trough is filled all 2' with substrate that consists of 70% regular dirt and 30% sand. It holds a burrow and moisture very well. The trough has a drain tube drilled in the bottom so excess water does not sit in the bottom. There is a 2” bed of coarse gravel in the bottom to keep the drainage water out of the dirt. There is also a hole drilled in the end side of the trough so PVC plumbing can be run out for the water bowl

The top half of the enclosure is made out of wood and plywood, painted on the inside with “ReptiShield”. Reptishield protects the wood from moisture and I haven’t seen any rot in 7 years of operation. The top half of the enclosure is made up of 6 separate panels. A back piece, two side pieces, a front piece and two roof pieces. This makes the enclosure easier to break down, fix and assemble. They are designed to fit together with no gaps to seal in moisture. They are assembled with screws and metal brackets for support. The front/access piece is just 2x4s with acrylic windows for a total viewing experience of the monitor and environment. There are two sliding glass doors that move within a plastic U-channel.

The “furniture” inside the enclosure includes a large, long pine tree trunk that allows the monitor to get from the substrate to the lighting. The perch allows for the entire lizard to get heat from the lighting head to tail. There are other branches that allow the monitor to get exercise as well as get from high to low to thermo-regulate. There is a triangle-shaped shelf on the hot side that is a piece of plywood attached to a branch that allows for hiding and warming up in seclusion or a “hot hide”. This could also be a great place for a nesting box. I have multiple “Retes stacks” on the shelf that allows for more options for the monitor. On the cool side, there is a plywood board that extends all the way across the cage and is secured under the front and back panels for stability. This is where the water bowl sits and I currently use a plastic concrete mixing tub. There is plumbing that allows the water bowl to be emptied out of the end of the cage using a ball valve. This also allows for a hide on the cool side where the monitor can dig and cool off.

For Heating, there are multiple basking areas in the cage. There are two lighting fixtures that have two bulbs each. I use 40 W halogen flood lights for basking. This gets the temperature on the basking perch to 120 degrees no problem. Spacing out the light fixtures allows for the entire lizard to be covered in light/heat. There is also a radiant heat panel that is mounted under the hot side “shelf” that heats the substrate on the hot side as well as the platform that is mounted under it. This will get from 100 degrees on the platform to 80 degrees ambient and on the substrate. The RHP is on a rheostat and can be dialed up or down as needed.
Humidity is maintained by the airtight construction of the cage, with weather stripping between the panels as well as a tube that runs to a water spigot with 4 sprinkler heads (2 90 degree and 2 180 degree) inside of the cage. Running this for 10-20 seconds raises and maintains humidity at the desired 70%.

This enclosure really is my pride and joy and I have been told it is “show quality” or “better than at the zoo”.
I am looking for an experienced monitor keeper who will know how to use this cage properly to help the Argus monitor excel to make me an offer on the monitor and the cage. If we come to a deal, I will throw in a custom melamine “holding” enclosure for free as well as a metal rack with 3 shelves.

Many pictures below of everything.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Jeff 310-598-0700, jharding08@gmail.com














Holding Enclosure (Top)
Attached Images
 
  Contact User Check User

Join now to reply to this thread or open new ones for your questions & comments! FaunaClassifieds.com is the largest online community about Reptile & Amphibians, Snakes, Lizards and number one classifieds service with thousands of ads to look for. Registration is open to everyone and FREE. Click Here to Register!

 
Reply

Tags
argus, custom cage, female, monitor

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Custom Reptile Enclosure and Varanus Melinus (Quince Monitor) dragonbreeder Monitors 3 04-09-2010 03:41 AM
Beautiful Argus Monitor!! snelson Monitors 4 01-05-2005 12:29 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:03 AM.







Fauna Top Sites


Powered by vBulletin® Version
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Page generated in 0.04663992 seconds with 11 queries
Content copyrighted ©2002-2022, FaunaClassifieds, LLC