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Bedding for water monitor?

J

jpsteele80

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Hi.

Im curious as to what type of bedding that you guys use for your water monitors, i have herd so many different types of bedding being used, it seems that everyone has there own mix they like to use but i would like to know what everone here use for there water monitor. This will be my first monitor and i have many people tell me i need to get something esle for a starter monitor but i am fully aware of the size of this animal and what size cage it will need. I plan on buying one of these in about 2yrs

http://www.cagesbydesign.com/p-168-hybrid-reptile-cages-72h-x-144l-x-36d-h3.aspx

I have had burms and retics and about 20 other different species of snakes so i am in no way new to keeping reptiles.
 
Dirt and sand. If you end up with a female then get ready for that to be 2ft at least of substrate. Females will egg bound and die if Nesting isn't met. Assume you have a male you could get away with much less substrate depth but your cage is 100% waste of space. A baby water can easily exceed 4ft in one year. Your cage is only 36in deep. How is a 7ft monitor going to turn around in that? How are you going to provide a water bowl large enough for a full grown water. I used to have green anacondas and comparing that to trying to house my monitors isn't even apples to oranges. More like apples to watermelons.

My "dwarf"'monitors tristis tristis are in a cage that is 6x3x5ft (lwh) and they are only 28in long and use it all. My croc monitors shed is 13x10x8ft (lwh) has over 30in of substrate in two places for nesting and she uses the entire cage. Her svl will be the same as a 5ft water.
Your cage would maybe okay for a male argus.
Check varanus.net
Kingsnake.com-monitor forum
Repticzone.com
The few keeping healthy waters have cages the same dimensions as I do.
 
If a bigger cage is necessare then thats not a problem as i can build a bigger custom cage, i was just thinking that as it is nice and big plus it is visually appealing.
 
Those are nice looking cages but really don't meet monitor needs. Your best bet would be to build your cage. There is a good link on repticzone that is labeled "how to" I think. It breaks down everything. I would hate to see anyone do what I did years ago. I built a nice cage and invested over a grand just for my monitor to outgrow the cage in 14months. next cage cost me around 2 grand.
For the first year I would really only build cheap cages because the grow insanely fast in right. Once the monitor slows on growth then I would look in nicer permanent cages.
Check out the websites for more info. There is also a site called cybersalvator.com that focuses mainly on water monitors.
Cheers
 
That cage is a piece of junk. I have seen them in person and a full grown water would destroy that cage. I would recommend at least 2' of dirt for a male or female water. Cage size in my opinon should be about 14x7x6. I use dirt from a landscape supply company for all of my monitors and tegu. Varanus.nl is also a great forum to get information.
 
I think you have to email the admin and they will email you when registration is open. They only open it for a short time to prevent spamming.
 
That's correct. They do only open it for a while. That's what I had to do in order to get in there. It's a great forum though, worth the extra "effort."
 
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