Care Sheet for MonitorsAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 2.50 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 12/03/2005 |
Main Category: | Lizards |
Sub Category: | Monitors |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Zach7655 |
Years Experience: | 3 to 5 Years |
Species: | Ornate nile monitor |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | N/A |
Sexing and Characteristics: | Can only be sexed by veterinarian |
Mostly Active During: | Day |
Substrate and Water Needs: | Water: Ornate nile monitors love soaking in the water. They also enjoy catching fish swimming in their water bowl. And they love turning over their water dish and making a royal mess. They snake their head under it and flip it over. Possibly trying to hide, looking for food, or just having fun. Use a very heavy water container or buy a heavy-duty mop. Use a deep container, because they tend to overflow their container.
Substrate
Mat, dirt, sand, gravel, or bark
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Lighting and UVB: | Lighting: Ornate nile monitors need full-spectrum fluorescent lighting or daily sessions in real sunlight. The closer they can climb to your bulbs, the better your bulbs work. UVB bulbs are best.
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Temperatures and Humidity: | Humidity
Provide a large water pan and mist babies often
85o to 95o gradient, 90o to 100o for basking |
Heating and Equipment: | An under-cage heater plus a basking heat source make a good combination. Provide a range of temperatures for your Nile monitor if possible. Heat rocks also provide a good basking site. Clean your heat rock often to discourage bacterial growth. |
Caging Provided: | Those cute snake-tongued guys grow into huge honker lizards that eventually need their own room. You can keep baby Nile monitors in aquariums for a while, but these guys will all need a bathtub-sized swimming pool when fully grown. These are definitely not a lizard for youngsters to keep. Nile monitors come from the river banks of Africa. Any critter that invades crocodile nests and eats their eggs is a force to be reckoned with (or avoided). They like climbing areas and swim more than some other monitors. They need a large swimming “pool.” When young, Nile monitors love climbing and swimming. As they grow, they spend even less time in the water. Baby Nile monitors need lots of swimming room and love being misted. |
Diet: | Carnivorous |
Description of Diet: | Start them on crickets then convert them to goldfish. Cost-wise, feeder goldfish make an economical food. As they approach a foot long, add mice to their menu and canned monitor food. A small ornate cannot eat an entire can of monitor food. Cut the canned food into portions and freeze the extras. Add small rats (humanely killed, of course) as they grow. We recommend the frozen ones when you can find them (thawed, of course). They love boiled eggs. They run after boiled eggs rolled across their tank floor. They also eat them from your fingers. Count your fingers after doing this. Unshelled eggs add lots of calcium. Hold the mayo. Monitors will eat raw eggs, but they are really messy. If you took Art Appreciation or participated in a football “egging,” you know how long dried raw eggs hang around. Raw eggs also interfere with the absorption of biotin in many critters. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | Because the bones of small ornate Nile monitors grow so much, your baby monitors need calcium and vitamin supplements dusted on their food. |
Maintenance: | You will probably have to get the nails trimmed by a vet |
Some Words on this Species: | Handle them often. Niles monitors are harder to tame. The smallest ones are easiest to work with. When you first get your Nile, you may need to use stout gloves to handle it. Some Niles will never adjust to handling. They can snake their neck around and sneak a quick nip. A large, mean Nile monitor is more than most people can handle. Keep your shoes on. They like toe food. |
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