Housing lace monitors

[saikrett]

I'm going to be looking at getting a lace monitor at the start of next year (if avaliable, due to there long incubation periods).
And i was in need of some advice on housing,
I have a 1.5mX0.9M cage and was wondering how long before it would get too big for this cage. I also have a bird avary but i would really like to build another pit,

I ask this so i dont get stuck with a large monitor with no home,

thanks,

 

[Simon_Archibald]

Scott,
When they hatch lacies are around 20cm/25cm long (give or take a few cm - I'm really not good with estimating lengths, but you get the idea).

As with any lizard, if you feed them every now and then they will only grow at an average rate. If you feed them alot and pump some heat into them, they will grow a lot quicker. Problem with overfeeding them though is that they tend to become obese a lot in captivity because they don't seem to exercise as much as they have to in the wild.

I'd say your tank will last a good year but after that I'd move it to a bigger enclosure, or maybe even outside. I'm not saying it couldn't still live in that tank, I just prefer to give my animals heaps of room.

As far as your aviary goes, plenty of people keep them this way successfully. The problem I have with aviaries is the roughness of the mesh. I had my Sand Monitor in a dog run for 2 days and he absolutely wore his nose down and bled unbelieveable. It was incredibly frightening and depressing that he would just rub and rub. That's why I give my animals heaps of spcae too - they don't seem to want to get out as much and so they don't rub.

Remember that I don't keep Lacies at this stage (but have met and talked with over 15 people who do) so my advice is just from what I know of all these other people's collections. I do intend to get a few lacies at the end of the year (budget permitting).

As far as anything else goes, I wouldn't give him a really hot enclosure - just similar to your Sydney weather. You don't want him to become too accustomed to a bit of extra heat and then whack him outside in the cold when he grows up

Simon Archibald

 

[Springherp]

As far as your aviary goes, plenty of people keep them this way successfully. The problem I have with aviaries is the roughness of the mesh.

I have heard that lace monitors being more intelligent than some other monitors tend to climb up the side of an aviary rather than rub their nose against it. If you are worried anyway you could always place some kind of barrier around each side of the aviary to prevent it from happening.

 

[snakehunter]

Probably best not to have mesh go right to the ground or at all if possible, you could use a solid wall like an old above ground swimming pool or corrogated iron/colourbond style sheeting. The general idea is that the animal wont rub against something as much that it cant see through compared to a transparent barrier.

 

[Magpie]

Laceys love to climb so if you are gonna make a pit, it needs to huge so you can put a tree in it IMO.

 

[saikrett]

thanks guys, I'm thinking about building a pit around a tree, and putting a collar about 5-10 Meters up the tree

 

[sxereturn]

Just make it so the tree isn't touching any other tree. That way, with a large enclosure, they can climb all the time and not get out.

 

[saikrett]

Is there any accurate way to sex these guys(or girls)?

 

[Tommo]

the only way to sex all monitors is by x ray. i heard that herp societies can let u know where someone will do it.

 

[NoOne]

You can sex most small moniters without Xray.