Mertens Question

[nathan09]

hey guys,

throughout the course of this year i will be designing (nearly finished) and construcing (nearly started) a very large enclosure for a pair of mertens water monitors, (wont go into the details of the enclosure, but dinamics at this stage are, 3mx2mx2, length, width height)

i was wondering if a breeding pair of mertens would be expencive? if so how much?, aprox. (not a problem just wanto know how much i need to put aside for when the time comes)

and also, would a tame (handled everyday) mertens still breed?

thanks

 

[Simon_Archibald]

About $1500 - $2000 would be a reasonable amount for a breeding pair of adults. Mertens are a great lizard to keep. I've kept 8 species of monitors over my years of herping and these would be my faves. Plenty of character, not too shy, very active when given a varied environment - not to mention get them a big pond and feed them in the water, WHAT A SHOW!

My adult pair were wild-caught but long-term captives when I got them. I handled them rarely - trust me you don't need to be hands on with this species to really enjoy them. When I did handle them they never bit me or showed any aggression.

 

[Serpentes]

That is a small enclosure for a pair of Mertens. They are big, active goannas.

 

[nathan09]

3 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2 meters high is small for a pair of mertens that grow to a MAX of 1m long?....yea right. lol

i think some people are over....cautious (i guess u can call it) about enclosure size's, u dont need 100x the size of the reptile for its enclosure, im VERY confident that this enclosure is plenty big enough for a pair of mertens, considering ive seen them in MUCH smaller.

 

[nathan09]

thanks simon_archibald for the info

thats why i want to get one, i seen a young pair (around 30cm long) in a reptile store the other month and he got out the water for me and climbed his log up to head height to say hi to me, right away the species caught me and i have to have one , or two, to breed considering the species is threatned in the wild.
thanks for the info mate

 

[GeckoJosh]

They are active lizards, far more than dragons, if you need a 120cm for a pair of 40cm beardies that hardly never move then i think something 3m x 2m for something as big and as active as mertens is on the small side as said b4
dont forget alot of that space is going to be taken up by hides and pond etc

 

[nathan09]

i dissagree i think they will be fine in this HUGE enclosure. u may beg the differ but i dont care, but i do care about my animals and i beleive this will be big enough.

 

[GeckoJosh]

i dissagree i think they will be fine in this HUGE enclosure. u may beg the differ but i dont care, but i do care about my animals and i beleive this will be big enough.

Yes they will be fine, all we are saying is that it is on the small side and not a "HUGE" enclosure

 

[nathan09]

thanks , i undertsand were u guys are coming from but cmon, its a bloody big enclosure (even if u dont think so) its nearly going to take up a whole room, and if u compare it to a standard snake enclosure........lol its pretty big

 

[nathan09]

well in al this debate, id like to see what other mertnes owners keep theres in. be interesting

 

[GeckoJosh]

thanks , i undertsand were u guys are coming from but cmon, its a bloody big enclosure (even if u dont think so) its nearly going to take up a whole room, and if u compare it to a standard snake enclosure........lol its pretty big

You cant really compare a snakes enclosure to a monitors

 

[nathan09]

no im not, but its physicall size diffrence, id class it as huge, but not huge taking into account what will go in it. if that makes any sence lol

id be confident to say that mertens owners on here have a smaller enclosure for there's. ill stand corrected if im wrong but im confident they dont. so dont be puttin me down for making a effort to build the bigest enclosure my house will accomodate and possibley the biggest mertens enclosure (to be) on here. BUT as i said, id stand corected if im wrong, but im confident im not.

 

[cris]

3 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2 meters high is small for a pair of mertens that grow to a MAX of 1m long?....yea right. lol

i think some people are over....cautious (i guess u can call it) about enclosure size's, u dont need 100x the size of the reptile for its enclosure, im VERY confident that this enclosure is plenty big enough for a pair of mertens, considering ive seen them in MUCH smaller.

Arnt we lucky you are here to give us advice about keeping large goannas If you know everything why ask us?

That is actually slighlty under the mimimum reccomend size according to many experienced keepers, it would be ok IMO if you put a nice big pond in it and plenty of branches and other decoration. A common genreral rule for the minimum enclosure size for large monitors is 2x their length for witdth and 4x their length for length of the enclosure. You probably can keep them alive in much smaller enclosures but you could also keep a person alive in a coffin sized enclosure... it doesnt make it right though.

Goannas are very intellegent and not really comparable to many other reptiles, such as snakes that are well suited to small enclosures.

 

[chickensnake]

i know where your coming from, the snake enclosures i am in the process of building (with help of course) will take up more than half of my room lol

 

[nathan09]

ok so by ur minimum size recomendation im ok for width and 1m (or less) for length, cmon! how perdantic do you guys wanto get with enclosure size, ur harassing me for (by ur standard) 1m short in length. im going to eat dinner this is getting anoying and pathetic. nothing but critosicm, id still like to see other merten owners prove me wrong and show me a bgger set up

 

[Dave]

In coming months we will see that your "tame" monitor has bitten a finger off

 

[nathan09]

and why do u say that dave?

dont forget i dont have any yet, i havnt even started construction.

 

[nathan09]

id also like to point out that my enclosure is going to be bigger than that of the melbourne zoo's mertens enclosure, so maybe u guys should start harrasing them about there enclosure size hm ;o

 

[nathan09]

the biggest mertens enclosur ei could find on here (brief search) was Karly's 2m X 0.8 X 1.8. and your harasing me for 3mx2mx2m............?????

no offence to you karly (if u see this) its a great enclosure and was my inspiration

 

[gecko-mad]

the biggest mertens enclosur ei could find on here (brief search) was Karly's 2m X 0.8 X 1.8. and your harasing me for 3mx2mx2m............?????

no offence to you karly (if u see this) its a great enclosure and was my inspiration

I dont think Karlys is an adult, (correct me Karly if I'm wrong) plus you will be housing TWO ADULTS in it. Face it, It's tiny.