Mangrove Monitor Help

[Emu942]

If anyone could provide some feedback that'd be great!! I just got a baby mangrove monitor two days ago, and I haven't seen it move very much except for residing in different corners in awkward positions. It's not very active in the cage, but once we go near it, it noticeably turns its head to watch us. Other than that, it hasn't done much and the only time I've seen it very active was once during noon and when the guy selling it to me took it out and put it into a container for transportation. I've offered a mealworm to see if it would get it's attention (I'm aware that mealworms aren't ideal for them, I wanted to see if movement would get his attention since he wasn't interested in the chunks of egg I had for him) which it did, but he didn't strike at it or anything. I plan to try giving him crickets tomorrow, but should I be worried about how sluggish he is and how he lays down in one area for lengthy periods of time?? He seems to only liven up when he's mad that we're moving something around in the enclosure.

 

[Ryan-James]

These guys can be so highly strung and sounds like he is stressed, how hot is your basking spot, what was the enclosure like that he came from, has it got a safe area with a hide, any chance of a pic if the enclosure?
Maybe add fake plants, more hides and cover the glass so he has more privacy until he gets the gist of it.

I bought 2 hatchling lace monitors in the early 2000s that came from an aviary style set up and went into a white melamine 1x2x2metre set up at my place, one eventually settled in and the other one stressed out until it died, I did everything right with 40 degree basking spot, lots of sub for digging, good hides, fake plants, high points, low points, logs etc but the massive change caused them both stress, if I was to do it again I wouldn't use bright white melamine for starters.
From the body language and looking at you like that, he is absolutely ****ting himself. Swing us an enclosure pic if you can

 

[user 43767]

These guys can be so highly strung and sounds like he is stressed, how hot is your basking spot, what was the enclosure like that he came from, has it got a safe area with a hide, any chance of a pic if the enclosure?
Maybe add fake plants, more hides and cover the glass so he has more privacy until he gets the gist of it.

I bought 2 hatchling lace monitors in the early 2000s that came from an aviary style set up and went into a white melamine 1x2x2metre set up at my place, one eventually settled in and the other one stressed out until it died, I did everything right with 40 degree basking spot, lots of sub for digging, good hides, fake plants, high points, low points, logs etc but the massive change caused them both stress, if I was to do it again I wouldn't use bright white melamine for starters.
From the body language and looking at you like that, he is absolutely ****ting himself. Swing us an enclosure pic if you can

Hi, you needed to provide a basking surface temp range of between 50 to 60c or so, 40c is much too low, they would have been undermetabolised, and
their immune systems possibly compromised.

 

[Ryan-James]

What the... yeah righto, not sure what my story of a hatchie fretting to death in a few short days in 2001 has to do with offering me temperature advice, I went on to breed the other monitor for a number of years, in the late 90s and early 2000s a spot temp of 40c was absolute minimum and was offered by just about every experienced keeper I spoke to regarding lacies and didn't know it had jumped 20c in the last 18 years.
Maybe if someone else chimed in to the O.p's problem I wouldn't have had to say anything in the first place, nothing kills a forum quicker than unanswered questions and in these pages there are heaps, I'm not on social media and don't really need to be on here either, honestly couldn't care less, good luck with your thing, whatever it may be.

 

[Imported_tuatara]

Hi, you needed to provide a basking surface temp range of between 50 to 60c or so, 40c is much too low, they would have been undermetabolised, and
their immune systems possibly compromised.

60 sounds extreme for the minimum...they live all over victoria, in places where it get's below 0 every night for months and at max just short of 40 in very hot(for that regions) weather and thrive with such.

 

[user 43767]

60 sounds extreme for the minimum...they live all over victoria, in places where it get's below 0 every night for months and at max just short of 40 in very hot(for that regions) weather and thrive with such.

Hi, I`m from Vic, no need to tell me what the climate is!? I didn`t say 60c should be the minimum ambient temp, I said the SURFACE temp range should be between approx. 50 to 60c (basking site)...