ackie feeding

[jbowers]

Ok sure. I've heard that. It's just that I've heard from other people that his siblings, and one that I seperated from him and removed in to their care are quite active generally so I was wondering what I'm doing differently/wrong.

I'm not really fussed if he wants to hide - just makes when he comes out more interesting and exciting. Does it change as they get older? Like will he become more confident to just chill out and about in the enclosure?

 

[Tristis]

does he run and hide when you catch him out and about? as it gets older it will come out more.
my adult male will come over to me when i open his cage, just to see whats going on he will also walk on my hand and up my arm if i let him.
dont give him a reason to fear you, monitors recognise there keeper. if your handling him this will stress him out big time and he wont want to come out or have anything to do with you.
by the sound of it hes doing well if your really worried post some pics of him and the set up.
cheers

 

[jbowers]

He used to run and hide sometimes when he saw me. Now it's just sometimes when other people enter the room, he seems wary but accepting of me.

I had to pull him out of his stack about a week and a half ago to separate him from another one so I think that didn't help. I don't handle him at all, but have held my hand in front of him a couple of times and he checks me out with his tongue and seems ok.

I will go back to feeding him heaps today, but only when he is out of his hide or willing to come out for it, rather than feeding him in the stack.

 

[jbowers]

Ugh sorry, one more thing re: humidity. Do you ever wet or mist the sand?

 

[Tristis]

yes you need to wet the sand every few weeks or so to keep the humidity right.
just throw some crickets or woodies in there and let him hunt them or leave a pinky at one end of the cage for him, he will come out and get it.

 

[jbowers]

He is generally peeking out of his stack between 9am-6pm. I just throw a woodie in one at a time and he hunts them down. He just chowed down on about 6-7 medium-large ones then

I'm not too keen on just leaving them there as my stack has a diagonal kind of thing going on where the roaches can hide and he can't get to really.

Right. Do you just mist the surface of the sand or actually pour a good amount from a bottle on?

 

[Tristis]

each of my set ups is diffrent, some i pour a fair bit of water on them others not so much.
some i can get away with only misting, i aslo mist them all every now and then.

 

[jbowers]

Ok, right. That still leaves me pretty unsure. I have a hygrometer - what humidity do you aim for?

I am waiting on 'keeping and breeding australian lizards' to arrive, so that should clear this stuff up anyway hopefully. I'm just worried as mind is currently shedding at the moment so I want To all go smoothly. He has had some skin hanging off his back and neck for about 3-4 days now. Seems to be slowly getting better.

 

[Tristis]

i dont bother measuring the humidity. as long as you have deep substrate that he can burrow in its fine.
if he cant burrow because its to dry you need to add water.
how you mantain the humidity will depend on your set up.

 

[bigi]

great advice to everyone Tristis, they are certainly keeping you busy.

Fab - forget breeding crickets, get a colony of roach's and maintain them, large outlay say $100 but this will save you hundreds of $

JB - get rid of that stack you have mate and build another, if you look at my home page i have pics of an adjustable stack, keep it off the enclosure wall, this will stop the woodies from hiding in cracks and allow the ackie to climb up and down on all sides

and although ackies like it hot, they do live and breed fine with a hotspot of 45 degrees.

 

[fabregasreptiles]

hi tristis. my comp is not letting me post pics on here. if you want, give me your email and ill email you the pics of the cage of my accies

 

[fabregasreptiles]

ok. here are the pics of one of the duller coloured ackies and its enclosure.
first: i am not sure why it has such a dull colour and why it is ALWAYS shedding. will it ever have a nice pattern (spot) on its back or be nicer colour as its parents looked very nice and one an award at castle hill.
second: 2 of its nails have fallen off on its front foot. i am not sure why??

can anyone tell me what i should do to make their habitat better or help them???

thanks

pics are coming after this msg

 

[fabregasreptiles]

ackie cage and ackie

 

[fabregasreptiles]

looks quite small in pic but is actually much fatter. i feed them 7-10 medium crickets a day and one pinkie mouse every week.

any ideas???

 

[bigi]

just a few quick ones
the dull colour is probably from your substrate, or a retained shed
you have got a shedding problem definately, could be a cause from many things, too much or not enough humidity too low heat, substrate.
get rid of those bricks before they fall off or you knock them off onto your ackie
get a retes stack,
more pics showing lights, heat and other areas will tell a thousand story's
i will need to look back for heat temps etc if u have state this earlier
he doesnt look under wieght but he certainly isnt fat

 

[PhilK]

Feed them until they're full.

He's dull because he is covered in red dust I would say (from your substrate). Get rid of it and replace it with white sand, it'll make him cleaner.

He's lost his toes because of the sand in his enclosure making the humidity too low, so the skin constricts around his toes as it doesn't shed off.

 

[fabregasreptiles]

i mist his cage twice a week and give them a bath once a week. as i said before, they will keep eating and will easily finish 2 boxes of medium crickets a day. hot spot is 60 c and cooler side is about 30. dont worry, the bricks are very stable. i am switching that part for a retes stack which i am hoping to make asap. any ideas o nthe shedding problem???? maybe i will change to white sand???

any ideas

 

[PhilK]

Yes change to white sand. Buy a colony of roaches and then you can feed them as much as you like.

 

[fabregasreptiles]

so is the reason why they have this weird colour/shed because of their substrate????? if i change the substrate, will they become normal coloured again????

thanks

 

[fabregasreptiles]

can anyone give me an idea of what enclosure the ackies cage should look like??/ anyone know where i could buy a cage suitable for ackies which they could setup for an ackie??