Simon_Archibald
Very Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Well it ain't a secret that I'm a complete nut when it comes to goannas. I LOVE 'EM. Quite often in the past 4 months or so people have PM'd me, emailed me or caught me in chat to ask advice on monitor husbandry.
General rule that I always make sure to tell them is just how hot they like it. Basking temps of around 50+ (even up to 70 degrees!!!) are relished by most of these species (save for the few colder climate species). Of course though the monitors should have a cool spot of about 25-28 degrees at the cool end to retreat to if they wish.
Well, it's amazing how many times I've given this advice (which is also agreed upon by people who have much more experience than me) and the person who asked my advice disagrees or says they can't like it that hot or whatever, etc, etc. Then I follow up later on to see how they're going...well they've set up a 60watt reflector in a 4x2x2 enclosure and the monitors aren't eating!!!!
So, I thought I'd share with you this photo I've just taken. Hopefully some will accept this as proof...for the others that like to stick to dragon temps of 30-35 degrees...good luck ;-)
This is a photo of my Blackheaded Monitor male sitting under a 160 watt Oz-bright combined heat/UV globe. He has been there for at least the past 25 minutes when I first noticed him. I measured the distance and there's a gap of 18cm between the globe and him. From the photo it doesn't even do it justice how close he is to that thing.
Normally in their pit I use 275watt food cooker globes, although they've been moved indoors until the sale of all the other goannas is complete.
Simon Archibald
Well it ain't a secret that I'm a complete nut when it comes to goannas. I LOVE 'EM. Quite often in the past 4 months or so people have PM'd me, emailed me or caught me in chat to ask advice on monitor husbandry.
General rule that I always make sure to tell them is just how hot they like it. Basking temps of around 50+ (even up to 70 degrees!!!) are relished by most of these species (save for the few colder climate species). Of course though the monitors should have a cool spot of about 25-28 degrees at the cool end to retreat to if they wish.
Well, it's amazing how many times I've given this advice (which is also agreed upon by people who have much more experience than me) and the person who asked my advice disagrees or says they can't like it that hot or whatever, etc, etc. Then I follow up later on to see how they're going...well they've set up a 60watt reflector in a 4x2x2 enclosure and the monitors aren't eating!!!!
So, I thought I'd share with you this photo I've just taken. Hopefully some will accept this as proof...for the others that like to stick to dragon temps of 30-35 degrees...good luck ;-)
This is a photo of my Blackheaded Monitor male sitting under a 160 watt Oz-bright combined heat/UV globe. He has been there for at least the past 25 minutes when I first noticed him. I measured the distance and there's a gap of 18cm between the globe and him. From the photo it doesn't even do it justice how close he is to that thing.
Normally in their pit I use 275watt food cooker globes, although they've been moved indoors until the sale of all the other goannas is complete.
Simon Archibald