I got a couple definately the favorite of my collection.
They have a great temperment in my experience though mine are only around a year old.
I agree with whats been said so far so i wont type it again.
I like the way do the bipedal standing up thing to check stuff out but i have only seen this happen a few times do they do this more as they get bigger?
They are very strong and like diggin alot, at one stage their were 6 entrances to his tunnel two were the result of collapse tho.
I would reccomend them to anyone thinking of getting a larger monitor even as a first monitor as it is in my case.
They shouldnt be to hard to find since they lay so many eggs check the herp trader and RDU AHC, I also got one from URS so check there to. They range from $200-310 from what i have seen.
Males get upto about 1.25m according to some sources but i read about 1.5m somewhere but not sure of the credability. only 50% of the length is tail too.
They seem to bluff strike sometimes and have touched me with an open mouth but never crunched down
They seem to have all the attitude with out biting.
I will upload some pics sometime for you when i get around to it
If you didnt notice hes my avatar.
edit- about them growing slow mine seem to aswell I think it might be because i usually feed largish whole food and this digests slower. On the info in the mampam is says they double in length in six weeks mine took a year. :?
here are some links -
http://mampam.50megs.com/monitors/spenceri.html
http://www.monitor-lizards.net/species/varanus/spenceri.html
http://kingsnake.com/oz/lizards/monitors/vspenceri.htm
http://www.users.on.net/~jbonnett/spenceri.htm
http://users.bmail.com.au/mook/spencer.htm