Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

CokaCola · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:58 pm Post subject: My new Ackie

I got a Grown on Female Yellow Ackie this week. Fantastic little lizards aren't they!

Excuse the turd in the setup photo Laughing

lol93 · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 2:03 pm Post subject:

She's lovely Tariq!
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Nelson · Key Member Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 318

[quote="CokaCola"] Fantastic little lizards aren't they!
quote]

One of the best, good luck with your new charge.

raptor · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject:

Ackies are awesome! If you dont have either the room or the reflexes for the big guys, ackies are the way to go. The only thing miniture about them is their actual physical size, everything else is definitely up to scratch!
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CokaCola · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 3:29 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys.

Certainly very entertaining and very active, huge appetite aswell!

Tariq.

herp_boi · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:59 pm Post subject:

very nice.
How long is she and what is she feeding on?
What have you got your temps at?
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shay_ · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:11 pm Post subject:

great lizard, however you may want to design your cage to fit a monitor lizard. if you don't know what i'm talking about, please ask.
cheers

CokaCola · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:40 am Post subject:

herp_boi: she is feeding on crickets and locusts at the moment, and getting through quite a few aswell Rolling Eyes

temps are at 120 ish basking, there's a cermaic heater ontop for night time heat.

Shay_ : You are slightly vague when you say "to fit a monitor lizard". If you're talking about size, you can only really see the very end of the vivarium in the photograph, its 36x18 inches which as far as i'v read, is plenty for a juvenile. As she has only recently arrived the setup is quite plain, I'l be building a basking stack this week, and placing the spotlamp above the vivarium. Hopefully the lizard will be able to get closer to the UV compact lamp then aswell. With regards to substrate, I thought i'd observe how it got on with pure sand rather and a potting soil mix as my original intention was to create a sand dune type theme, but with plenty of hides etc and I'v read of several keepers having success with sand alone.
I'm not quite sure what you were getting at, but if you could let me know that would be great, as as far as i'm concerned based on what i'v read, it is satisfactory for her needs.

Tariq.

shay_ · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:02 am Post subject:

hi coke
couple things. your cage appears to be a fish tank, meaning it has a screen top. the reason i bring this up is because all monitors need heat and humidity. ackies being more of an arid species doesn't require much but should have between 20-40%. when you provide heat lamps to a cage you're creating a beef jerky machine when you have a screen top. what you need is a cage with a solid top and very small vents towards the bottom of the cage to retain your heat and humidity.

monitor lizards live in the ground for the most part. they dig themselves burrows and stay in there for different reasons, such as hiding, thermoregulating, hydroregulating(for lack of a real word), and sleeping. they leave their burrows for purposes of sunning(thermoregulating), eating, and breeding. so it's important for us keepers to provide both a deep substrate for burrowing(18inches), and surface areas to sun, eat and breed. additional hides can be provided by you so long as they are tight fitting. they like to squeeze into tight areas. a big hollow half log does nothing for their sense of security.

these are the basics. when provided with these things and a good temperature range in your cage, your monitor has the bare bones, the minimum requirements to live healthy, and stress free. unfortunately many keepers are unwilling to provide proper care, or they have no idea what kind of care these exotic animals really need.
take care
shay

CokaCola · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:19 am Post subject:

Thanks for that. My intention was by no means to have the lizard in this particular vivarium permenantly. The vivarium is not a fish tank, it is an all-glass vivarium with sliding front doors. Due to recommendation by various care sheets, I have covered most of the screen top, it's the screen above the basking site that I have not covered, as there is a reflector dome and ceramic heater on top. I'l appreciate though that ideally, small vents towards the bottom of the cage would be slightly better for heat retention aswell as humidity retention.
Regarding the substrate, I have read some very conflicting views. Some keepers suggest a really deep substrate (but I have never read 18 inches as a minimum especially for a juvenile Shocked

). On the other hand, some suggest a substrate of a couple of inches, and certainly if you look back on some threads in this forum, you will see a shallow substrate being utilised by advanced breeders. The substrate in my vivarium is far deeper at the cool end aswell and I have used no hollow logs. The structure visable is a concrete roof tile, my intention was for it to simulate a burrow, it's quite humid underneath and as you can imagine, retains heat very well.
Overall thankyou for your suggestions. I will certainly try to work around some of them as the monitor grows in the short-term. As an adult, I have a much better cage planned, which will allow for a far deeper substrate and lots of space.

Regards
Tariq.