Choose your monitor wisely- Varanus Acanthurus is a winner!

Captive care of the Ackie monitor

by Robyn Markland/Pro Exotics Reptiles

When you choose a new reptile, choose wisely, and make sure that you can fulfill the lifelong needs of that reptile. There should be no disposable animals. Do your homework, be prepared, and give yourself the best chance of success!

At Pro Exotics, we have sold thousands of baby monitor lizards over the last 15 years. We started with Waters and Blackthroats, those were always mainstays. We have offered baby Peachthroats, Argus, Whitethroats, Flavis, Kimberlies, Green Trees, and even Crocodile Monitors.

Yet the Acanthurus (Ackie) monitor stands heads and tails above them all.

They are simply the best overall choice for a captive monitor. Perhaps the best overall choice for a captive lizard period. The Ackies provide for a fantastic captive husbandry experience and make for an excellent choice for the beginner and expert alike.

Being a native Australian species, you won’t find imported or wild caught Ackie monitors available on the market. That means you can get the best possible start with a healthy captive bred and born lizard.

Many new monitor keepers choose to start with Savannahs, or Niles, or Waters, some of the heavily pushed “pet store” monitors that are not necessarily a good choice for a captive lizard. They are drawn to the sheer size of a big monitor. Being huge makes it “cool”. But size is such a small part of monitor enjoyment. That “huge” thing wears off really quickly, and you are left with a big giant monitor that is not only more difficult to interact with, but an animal that is difficult, and expensive, to cage properly.

The Ackies aren’t a big massive lizard. They stay in the 16-30 inch range, and you can do a small group of them in a 4 ft. cage (as adults). A 4 ft. cage is a lot cheaper than a 15 ft. cage, that’s for sure! Feeding bills aren’t nearly as frightening either. You can feed a single Ackie for a year with what you are likely to offer a large Water monitor over a couple of months!

Economically, the Ackies are within the reach of most monitor hobbyists. Sure the initial cost of the monitor itself might be more, but you are talking about a captive bred and born lizard here, not a farm hatched or wild caught baby, one that may be in need of a veterinarian check up ($$) and a 15 ft. cage. It is very puzzling when neophytes talk about how $300 is too much for an Ackie, but then they go and buy a Nile or Water, a (soon to be) giant lizard that will blow through $300 in a matter of weeks! If you “can’t afford” an Ackie, how in the world are you going to afford to keep the biggest lizard in captivity?!?!? Trust me, let the size thing go, make an educated decision, give yourself the best chance of success, and get yourself a monitor you will really enjoy!

So where to start? Start with a baby! Why? Why not jump a year ahead of schedule and find a juvie or adult animal for sale? Because you will have the best chance of success with a baby. You are in it to win it, and you want the strongest, prettiest, healthiest adult Ackie possible. You will greatly increase the odds of that success by doing the work yourself. Raising a baby yourself allows you to completely control the variables, both good and bad. You can ensure proper husbandry and a great diet, and in a very short time (it goes by quickly) you will have that polished, beautiful, full sized adult Ackie you have been dreaming of.

The Ackies are a great social animal. They will thrive and do quite well if set up as a single animal, but they are also very easy to socialize as a group, assuming you start with a group of same age babies. Watching your baby Ackies socially stratify and settle within a group is an extremely rewarding experience.

At Pro Exotics, we keep Ackie hatchlings right out of the egg on a soil substrate in 20 gallon long tanks. We usually group in pairs or trios. It is important during this time to monitor the success of each hatchling. We want to be sure that each baby is getting a full share of food, and that socialization is going well. A small setup makes it easier to monitor feeding, shedding, and the compatibility of the group.

A good soil substrate offers many benefits. The Acanthurus babies will dig and burrow almost immediately, providing for mental and physical exercise and activity. A good soil also helps to insure properly hydrated animals, and thus complete sheds. This is important because any poorly shed toes and tails can be easily lost to circulation and scabbing problems. Be sure to keep your soil at a good moisture level. You will learn to balance out moisture content by adding water as needed. This varies from cage to cage, but you should get a good feel for it within a week or two. Too much moisture makes mud, too little makes dust. Find your balance so that the soil is relatively dry up top, and moist at depth. Just as a good cage has a temperature gradient, a good soil has a moisture gradient.

A simple trick to balancing cage heat and moisture levels is limiting venting and evaporation. The traditional screen top allows all of your moisture to evaporate right out the top of the cage. This common mistake essentially creates a “beef jerky machine”, and guess what, your monitor lizard is the beef jerky.

Cover the screen as much as possible, leaving areas open only for your lighting fixtures. You can use foil or plastic wrap to make a simple screen cover, and the cage will still be far from airtight (nor do you want it to be). You will get plenty of air exchange around the lid itself, as well as from removing the top for feeding and maintenance.

Ackies don’t need a large pool of water to swim in, so a giant water bowl does not need to dominate your cage space. A simple 3 inch water bowl will do. What you do need, aside from that great soil substrate, are some good tight hiding spots and an appropriate temperature gradient that covers both ambient and basking temperatures.

Temperatures are one of the aspects of monitor (and general lizard) husbandry that have changed radically over the past 15 years. I remember in the early 1990’s keeping monitor babies (not very successfully) with basking spots of 90-95ºF. That is hardly even warm. But that is what all the literature said (and unfortunately much of it still does).

We set our ambient cage temps for young monitors (all species, including Ackies) at 83ºF or so. No higher than 85ºF. You want to provide a wide temperature gradient, allowing the monitors to choose the appropriate temperature to accomplish the appropriate goal.

Basking temps are also set with a gradient, topping out at about 130ºF.

Remember that when we set basking temps we are talking about surface temperatures, not air temperatures, and certainly not body tissue temperatures. Proper basking temperatures allow the monitor to fully metabolize and function as a cold blooded, highly active reptile.

With temperatures being such an important aspect of successful monitor husbandry, you are going to need tools to measure those temperatures accurately and effectively. Before you make your Ackie purchase, get yourself an Infrared Temp Gun, and some Minimum/Maximum Digital Thermometers with probes. These are essential reptile husbandry tools, and play an important role in setting up your ideal monitor cage.

For a monitor lizard, proper basking temps mean the difference between barely hanging on at 95ºF, or growing, thriving and even breeding at 130ºF or more. This doesn’t mean that your cages should be HOT all the time in all areas. Your monitors need a temperature gradient, so they can get as cool as they would like, and as warm as they would like. Offer them choices, and be smart about it.

I really can’t stress enough how important temps are to your monitor. They are the single biggest factor, and most commonly overlooked, to having success with monitor lizards. Don’t sell yourself or your animal short by relying on the cheapest dial or color changing thermometer. Give yourself the best chance of success and invest in the right tools.

Achieving an 85ºF to 130ºF temperature gradient is not that difficult. It doesn’t require a 250 watt bulb to get your basking temp right, but rather a small wattage bulb and the use of an elevated basking spot.

If you set up your cage so the basking spot is elevated to within a few inches of your light (for a hatchling setup) you will indeed be rocking those ideal temps. In a 20 gallon long setup, we can easily achieve our temp gradient by setting up a 45-65 watt bulb (a regular ole’ incandescent aka “lamp bulb”) in a reflector lamp on one end, and creating a basking spot that very nearly reaches the top of the cage.

You can use cork bark flats and tubes to get up there, or you can use wide pieces of grapevine or drift wood. Monitors don’t perch like tree pythons, so think wide and flat with your basking spot, not perchy and branchy.

At Pro Exotics we use a stack of wood panels that have been adapted and modified from an idea first popularized by monitor breeding guru Frank Retes from the Goanna Ranch.

Our basic wood stacks are made from 1/8 inch wood paneling and 2x2’s, and they can be stacked just about as high as necessary to achieve the proper temperature gradient. We use stacks of 4 or 5 levels in our baby Ackie setups, and we continue to use them in our adult Ackie cages.

Creating a high stack under your basking light, to within just a few inches, you can nail your 130ºF surface temp target easily, and with a low wattage bulb. As you go down through the stacks, level by level, you will find the temperature steadily dropping 5-10 degrees. At the bottom of the stack you will find temps that just about match your ambient cage settings in the low 80’s.

Ackies absolutely love their wood basking stacks. Depending on their current temperature needs, they make use of every level. When you extrapolate it out, in a 20 gallon cage, you have effectively more than doubled your usable floor space.

Now that you have your daytime temperature gradient dialed in, consider your nighttime temperature drop. Your nighttime target temperature is going to be 75ºF. A very talented keeper can work with night temps that are lower, but the lower you get, the more complicated husbandry becomes, and the quicker you have to act to respond to negative repercussions. I would rather see a new keeper nail a night temp range of 75-80ºF than struggle with 70-75ºF.

Unknown nighttime temperature drops are where many new keepers make initial mistakes. With your Min/Max digital thermometer ($20 or less through a dozen different reptile sources) you will know exactly what you have happening in the cool of the night, and you will be able to react and adjust accordingly.

Once you have your setup ready- hidespots, water bowl, soil substrate and ideal temps- your cage should be ready for the actual animal. Balancing those temps and moisture levels is not the easiest task, so have that cage running for a few days before the arrival of your new Ackie baby.

Start offering food to your new Ackie the day after arrival. Keep in mind a new monitor will feel very exposed and vulnerable while feeding, so it may be reluctant to feed in front of you. Count your prey items, so you can calculate your Ackie’s daily intake. Feeding in controlled portions lets you easily monitor feeding response and appetite.

Insects make up the base of the Pro Exotics Ackie diet. We offer feeder roaches 4 days a week. We supplement our roaches with Miner-All Indoor w/D3. We have fed crickets in the past, but we have found roaches easier to keep and breed (in your own self sustaining feeder colony) and the monitors absolutely love them. We offer thawed rodents another 2 days a week. That adds up to 6 days a week. I would say 5 days is the absolute minimum I would consider a healthy feeding schedule for a rapidly growing baby monitor.

With the right basking temps to allow for metabolism, it is pretty tough to overfeed a growing monitor. Using a feeding bowl, we offer as many feeder roaches as the babies will eat.

Many keepers and hobbyists buy their Ackies with hopes of breeding them. That is a fine goal, and certainly very attainable. It takes patience, time and commitment. Your best bet is to start with a hatchling group of animals (not with a group of unfamiliar adults), raise them to adult size, and work from there on your breeding strategy. At Pro Exotics, we often breed Ackies at 10 months old, whereas it may take a new keeper 1 to 2 years to get the kinks out, and animals properly sized and cycled. We will not cover breeding here, except to say the Ackie project is one of the very best to work with if captive breeding is your ultimate goal.

An ideal setup for an adult Ackie isn’t really any different than an ideal setup for a baby Ackie, other than the overall footprint of the cage.

One of the greatest things about monitors is the application of knowledge. Captive monitor care is amazingly consistent across the board. There are subtle variations for humidity, size, diet and such, but the basic setup remains the basic setup! That is to say ANY GOOD MONITOR INFORMATION is GOOD MONITOR INFORMATION FOR YOU! You can apply the strategies and theories in this article to any of your monitor species. Any good monitor literature will have gems of information and insight that you can apply directly to the species you work with. That is one of the “secret” keys that make monitor husbandry and breeding so much fun. We are constantly learning, reading, and discussing monitors as a community, and we are constantly fine tuning and improving our own monitor abilities. We have worked with many reptile species over the years, Acanthurus monitors stand out as one of the most fascinating, and fun, reptiles for captive care and adventure.

 Post script:

For more information on monitors, soils, nutrition and husbandry, check out the caresheets and FAQ’s at proexotics.com

 
Thanks to Chad Brown for unwavering reptile dedication, Frank Retes for being an occasionally grumpy lizard genius, and Nicci, she’s a great wife.