Care Sheet for MonitorsAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 5.00 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 12/03/2007 |
Main Category: | Lizards |
Sub Category: | Monitors |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Shiftylarry |
Years Experience: | 1 to 2 Years |
Species: | Black Roughneck Monitor (Varanus Rudicollis) |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | Dumerils Monitor in some areas, but not all. |
Sexing and Characteristics: | Sexing:
Like all monitors, sexing is fairly difficult. Males are typically longer and heavier than females. Males also have more muscular legs and more angular facial features than females. Looks, however, can be deceiving and this tactic is not foolproof. Some suggest probing, others have tried x-ray imaging, or blood tests. Sadly, these methods have yielded limited results. One semi-successful way to determine sex is to either see the everted hemipenis(male) or hemiclitoris(female). However looks can again be deceiving and your initial assumptions may be incorrect. The act of mounting confuses the situation as well. Just because one monitor is mounting the other doesn’t mean it is necessarily a male. Males and females will mount members of the same sex as a show of dominance.
Appearance:
Juvenile coloring usually consists of grey, brown, and black with blue or green horizontal oceli (some variation depending on locale). As with many other monitors, the bold juvenile patterns tend to fade with age. Some individuals become solid black, while others retain remnants of grays and browns. In some cases, adults have motley patches of white on certain parts of their bodies. They have a birdlike appearance and beady, black eyes. The tail is tapered and thin. Unlike other monitors and lizards the tail remains thin all the way to the base. So the base of the tail is not really a good indicator of a healthy weight as it is in other species. Size can range anywhere from 4-5 feet, males being on the larger side of things. |
Mostly Active During: | N/A |
Substrate and Water Needs: | While varanus rudicollis is not as avid a digger as some other varanids are, but you should still have at least 2 ft of substrate. It may seem like a waste of cage space, but your monitor will use and enjoy it. Some keepers have suggested that providing monitors with substrate is unnecessary, because they tend to just push it around and make a huge mess of their enclosures. I completely disagree. If an animal digs naturally, let it dig. For substrate I suggest a 50/50 mix of topsoil and sand, although through trial and error you may find a better recipe/ratio. The main purpose of the mixture is to combine the softness of the dirt with the rigidity of the sand. This way the monitor is able to burrow without the tunnels it creates collapsing. On top of the dirt mixture, I recommend laying down a thick layer of leaf litter, deep enough for the monitor to hide under. It’s just another way to make your monitor feel secure in its enclosure. In my opinion, substrates that should not be used include: sand (not mixed with dirt), tree bark, wood chippings, walnut shells, bird seed, reptile carpet, newspaper clippings, corn cob, and anything else that isn’t the natural substrate in the monitor’s natural environment.
Water:
On top of a separate bowl of water, I also recommend that you place a large tub in the enclosure, filled with water that is large enough for the animal to soak and swim in. They will often defecate in the water, making clean up much easier. Plus, they seem to really enjoy a good bath from time to time. Make sure, whatever tub you use, that it is easy to change the water, because it will get fouled up often. Before installing the tub, it is a good idea to set up some sort of drainage system to help with cleanup.
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Lighting and UVB: | UVB lighting is not necessary for these carnivorous lizards. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | Temperatures:
Ambient temperatures should be 80-85 degrees. The surface temps in the basking area should reach about 130 degrees. Temperatures below 70 degrees may be lethal.
Humidity:
Rudi’s like it wet. 80-100% humidity is great. Novice reptile keepers often do not understand the significance of proper humidity and make the mistake of ignoring it all together. When you open the door to your enclosure and stick your hand inside, if you can’t feel the humidity on your skin, it is definitely not wet enough for your roughneck. Lack of humidity may result in death of your reptile, as the urites inside the liver concentrate and poison the animal.
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Heating and Equipment: | UVB lighting is not needed. 45-60 watt halogen bulbs can be used for basking area. Higher wattage can be used to maintain ambient temps. There is however a risk with burning your animals when using high wattage bulbs. In certain circumstances, you may choose to use a cage for some of these bulbs or ceramic heat emitters. |
Caging Provided: | Caging:
The minimum size for a black roughneck enclosure is 8x4x6 (length x width x height). But this is certainly not ideal. These lizards are arboreal animals, that inhabit the forest canopies of Thailand and Burma. In order for your lizard to feel secure in your presence they truly need enough space to get above your head. Personally, I’d recommend the enclosure be at least 10 feet tall. It seems tall, but it’s not much when you consider that biologists used to shoot these animals down from 80 ft up a tree in order to study them. If you already have a short enclosure, I suggest putting it up on stilts. Your lizard will thank you for it.
Cage Furniture and the Like:
Again, these are arboreal animals. They need the space to climb. Plenty of large branches must be provided throughout the enclosure, positioned at various angles. I also recommend a significant amount of hides. Some keepers do not use hides, because they want to be able to see their monitors all the time, but I cannot emphasize how important it is for these monitors to feel secure. A cage without hides will make your monitor feel vulnerable, and stress can be a killer. Ultimately, your monitor will be more likely to move around its enclosure freely because it has the comfort of knowing that it can scurry away at any moment. I’ve seen adult rudis in cages with no hides. You can watch them, but they are so petrified that they just stay frozen all day and retreat to a corner.
You can build hides out of anything from wood boxes with holes for entry ways to hollowed tubes or logs. Monitors love to be crammed into a small area, so I recommend getting some hollow tubing, filling it with moss, and attaching it to the wall of the cage. Mist the moss in the tube on occasion and your monitor will be able to stay moist and cozy.
Nest Box:
If you have a female, pair, or not certain of sex at all, you should provide a nest box. This can be made of a large rubbermaid container with a hole cut in the top and filled with cocofiber, dirt, sand, and peat moss. Different combinations have worked for different people. Some recommend elevating the nest box, some chose to leave it on the ground. There doesn’t seem to be a clear cut recipe, so it will take some experimentation on your part. If you do not provide a nest box, you will have problems. If your female monitor is not satisfied with the nesting conditions, she may reabsorb or retain her eggs. This can lead to poor health, or worse, she could become egg bound. In that situation, the eggs would rot inside of her and a vet must be contacted to prevent death. A nest box is not hard to provide and it is a necessity that should not be overlooked. |
Diet: | Carnivorous |
Description of Diet: | Varanus Rudicollis like other monitors, will eat a large variety of food. When they are young, the majority of their diet should consist of insects such as crickets, roaches (ones that you order from a breeder), locusts, and waxworms to name a few, and be fed daily until they cannot eat anymore. As the get older, add more meaty foods into their diet, and start feeding about 5 times per week. I always feed whole foods, which means that whatever I feed still has shells, feet, organs, wings and all attached. I also refrain from cooking whatever’s on the menu. To be blunt, processed food sucks, especially canned foods such as monitor diet and of course dog/cat food. A few suitable foods include, but are not limited to: mice, shrimp, crawfish, herring, crabs, snails, chicks, scallops, and on and on and on. Personally, I feed more shellfish and insects than anything else and do not use mice as my main source of food. |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | Repti-Cal or a similar reptile supplement should be added for each meal. |
Maintenance: | While Varanus Rudicollis is a fairly easy to keep monitor once established, it is certainly not recommended for beginners. Roughnecks have been labeled a species of lizard requiring a moderate level experience because the require large cages and high humidity, which can be difficult to maintain in their enclosures. Since there are few people breeding them, virtually all available rudis are wild caught and wild caught babies can sometimes be finicky eaters. This also means that you MUST take your new rudi to a good reptile vet for a checkup and fecal samples. Roughnecks do have the pleasant habit of pooping primarily in their water, which is mostly a blessing but also a curse. A blessing because you just have to dump the water to clean up, and a curse because you have to keep filling and emptying many gallons of water every day.
I would venture to say that any monitor, regardless of size or species pose a challenge to a reptile owner. In proper care, they can live for 15 years. You must be prepared for a long term commitment, and I stress again that you should own some species of monitor prior to purchasing v. rudicollis. |
Some Words on this Species: | Temperament:
Rudicollis are timid creatures who typically run away from their keepers. Juveniles and sometimes adults, when held, rarely bite and clench around your hand firmly (although more bold specimens can and will leap great distances to escape you). An inexperienced owner might mistake this for "tame" behavior, but I can tell you that they are petrified. New monitor owners then see the animal close their eyes, and assume that it is closing them because it is so relaxed. In reality, the animal is shocked by the situation, has completely given up struggle, and closed its eyes in attempts to shut out the stressful situation from its view. Monitors like to move, any time you restrict their movements, they see you as a threat and more importantly, they’re not having a good time. These are not bearded dragons. Handling should be minimalized. If you want to interact with your monitor, try feeding with long, steel tongs. The monitor will learn to appreciate your presence one they associate you with food and will be less inclined to run away. Keep in mind though that these are shy creatures and it is simply their nature to be somewhat flighty. Just because you can "tame" your boa constrictor, or your leopard gecko, doesn’t mean you can "tame" anything. Every species has a different personality, and personalities also differ from one individual to the next. Before I got my first monitor (a young peach throat), I searched everywhere for an account of a tame one. People consistently told me that they were flighty and did not like handling, but I persisted to look until I found a reptile dealer who claimed he had a tame one. Once I had found the information I wanted, I went out and bought the thing. I held it every day for 30 minutes for about two months. but soon I realized that I was only stressing the poor thing out, and no progress in our relationship was being made. From that experience I learned that if you look hard enough for the answer you want, you’ll find it, but that doesn’t make it fact. I also learned that monitors do not like to be held. Unlike other herps, persistence is not the answer. In all cases, the monitor is the boss, and their wariness of humans speaks to their intelligence and success as a species.
Final Words:
I love these animals, but I need to stress that they are not for everyone. If you want a buddy, steer clear. Rather, v. rudicollis is a great lizard to be observed. If that’s what you’re looking for, they will never cease to amaze you. They climb, dig, and swim and they are constantly moving around their enclosure, searching for new things to do. All monitors are intelligent and beautiful, but roughnecks remain my favorite. Nothing is cooler than a solid black, 4 1/2 foot, dragon-like lizard. If you have the space, time, money and energy I highly recommend this fantastic species. |
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