# A question for big monitor owners in melbourne/sydney



## Frozenmouse (Mar 9, 2012)

question 1 , Do you guys that own Laceys and other big monitors in cooler areas keep them indoors all year round? Or have them out doors for summer in for winter ? I ask as i am considering heating for an out door area.
question 2 , does anyone mix any monitor species , i have seen it done with a pair of parenti and a pair of penopties in the same out door pit, just wondering about mixing a spence and a lacey of equal size ?


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## crocdoc (Mar 9, 2012)

There aren't many places in the Sydney area in which lace monitors can't be kept outdoors all year round, provided the aviary is set up properly. If I had a yard I'd have mine outside for sure, but mine are currently indoors. I've spoken to a number of people that have kept lace monitors in Melbourne and some have had few issues whereas others had to offer supplemental heat (especially to winter hide spots). It often depends on where the house is situated and the aspect of the yard (ie north or south facing, for example).

As for mixing species, I probably wouldn't do that for a couple of reasons. Not lace monitors and Spencers, anyway. Perenties and panoptes are found in similar habitats, or at very least in the same area with slight habitat differences (central Qld, for example) so an enclosure set up for one species will probably suit the other. Those two species are also fairly equal in terms of activity level and food response, so one isn't likely to monster the other.

Lace monitors and Spencer's monitors, on the other hand, come from very different habitat. 

Lace monitor in habitat






Spencer's monitor in habitat





They also have different builds, activity levels and attitudes. They'd probably get along for a while until they have a tussle over food or something. To paraphrase my mother, it's all fun until someone loses a leg.


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## richardsc (Mar 9, 2012)

lacies should be fine outdoors in melb,just give them plenty of options to escape the cold,just a hollow log or wooden box may not suffice,some folk offer a bit of heat to hides to cover that

best keeping just one species per enclosure,plus i doubt spencers would do well outdoors in melb how you keep lacies,there winters are probably like our summers,lol


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## -Peter (Mar 9, 2012)

Mine are outside all year round.


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## dozerman (Mar 9, 2012)

Anyone keeping anything other than lacies outside ?


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## serpenttongue (Mar 9, 2012)

I am in Wollongong, and I keep lacies outdoors all year. It gets cold here in winter, but I doubt it's anything like Melbourne. I just make sure that their hides are dry and well insulated with no drafts, and situated where the lacies don't have to travel too far to get to their basking spots for the early morning sun (this is mainly for winter).


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 9, 2012)

dozerman said:


> Anyone keeping anything other than lacies outside ?



At one stage I kept an adult pair of Spencers Monitors outside all year round in the Wimmerra District in Victoria (Northern Grampians-Horsham). Very flat and very cold mid-winter (into the minuses). Never experienced any problems. I did provide a heated box, but they rarely used it, preferring to burrow. Also, they were kept in a large concrete water tank complete with a thick concrete floor that may have retained some heat over the cooler months(?). They do have local wild populations of Gouldii in the area, also.


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## dozerman (Mar 9, 2012)

Hey I.V , Ive got a big leaky concrete tank here that I could probably convert, hmmmm.


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## Brodie (Mar 9, 2012)

Unless you have heat going through the concrete, it is going to get pretty bloody cold in winter. When I went to raaf ots, we had concrete floors in a couple of the bathrooms. My feet have NEVER been that cold lol.

But yeah if you have a heat source, the concrete should work well. I used to keep gouldii and panoptes in the same aviaries. Never had any problems and the panoptes were considerably larger than the gouldii! Never kept varius or spenceri though, I'm sorry.


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 9, 2012)

Thanks for the replies some very good food for thought. i was thinking about a garden shed/aviary type set up with 6mm poly carbonate panels in place of the wire for winter and a lazer lite roof to let the sun in and one heated hide up high and 1 heated hide down on the ground.


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## JAS101 (Mar 9, 2012)

i have a warm box inside my garden shed that backs onto the laces enclosure , a hole cut through the shed and the box . when ever its cold the lace gos in the warm box .


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 9, 2012)

dozerman said:


> Hey I.V , Ive got a big leaky concrete tank here that I could probably convert, hmmmm.



It would entirely depend on where you are, Dozer, and what species, as I'm sure your aware. Initially, I was very apprehensive about leaving my Spencers pair out over winter in Victoria (considering their natural range) and relieved on sunnier mid-winter days when they'd emerged from their burrows to bask for a few hours. No doubt being out of the wind and in full sun all day (when the sun was out) also helped. Rain was my biggest issue, luckily I was always on hand to tarp half the tank, so it never became a problem.


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## dozerman (Mar 9, 2012)

Cheers I.V it must have been a bastard lifting tonnes of sand over the wall of that tank

Im using heatcord encased beneath floor tiles for my spencers (indoors) at the moment,just wondering what you guys are using for your heated boxes etc.


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 9, 2012)

dozerman said:


> Cheers I.V it must have been a bastard lifting tonnes of sand over the wall of that tank



That's what mates are for...mate!



dozerman said:


> just wondering what you guys are using for your heated boxes etc.



Here's another example, made from old cool room panels (75mm thick). Thanks, again Toni!


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## whyme (Mar 9, 2012)

Freezer panels. Can't beat 'em!!


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 9, 2012)

75MM of foam inlay and a heat pad, not even 12 degrees below can get through that!


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## crocdoc (Mar 9, 2012)

imported_Varanus said:


> Here's another example, made from old cool room panels (75mm thick). Thanks, again Toni!


I've seen that one up close and it rocks!


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 9, 2012)

Certainly a great idea! I've yet to set this one up, but Toni's works really well .


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 10, 2012)

Do the monitors seek out warm areas when they are subjected to weather they are not equipped to deal with or do you have to round them up. I know some skinks and dragons will just slow down and die with a warm area within reach.


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 10, 2012)

Personally, I've never had any problems with either Lacies or Spencers, but I have heard of an incident a few years ago with an adult Perentie being kept outside in Canberra (I'm assuming with a heat hide area provided(?)) that was found outside, dead one winter morning.

In any event, perhaps best to supervise for a while until you know for sure they are using the heated hide.


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## crocdoc (Mar 10, 2012)

That's where you'll find a difference between a species adapted for a cooler climate, as lace monitors are, and one that is not. Many tropical species will end up hunkering down in the wrong spot and dying because it isn't within their evolutionary repertoire to anticipate temperatures low enough to kill them. Lace monitors will seek an appropriate hollow log or burrow (even better, a hollow log half buried in the ground to create a burrow) if it is provided and will usually do so before the temperatures drop low enough to incapacitate them.


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 10, 2012)

Can the same be said of keeping temperate species in the tropics, David (unless they're from the tropics, of course)? After living in Alice Springs for a season, I was glad I didn't decide to bring my pair of Lacies along for the ride (Bruce and Co)!


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 11, 2012)

I know temperate species of snakes (diamonds/coastals) suffer from humidity related issues in the tropics ie lung and skin problems more than actual heat issues. Not sure about how a lacy would go in a place like darwin.


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 11, 2012)

I remember the guy at the only petshop in AS telling me there are Lacies on licence in the Territory, but further north- katherine, I think?


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 11, 2012)

Katherine is a heap less humid than darwin but the actual temps get higher on the east coast than they do in the tropics 35 would be max for darwin even in melbourne it will peak at over 43 in summer.


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 11, 2012)

Interesting to speculate about what prevented those Lace monitor populations from tropical north Queensland from heading inland, perhaps following river corridors like they do along the Darling?. Perhaps there are, or were, some eyrean barriers that they found impassable?? They can no doubt cope with temperature extremes (western victoria over summer often climbs past 45C).


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## dozerman (Mar 11, 2012)

I heard that the spencers monitors ate them as they tried to move west. Not sure if its true though


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## Boidae (Mar 11, 2012)

imported_Varanus said:


> They do have local wild populations of Gouldii in the area, also.



Seriously? 

I wanted to keep my Gouldi outside when he gets bigger, but I was really worried about the winter temps.
So you reckon they'd be fine outside throughout Melbourne's winter? Although I am down in Southern Victoria, in the Knox district. 
Also, what kind of heating did you give your Spencers?

Did you see many Gouldi when you lived down in the Grampions Imported_Varanus?


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## imported_Varanus (Mar 11, 2012)

dozerman said:


> I heard that the spencers monitors ate them as they tried to move west. Not sure if its true though



If you heard it from a Westie, it's "god's honest truth"!



boidae said:


> Seriously?
> 
> I wanted to keep my Gouldi outside when he gets bigger, but I was really worried about the winter temps.
> So you reckon they'd be fine outside throughout Melbourne's winter? Although I am down in Southern Victoria, in the Knox district.
> ...




Not sure how they'd go with the humidity down there? I wouldn't be doing it myself if I were in Melbourne (perhaps others who have could comment?).

The Grampians is basically a "bassian island" (containing more temperate/eastern species) which, at it's northern limit (around Horsham/Wimmera district), juts out into an Eyrean landscape (semi arid), so, while you find many cooler climate species within the mountain range itself-like Lace Monitors, travel north or west 30K and you find Gouldii (Mt Arapilies/ Little Desert)....very different to Melbourne and surrounds.

I did provide heating (in the form of a large fibreglass "hot box"), but they preferred to burrow (make tunnels), so never used it.


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## Frozenmouse (Mar 12, 2012)

I think the panopties rule west of the great divide i have seen some monster sized ones towards the eastern kimberly area HUGE!! they probably ate what ever laceys got past. Not too many monitors left around darwin since the cane toads arrived , i did see a couple of black tristis there after the first wave but all of the big species disappeared , It used to be common place to see big monitors even in the city center


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## richardsc (Apr 10, 2012)

sandys do ok outdoors year round in melb

they need to be covered and probably warmed to keep them dryer and warmer than the weather melb usually graces us with,lol


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