Sand Monitor Care Sheet


Sand Monitor  ( V. Gouldii)
Enclosure
Hatchling monitors are housed in a homemade melamine enclosure. It is 900 mm x 600 mm x 600 mm. I offer a temperature gradient of 35 degrees at the hot end, down to 26 degrees at the cool end & a hot spot which can reach 58 Degrees. I prefer to keep the temps up as monitors really seems to respond well to the heat.
Housing is best provided in the form of an outdoor pit if you are located in the monitor’s natural climate. If living on the east coast, an outdoor pit is still suitable as long as particular attention is paid to always providing a selection of dry hides. Supplemental heating would be necessary for southern climates. This could be in the form of a heat cord installed under a false floor in the hide, or a heat globe (preferably ceramic) installed in the ceiling of the hide.
Mine are currently kept in an outside aviary measuring 4.5 x 2.0 x 2.0 the substrate is river sand @ about 60 cm deep.
. My enclosures are not planted out as sand monitors tend to dig out plants.  A few hollow logs, a basking platform, and a large tray for water is all that is provided. For outdoor enclosures, it is necessary to prevent digging out by way of tunnelling. Wire placed under the enclosure will stop this.
Enclosure Furniture
Indoor enclosure furniture provided is basically rocks and logs. A large basking rock is best provided at the hot end which will also retain heat throughout a lot of the night and should become a favourite sleeping spot for the monitors. Logs which allow the monitor to crawl in and almost wedge itself are ideal. These monitors seem to feel more secure when they are able to be touching the walls of their hide-spot. A small water dish is supplied at the cold end of the enclosure. Make this a heavy bowl to prevent it being tipped over
Heating
Indoor enclosures, hot-end temps of around 47 degrees must be provided and a hot spot in the high 50’s. .
 Ambient temps with this species are acceptable at around 25 - 28 degrees. This needs to be monitored though and you must ensure the heat gradient does not vary too dramatically over any area of the enclosure. To provide these temperatures, I run a 100 watt reflector globe at the hot end. Night heating (I do not) this would best be done I feel by a low-wattage  heat cord under a tile this would ensure the monitor's day-night cycle is not disturbed and tend to last much longer than red globes.
Heating is run for approximately 10 hours a day, switched off by a timer.
Lighting
Because my heating source is white-light emitting reflector globes, it is not necessary to provide any other form of enclosure lighting.
It also seems that many people who have experience with dragon lizards and progress onto monitors feel it necessary to provide UV light. While this is a good thing that they will do this for their animals, there are no known benefits that monitors receive from UV exposure. For this reason I provide no UV lighting in the enclosure, with no detrimental effects being evident as yet. My suggestion would be to put your monitor into a sunning enclosure for about half an hour on enclosure-cleaning day.
Feeding
Diets of captive Sand Monitors should be wholesome and varied. Whole prey items should be offered like cockroaches, meal worms, & pink mice when hatchlings. Mice, chickens, rats, quail when larger. Chicken necks & kangaroo meat can also be used. Try to avoid processed food like dog & cat food. Attention must be paid to ensure the monitor is not overfed, which is a common problem in captive specimens. Juveniles will eat a diet of crickets, roaches, pinkie mice and other insects.
My adult monitors are fed every 3 - 5 days, depending on the size of the last meal. A growing monitor should be feed every day. For hatchlings I feed enough chopped up pink mice, crickets or cockroaches, of appropriate sizes, until the monitor no longer shows interest in eating. Then throw in a few more later in the day. The size of the prey should be adjusted to the size of the monitor as it grows. Prey should not be wider than the width of the monitor's head. Smaller prey items are easier and more efficient for a monitor to digest.
Handling
I only handle my monitors when it's necessary. This means the monitors are generally less stressed.
This may be a different story with a hatchling, as they do get used to being handled & can become quite tame. Just keep in mind that they can do a great deal of damage to hands and fingers if they do bite or dig in their claws.
When handling any my adult monitors with larger claws, I recommend and use a pair of leather gloves. A good habit to get into is giving your monitor a check over for any health problems whenever they are handled.
Breeding
To successfully breed sand monitors you must first look at caging and ensure you have enough space, correct temperature gradients and daylight length for the season. Mine being kept outside are subject to the seasonal changes automatically. Winter average min. 12.1c high 22.8c and summer average Min 19.4c High 37.1 c.
During winter they are able to dig in and brumate coming out when the weather warms up in spring.
The second thing to look at is food. I believe as do others that food has a direct bearing on breeding behaviour. Feeding quality whole prey items more often is thought to trigger a breeding response and if kept up can result in multiple clutches being laid.
Mating activity was observed during October & November with eggs being laid in December.
My first attempt at breeding produced 8 eggs of which 4 were good they were incubated at a temp of 31 c on a 1:1 per weight ratio vermiculite: water and hatched 186 days later

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