Six of the Best Pet Monitor Lizards

[Music] hi there i'm here today with well what is one of my favorite animals on the entire planet and i know i love a lot of different reptiles but anybody who watches this channel a lot knows that I love this lizard more than almost anything this is a yellow a key monitor I love a keys I don't just love a keys I love monitors period monitors are arguably and you know there's a short list of any other lizard groups that I could even make this argument at all with monitors might be the coolest lizards there are the biggest lizards in the world are monitor lizards and in a lot of places where monitors exist at least as far as reptiles go they are the apex predators now you know the the quintessential example would be the Komodo dragon but there are big monitors in a lot of different habitats and they're so amazing I mean there's not not phylogenetically but Mauresmo imagination goes there is similar to dinosaur is this anything we've got today they can run down prey and breathe at the same time which doesn't seem like a big deal but most lizards can't do that it's stinking rad that they can and they just look so cool I don't know what it is about them but it is such a cool look but the truth is this is a sad truth horrible truth most monitors make really terrible pets sort of like most big cats you know stinking rad terrible pets some monitors make bad pets because they're very difficult to keep alive some make bad pets because they will legitimately try to kill you but some of them actually make pretty decent pets but picking the right species can make all the difference and for this reason today we're going to talk about six of the best pet monitors you could possibly get and I'm going to begin with this one which is the a key monitor this one happens to be a yellow a key in our video on a key monitors you see a red a key really there's there's no major difference between the two it kind of comes down to which color you prefer I adore them both and I we have a very difficult time deciding which one I like the most they're amazing I'm gonna tell you this right up front which is kind of a spoiler for the whole rest of the video this is the best one the a key monitor is head and shoulders the best pet monitor on this list everything else is worse they are a fantastic size now this one here is just a juvenile if you want to see an adult you should definitely check out our full video on a key monitors in fact you should just check out our full video on IQ monitors it's the best bet monitor you can possibly get you can just skip the rest of this video just go watch that video it's they're the best they're there's such a just a perfect size I mean they're big enough that they're not super fragile you're not gonna hurt them very easily with handling and that's awesome but also they're small enough that they're not gonna hurt you very badly I mean you could still end up getting stitches from a really bad a key bite but it's not gonna be anything extremely serious like you could receive even from some of the other decent pet monitors that are on this list also because they're small you know they're not only not gonna hurt you but they're also more reasonable to house and more reasonable to feed they're just all-around more reasonable because they are an actually reasonable size like I said before bites aren't gonna be that bad for it lizard the size of in a key the bites gonna be actually pretty tremendous I mean monitors have some great teeth they've got these very flexible necks and so they can they can lay quite a wallop on you if they want to and a key isn't very likely to do it and just because they're small it's not gonna be as bad as if it were a bigger monitor they won't tear you up as badly with claws as will bigger monitors and the a key being a more terrestrial monitor its claws aren't as sharp as some of the tree dwelling monitors and that's very nice also this tail which is very cool and spikey they're not gonna whip you with it like larger monitors will and they can whip the heck out of you with that tail sometimes they also can't drop that tail which is that true for all monitors but I love that about monitors monitors are active active lizards super active lizards I really can't think of a whole group of lizards that's more active than monitors and as such for their size they need a lot of space and a keys are no exception but because they are such a reasonable size you can actually purchase and enclosure large enough for an ACK you you don't have to have it specially built or build it yourself and that's very nice also because monitors are active they eat like monsters I mean they eat so much not quite like mammals or birds but they eat a heck of a lot and an a key because it is a more reasonable size it eats a lot for its size but that's still not a whole lot on each out of house and home that's very nice this monitor is head and shoulders the best monitor on this list but they do still have some cons one of them is they're expensive to buy they can be a bit hard to find there are actually a lot of people that are breeding them this one comes from Great Basin serpentarium which is a great place to go if you're looking for a monitor of a lot of species but they're awesome a keys are awesome and so there's very high demand for them and you might need to get on a waiting list if you want to give in a key and that's bummer sometimes kiss you want in a queue today of course that enclosure while it's cheap for a monitor enclosure still pretty expensive it's gonna cost you a lot of money also the lighting that you'll need for these guys is gonna be expensive because they need really hot basking spot and on top of that you're gonna need UVB lighting just adds up like I already mentioned the bite is nasty for a little lizard little lizards it's not that bad but it's bad for a little lizard in their small which is like the best thing about the ackee in addition to their rad personality but it also means that for a monitor lizard they're not all that impressive when you pull it out people aren't like holy cow is that a komodo dragon they're like what's that cute little thing and that often times is not what people are going for when they get a monitor lizard also their body shape well it's still a pretty good like goanna Australian monitor body shape that tail which I think is a totally awesome tail kinda throws off their typical body outline of a monitor lizard and so while I think it's really cool-looking if what you want is a komodo dragon shrunken down that tail throws off the look a little bit it's not perfect but definitely the most reasonable and probably the most fun pet monitor you could possibly get next on our list of the best pet monitors that you can possibly get is the Timor monitor there are a lot of pros to these awesome little monitors one thing is that they are a little bit cheaper to buy even than a keys and that's great and also by comparison to a keys they've got a little bit more of the kind of quintessential monitor shape in fact I think in a lot of ways they've sort of got all the best looking monitor features all wrapped up into one package they've got the kind of just basic monitor shape but they've got the head structure in the coloration a little bit of an isle monitor which is one of the best-looking monitors there is horrible pet monitor but a really good looking monitor and then they're a little bit leaner and and kind of lanky err like the tree monitors because they are a semi arboreal monitor and they've just kind of got it all and it's all wrapped up into a very convenient little package they are a great size for a monitor for starters you know they're big enough this one is not fully grown just yet but they don't get a heck of a lot bigger than this and they are big enough that they're not super fragile but at the same time they're small enough that they're not gonna tear you up and monitors can really tear you up you know even at this size they can hurt you I mean a bite can be bad and it's easy for them to bite you because they've got a very flexible neck the claws on a little tree monitor like this they hurt the tail one great thing there they're not really gonna whip you with this tail and that can be an issue with the bigger monitors they can still hurt you a little bit but because they're smaller it's just not nearly on the scale of a bigger monitor monitors across you know like we've already mentioned they're active lizards and so they need a lot of space which makes it so that really any monitor but a really small monitor needs a huge amount of space these guys still need a big enclosure but at least it's one that you can buy and that's very nice and also because they're active and they've got a really high body temperature that they maintain most of the time monitors eat a lot you know we've already talked about this with the ackee but all like the ackee because these guys are small they eat a lot for their size but that still isn't a whole heck of a lot of food compared to larger monitors but they definitely have some cons really all monitors have some cons the smaller monitors have fewer cons than the bigger monitors but there are definitely some for the team or monitor I said that they're less expensive than Aki's which is great but Aki's cost several hundred dollars and so deletes just not maybe as many hundreds of dollars they can also be difficult to find especially if you want one captive-bred and you totally want one captive-bred even though the enclosure is affordable for a monitor it's still expensive it's an expensive enclosure so be prepared for that they're lighting for a small lizard pretty expensive because they need a hot basking spot not as hot as in a queue but pretty hot and they need that UVB lighting adds up these guys are also very very shy compared to a keys it means that they hide more than do a keys and they don't like to be handled nearly as much as a keys and those are major cons if you like to interact with your lizard like I said even though they're small their bite can still be pretty nasty and also because they're small like the a key I mean it makes them so reasonable but it also makes them a lot less impressive than are the larger monitors and that can definitely be a con for some people however this is a good one this is a real good one and from here on out they're not so good next on our list is the do Merrill's monitor and you guys know how much I love a keys I don't own an a key but I do own a do Merrill's monitor mine happens to be the grumpiest numerals in the world and he's still actually pretty fantastic but I this one comes to us from Great Basin serpentarium that I will show you some footage as well of my doom arrows monitor because I am actually developing a really good relationship with him but this doom arrows monitor is exhibiting a lot more the typical personality of a doom arrows monitor which I as far as bigger more impressive monitors ago in my opinion is the ultimate pet monitor one thing that I love about the doom arrows monitor is that they're big but still manageable I mean this is an impressive enough lizard that when you pull it out nobody is like oh look at that dinky little thing they like holy cow that is a big lizard but this isn't unreasonably big and what we're gonna see later on on this list is unreasonably big one of the most important attributes about the doom arrows monitor and actually the reason that I was originally interested in them is that they do not tend to bite which is great because they've got really powerful jaws they eat a lot of shellfish and I can tell you when I feed shellfish to mine I mean he just crunches right through really heavy-duty exoskeletons like it was nothing it's amazing but they are very not inclined to bite even my grumpy dude not very inclined to bite at all I don't totally trust him which is actually probably the main reason I'm wearing a glove on one hand with this guy's because I always wear gloves with mine because I'm nervous about that bite but generally speaking they're not biters they do well on a diet that is primarily made up of crustaceans and also some fish and things that are actually relatively affordable at the grocery store which is very nice because those are the things that they tend to be hunting in the wild and that makes them pretty reasonable for a bigger monitor you are probably going to need to build the enclosure for a Duhamel's monitor but because they're big but not astronomically big that enclosure isn't gonna take up like a big chunk of your house I mean it it's big but it doesn't need its own room necessarily they are just one of the nicest monitors you can possibly get except for mine which is actually he's just sort of like a typical monitor except he doesn't bite and I'm working with him he's getting better I'm sure in the future I'll be able to show him off to you guys more I wish I could but they are generally speaking just excellent they're super cool looking as well and one of the things that I haven't mentioned is hard to show on on film but the way that they feel is amazing and mine only recently has he gotten comfortable enough with me that I can come up and pet him and stuff while he's eating but it's just it I mean they feel like a really soft scaly basketball sort of I mean it's it's it's rubbery a little bit but leathery a little bit it's hard to describe but it's one of the most amazing sensations and you know I've never really felt too many other lizards that feel anything like this and they look super cool as babies they're gloriously beautiful but they quickly lose their baby coloration which has like a bright orange head and some beautiful striping they turn out more this sort of brown color but the shape of them is just incredible they've very much got that Asian water monitor shape but then they've got scale ation almost like a crocodile they've got one of the coolest licking heads kind of a very similar head to the Nile monitor which is a terrible pet lizard but it has a super cool looking head I honestly adore these guys that that head shape and their personality is actually why I prefer the the brown rough neck monitor the numerals monitor to the black roughneck monitor but that's also a pretty good option these guys though they're just as big monitors go hard to imagine how you could do any better than this but they do have some cons they're great for a big monitor but there are some cons those nails that they have are rough we talked about how damaging the nails are on a team our monitor well that's a tiny semi arboreal lizard this is a pretty good sized semi arboreal lizard and this is the main reason that I am truly wearing the glove on one hand is because when I need to pick him up those claws can just shred you and so I'm making sure that I have something I can use to be protected from them because I oh gosh I've had some serious gashes from mine I mentioned that they don't tend to bite but if they do those jaws are crab crushingly powerful and I do not want those wrapped around my body anyway they also are very difficult to find captive-bred they do crop up from time to time captive bread but most of them are imports and as a result they're gonna suffer from typical import problems we've got a whole video on that they need a big water area and not as big as the Asian water monitor that we'll talk about later but pretty big and large water areas are a pain in the neck to keep clean though they don't need as hot of a basking spot there's a lot of the desert monitors they do need a pretty hot basking spot and being a big monitor they actually are gonna need a lot of lights you don't want just like one super hot basking light or they'll end up usually with a burn on their back sort of right around where their stomach is because they're trying to warm up their whole body using just a tiny highly focused super hot spot and it just ends up burning one area of their body so you're gonna need a lot of basking lights if you have a do Merrill's monitor and then on top of that you're gonna need some UVB basking lights that's gonna add up for sure the enclosure is definitely gonna be something that you're gonna have to build I built the enclosure for mine when he was quite a bit younger and it was epic then but it's getting small and I'm starting to think about my next enclosure for my do males monitor they need a big enclosure and you know if you don't know how to build that it's gonna cost you a ton not perfect but honestly in my opinion this is the best pet monitor that is impressively large of course from here they're gonna get crazy large and before we get to some of the biggest and core easiest lizards on this list I wanted to talk about some of the biggest and craziest most wonderful people in our world which are art patrons at patreon thank you so much I wanted to point out at the end of all of our videos we show up on the screen all of our stinking rad fans and you know that's just one of many perks that we have for our patrons as a way of just saying thank you but thank you you do so much for this channel and now let's get nuts next on our list is the lizard I was honestly the most reluctant to put on this list but I think they totally belong and that is the Argos monitor now this is a male Argus monitor and males get quite a bit bigger than females and he's a big boy you know you'll some of the lizards we'll show you later are actually smaller than this guy but they will get much bigger than he is this is what I would consider a larger medium-size monitor but this one especially males like this guy they're they're still impressively large for sure though there are Argus monitors in Australia most of them that we have outside of Australia actually come from New Guinea as a result most of them in the pet trade are captive bred but there are still some imports so when you get one you definitely want to be aware of where it comes from but they are widely available captive bred for a lizard that's as hard to find as these are in a lot of ways they're very much like a colossal a key that loves to eat that sounds like a great combination and in some ways it is but we'll see in some ways that's also kind of a con they are impressively large I mean no question this lizard is impressively large you pull this out and people go wow what a lizard that is and I can tell you honestly this is the most nervous I've been behind this table with any lizard that wasn't an iguana one of the things that I love about the Argus monitors especially is they do this thing called try potting where they stand up on two legs and look around like meerkats except like a Velociraptor meerkat the coolest it's the coolest thing ever they also definitely have that Australian monitor goanna look to them which I love you know they're they're kind of more the typical monitor build then are the Aki's because they don't have that spiky tail like a keys do and even their head and neck you know they're a little bit more slender and snake-like more of a typical monitor build the enclosure that you need for these guys it's it's big because this is a great big monitor but it is a fairly simple enclosure because these are mostly just a terrestrial monitor and that's very nice one of the things that you don't need is a huge water area and you don't need to end nearly as much space for climbing so a lot of floor space but other than that the enclosure is fairly simple they definitely have some cons all these monitors have some cons and like I said this is the one I was the most reluctant to put on this list I already said they're like a giant food-motivated a key and that sounds great but actually being small is one of the biggest perks to the ackee and these guys do not have that going for them hey dude you're alright oh crap so there are definitely some cons these guys are they're a big monitor and they need a lot of ground space so the enclosure for an Argus monitor is huge just really huge they also need it hot this is this is a desert monitor a lot like and a key and so they need a extremely hot basking spot like in a key but there's so much bigger than an a key that that spot has to be huge especially if you want to avoid burns they have a feeding response like they've never been fed before in their lives and they go for food hard so target training is an absolute must if you're gonna interact with your monitor in any way but throwing food in there and running for your life when monitors start to get about this big I mean from here on out the bite is going to be medically significant which is why this has been a somewhat terrifying experience and if you haven't seen it already stick around for the bloopers cuz they're dandies these guys eat a lot of large prey they are gonna eat some insects but they're also gonna need a lot of vertebrates and being this big and maintaining such a warm body temperature they eat a lot of food and they will remind you that they want a lot of food this is definitely a lizard for people that are well funded and highly experienced with monitors you can see there they're very expressive about their mood and you got to read these guys just right so I would definitely not recommend this ever to someone as their first pet monitor get the baby version for a while when you can read it perfectly and you lose your mind maybe then you can go big next on our list of the best pet monitors is a truly enormous monitor we we've we've talked about a couple of really great small pet monitors and they're fantastic we've talked about some impressively large pet monitors and then we get to the ridiculously large pet monitors and in the category of ridiculously large is the black throat monitor the black don't monitor that I have with me today is Oscar and he comes to us from Utah's reptile adventures and he is just a juvenile he's basically as long as our table but they get considerably larger than this and about three times as heavy as little Oscar here the pros I mean obviously the size of these guys I mean if what you want is an enormous pet monitor this is an enormous pet monitor truly enormous they have a great personality and that is super important when you're talking about a giant pet monitor because a bad personality would make these guys a completely unreasonable pet they look super cool I love the look of the African monitors I mean you know I've always loved Savannah monitors the Nile monitor is arguably my favorite monitor the way that it looks of course if you've seen our video on Nile monitors not the way that they act but I love the way that they look that head shape of the African monitors is just amazing and of all the African monitors the black throat may have the most impressive head then that African monitor head is just so big and chunky and impressive and the black throat monitor has got the biggest of these heads and then on top of just being it on a big lizard I mean they've got these big kind of venom glands that you can see is just extra bulbous extra enos this guy looks like an Allosaurus and there aren't many things alive that I could say look as cool as an Allosaurus there's at least one other great pet monitor out there that one requires an enormous pond this one does not that's a big Pro these guys eat large vertebrate prey which is very convenient because when you are trying to feed a lizard that's 50 pounds it eats a lot of food and large whole vertebrates are considerably cheaper than trying to feed that say on hissing cockroaches that would cost you a fortune they're widely available captive bred and you know this is this is really important because monitors that come in as imports just don't make good pets something else I love about these guys especially by comparison to their cousin the Savannah monitor is that we know how to take care of them we get reasonable life spans out of these guys there's something you don't really see with Savannah monitors we just don't know how to take care of these guys we do know how to take care of black throat monitors it's just intense because it's a giant lizard and that gets us actually to the cons these guys are enormous we've said that the impressive size that these guys have is a pro and it is until it comes to taking care of them for starters being a giant pet monitor lizard I mean monitor lizards are dangerous for their size period and when you're talking a 50 pound monitor it's extremely dangerous really really could do you tremendous amounts of damage there also because they're large expensive to keep everything about them is big they're big their appetite is colossal the enclosure that they need is realistically a room in your house the type of lights that they're gonna need you know it's just it's just typical UVA basking lights and UVB except you're just gonna need buckets of them just so many so you're gonna spend a fortune on lighting they're just all-around super expensive to keep they're also relatively expensive to purchase which I mean if the cost of this lizard is what is discouraging you from getting one don't get one because the costs only there but if you are okay with a very expensive and very friendly generally but dangerous due to its size and host of weapons if you're okay with all of that that's what you're looking for then the black throat monitor might be the best pet monitor for you but realistically you should still get in a key and last but certainly not least on our list of six of the best pet monitors you could possibly get is the Asian water monitor one of the biggest reasons that the Asian water monitor makes this list is that they have a really terrific personality this individual is actually one that hasn't even been handled all that much and you can see she's a very very pleasant wonderful little lizard very inquisitive wanting to climb up with me the they're so alert and attentive but they're so good-natured and fun and that is super important when you're talking about a lizard that gets as big as these two this is a female and females tend to be quite a bit smaller actually especially in terms of total weight than our males but she still has a lot of growing to do who are you startled me you started me with that tongue she's such an inquisitive Beast these guys are in my opinion very much the quintessential monitor I mean they're an Asian monitor and they've just they've got the most perfect body build for a monitor they've got that blade-like tail of the aquatic monitors and yet there's stout and robust and they are just incredible looking they're beautiful they look the most like the Nile monitor of any of the monitors on this list and the big difference between these guys in a Nile monitor is really just that personality these guys are relatively easy to feed they're gonna eat a lot of vertebrate prey a lot of things that you would catch in the water they do well in a lot of fish but a very diet of all sorts of different whole whole feeders and and that's nice because that that gives you a lot of options when it comes to feeding and mostly one a lot of balance they are explorers them but the water monitor definitely has impressive size it's one of the biggest monitors in the whole world males especially get just absolutely colossal if you want an impressive monitor really I mean you know there's their crocodile monitors and komodo dragons but for the most part it doesn't get any more impressive than this like I've already said in many ways they're a heck of a lot like a Nile monitor except without that horrific personality that Nile monitors have but there are some cons these guys are gonna need an enclosure that's at least the size of a typical room you know and that enclosure is gonna include land areas and areas to climb but also an enormous an enormous water feature they need a huge amount of water in which to swim and they're messy in a water feature on this scale with a big messy lizard living in it is just it is such an ordeal it is such an ordeal they also need an enormous basking spot and I've referenced this with the other lizards that this is the biggest lizard on this list and that basking spot it needs to cover a lot of space I've probably seen more burns on Asian water monitors than any other species because people get a really hot but too small basking area and so this monitor tries to hold heat up its whole body from that little area and they end up with a big burn on their back also most of them that you'll find our wild caught and there are definite issues associated with getting a wild caught lizard so I would definitely recommend going to one of the breeders that are producing captive bred water monitors even though that'll cost a lot more another thing they've got a great personality but if they bite you with a lizard this big I mean it's it's a medically significant bite you're gonna need a lot of stitches and it's gonna be a big big deal if this monitor ever bites you good thing it's so much nicer than a Nile you know you're the best we were having quite an experience let's see the main thing is this is just this one is very small Asian water monitors are just a colossal monitor and even small monitors are a big deal monitors are just incredible lizards and I'm so happy that some of them are at least moderately reasonable pets unfortunately those that are reasonable are small and relatively unimpressive the bigger you go with monitors the more insane it gets but if what you want is a truly insane lizard there are some still sane insane choices that you can make and hopefully this video has helped you make a more sane choice about a monitor will have full videos about each and every one of these monitors and we've already created a playlist of monitors so you can see a lot of these rows same for insane lizards and some just plain old insane lizards because monitors they're nuts but they're amazing as always like and subscribe Oh check out our other monitor videos so we hope see real soon I like having a glove I can defend myself with yeah you know what like if he comes at me well you're gonna pull him back are you not no because if he comes at me oh this is the most we felt like I'm interacting with an iguana of anything that I have been healthy you're alright oh crap no I'm not I signed up to fassl's bucum yeah don't stand up though that might be nice yeah that would be neat as long as he doesn't stand up on me oh boy I noticed that there seems to be some sort of glove scale between zero gloves one glove to glove yep is that so I'll tell I'll tell you my scale one glove is it might bite me and it's claws are not fun two gloves are it might bite me and it's definitely gonna tear me up with those claws if I'm not protect this three glove or like through mother there's a point at which I'm wearing a bee suit made of leather that's ruined I have a crocodile monitor on this table oh why are you so great oh why are you so great oh my gosh you're the best they feel like rubber oh yeah okay never mind don't make me laugh this is serious business [Music] it's my beard back on yeah it fell off during that last segment did you notice that your shirt changed no same shirt Oh same shirt same tie nice beard just fell off [Laughter]

Channel: Clint's Reptiles

Views: 686,668

Keywords: Monitor lizard, Asian water monitor, Ackie monitor, savannah monitor, nile monitor, black throat monitor, timor monitor, argus monitor, dumeril's monitor, roughneck monitor, pet monitor lizard, crocodile monitor, pet lizard, monitor care, water monitor, tree monitor, top 5 reptiles for beginners, five of the best pet lizards, the best pet lizard, five of the best giant pet reptiles

Id: bUZ7ZsR4gP8

Length: 34min 51sec (2091 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 21 2019