Spartacus, king of the household.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Sz6tvIRhE


Cheers,
Kat

LMAO!!! Nice video Kat!!! :yourock:

:lmao: now that was funny!

LMFAO...That is awesome Kat :yourock:

That is cool

Very cool friend you have there.

Love the video :lol::lol:

That was great!

cool video

awesome video Kat, thanks for sharing!

Kat, that was great.

In reference to the toad, may he rest in peace, I've been tryin to find an online source for my hoggie. Got any extras down that way you'd like to be rid of? :D

That was a great video. :yourock:

great work katty.
you can tell that dude can feel the love !
ck

Well that video rocked. :rockon:

Mr Spartacus seems like a pretty cool dude. On his behalf, I'd like to note that the video didn't actually show a toad being eaten, thus reasonable doubt to deny the toad's heirs any award of death benefits or wrongful death judgement. I 'd call bufo on their frivolous legal proceedings if you hear from them.

Thanks for putting this in the monitor forum, cos I want to talk about monitors a bit.

Several years ago well over ten years ago, I got some freshly imported wild caught black throats in Los Angeles cos they were so fricken cheap and they needed homes; they were perhaps half the size of Spartacus. I had an outdoor steel enclosure that measured about 50 feet x 40 feet with unclimbeable smooth steel walls about five feet tall. There was a good sized heated hide in the enclosure, the enclosure had tortoises in it before. So I put these three monitors in there and observed them for several months. I visualised having happy, slow moving well fed monitors and I thought that would be a kick. It didn't happen the way I hoped.

Long story short, I think the monitors' wild origin was unhelpful. If the monitors caught even a glimse of a human, they would either bolt lightning speed straight for the hide or just bolt and crash head into (loud and hard) the wall at the end of the enclosure then turn around and bolt for the hide. Thus they permitted no easily observable outdoors behaviour and were living in constant fear.

I have a keen interest in outdoor enclosure related challenges. I've been toying the last couple years with giving it another try. I'm undecided between starting with baby Black Throats or trying a couple baby Savannah monitors which I'd grow, and hopefully end up with calmer, more easily observable animals outdoors. The goal would be to breed the monitors. I think I can do it. I'm kiiinda leaning towards Savannahs because they don't get so darn big as the blackthroats, but seeing the Spartacus video is powerful influence in the case for Black Throats.

I have some steel enclosures, I could spare one of them and modify it depending on which monitor species I decide on.

http://www.claudius-r-us.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=6&pos=10

I'm interested in comments on monitor behaviour changes as observed outdoors.

Thoughts, Kat? You've had yours outdoors. Anyone else?

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that Sparti is unlike any other BT I've come across. Most of the ones I've seen firsthand tend to be fairly aggressive and not sociable. Sparti has his pms days, but for the most part is a mellow boy. Then again, we have put alot of work into calming his arse down and handling him almost daily. I also attribute it to him being very, very sick when we got him (he was around 2.5 feet then) and us having to spend copious amounts of time nursing him. He's a bit coddled and spends almost as much time indoors as out.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj217/janeothejungle/spartisign.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj217/janeothejungle/p1010008.jpg

Towards husbandry I'd note that the boy likes to climb --> a LOT. If he's not climbing, he's digging. We had to put a concrete pad under his outdoor enclosure and then put about 2 feet of dirt on top of it. He is not what I would call sedate, by any means, so if you want that image of the content, mellow monitor, I'd go Savannah. The 2 savannahs I know are both model examples of contentment.


~Kat

This picture is fantastic! I can just see him as the official door greeter at your house!

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj217/janeothejungle/spartisign.jpg

heh heh @ the window photo. Too cool. :rockon:

Thanks for the input. I'm ok with active species. I'm just wanting to avoid the "Uromastyx-blurr" every time I approach, so I can at least observe them outdoors.

I've got gobs of sun here so I will have a blast experimenting with solar gain ideas and materials for the cooler months.

OH WOW! That was GREAT! I love the chillin on the hamic.....that's AWESOME! I want one...lol:D

OH WOW! That was GREAT! I love the chillin on the hamic.....that's AWESOME! I want one...lol:D

They get biiiiiiiiiiiiig :D

Nice vid Kat. I agree, the toad served a noble purpose. Better he be eaten by a varanid than squashed by a car. Thats a waste of good toad right there.

They get biiiiiiiiiiiiig :D

Nice vid Kat. I agree, the toad served a noble purpose. Better he be eaten by a varanid than squashed by a car. Thats a waste of good toad right there.

That's ok they get BIIIIIIIIIG! I still want a PAIR! That would be really kickin'. Talk about Total entertainment right there....:D