Well I went out to eat and my little nile monitor was in his enclosure, i come home and he's just plain not there. I have a screen top on there.. but no clips I didn't think he was strong enough to push the heavy top up. Now there is a monitor crawling around the house and I can't find him. Anyone have any ideas on traps I could set up to possibly catch him again? I'm really upset, ive only had him like three weeks and ive been working really hard to make him handleable and healthy. I put in a good hour a day holding him and pampering him and now all that means nothing because I can't find him. I'm very upset and I feel in a way that this is my fault for not putting the clips on his cage(which I have sitting right on my desk). I don't want him to die just because I made a stupid mistake, theres no way he can survive in the dry climate up here. Any ideas are greatly apreciated.

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ginko tutors in basic math just ask paris hilton

obsoleta lindheimeri(texas ratsnake)
varanus nilocticus(nile monitor)
Sternotherus odoratus(musk turtle)
pagona minor(2)(bearded dragons breeding pair)

when young monitors escape, they usually don't go far at first. It'll probablyl hide somewhere nearby for a day or two, then venture out further. Look in tight spaces around the enclosure, in warm areas behind or under electronic equipment like stereos, fridges etc. You may even want to put skinny trails of flour across corners and gaps to see if it crosses those. They usually show up, eventually.

When you do get it back, start looking into correcting its husbandry. Screen tops are no good for young monitors (security reasons aside), as they lead to dehydration. Stop handling it daily, too. That's probably why it was so keen to escape - I imagine you'd have pulled it from its hide to handle it so it knew its hide was not a secure place. Once young monitors realise that, they spend a good deal of time (when you're not there) trying to escape.

Monitors respond better to people when you develop a level of trust slowly, rather than with forced handling.

i'm kinda under the impression he's on the other side of the wooden wall in my room... which happens to be paneled wood and has lots of little holes in it, any ideas how I could coax him out, im not in a position to remove the wood paneling...

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ginko tutors in basic math just ask paris hilton

obsoleta lindheimeri(texas ratsnake)
varanus nilocticus(nile monitor)
Sternotherus odoratus(musk turtle)
pagona minor(2)(bearded dragons breeding pair)

Food and heat always make a good combo when trying to find a lost critter

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Aww, Grim, Im sorry to hear this! Good luck finding him!!

i put my heating pad on the floor in hopes he would maybe find it and sit on it, maybe I should try putting a dead pinky on it too?

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ginko tutors in basic math just ask paris hilton

obsoleta lindheimeri(texas ratsnake)
varanus nilocticus(nile monitor)
Sternotherus odoratus(musk turtle)
pagona minor(2)(bearded dragons breeding pair)

yeah, and brain it maybe so its more appealing!

this morning I awoke to my cat interested in the wood paneling in my room. I seriously think ginko is behind that paneling. anybody have any ideas how I could lure him out. I was seriously thinking about tieing some crickets to long strings, letting the crickets go behind the wall and if ginko were to swallow them he'd swallow the string as well and I could maybe pull him out of the wall. Ive probably got about two or three more days before he completedly dehydrates and dies... i wanna catch him before that happens. Curse the darned dry texas air...

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ginko tutors in basic math just ask paris hilton

obsoleta lindheimeri(texas ratsnake)
varanus nilocticus(nile monitor)
Sternotherus odoratus(musk turtle)
pagona minor(2)(bearded dragons breeding pair)

Wood paneling isn't too hard to remove and put back up...

Much easier than drywall.

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Amy

I say rip off the wood panneling...you can always put it back up and I know Ginko is more then worth the destruction to you..