We used to have a monitor lizard. He was the most horrible, nasty little thing you had ever seen. But I always liked watching him sleep because he looked like a baby dinosaur. Haha! Reptiles are very difficult to take care of and they are definitely not for everyone. Our lizard hated everyone, but he was a little bit more tolerant of me. I was the one who had to clean his cage and feed him (funny, my husband said he was going to do that when we first got him). He wouldn’t hesitate to bite though if he was in a bad mood. I always joke about Leopold meaning business when he bites, but this lizard would latch on and not let go!

did you trade him in for a flat-screen monitor? ba-dunt-dunt

monitors have crazy bacteria in their mouth,, rapid infection kills thier prey, not venom. and you’d been bit by him?
we have lizards running all over the place outside here. there is a 2-foot chuckwalla living under one of the big rocks in the front yard.

Yeah, they do have it really bad – iguanas can live long lives if well cared for, but most only live a few years due to their owners not understanding their care. My brother got one when he was a kid and man that thing ended up costing so much money lol lights and food and building him a custom made cage (which in itself cost several hundred). Yikes. Certainly NOT for the casual pet owner. And he would bite too – we were researching them and half the resources said they had teeth, half said they didn’t and I couldn’t get a clear answer from the so called “experts” since they were split half n half. Well.. my mother was feeding him one day and he latched onto her finger, she had little bloody teeth imprints in the meat of her thumb. That answered that question. For all that, he wasn’t a bad guy – he loved his salads and he would let us pet him if he felt like it. If he didn’t feel like it though, you ended up getting whipped by his leather like tail – which could hurt as bad as getting hit by a belt if he wanted it to.

When my parents got divorced we had to rehome most of our harder to care for pets and were only allowed to keep the small dogs since we moved into my grandmothers house.

Posted By longhairmike on 08/22/2011 10:23 AM
did you trade him in for a flat-screen monitor? ba-dunt-dunt

monitors have crazy bacteria in their mouth,, rapid infection kills thier prey, not venom. and you’d been bit by him?
we have lizards running all over the place outside here. there is a 2-foot chuckwalla living under one of the big rocks in the front yard.

He had bacteria in his mouth, but not as nasty as some lizards have. He knew what he was doing though. He would actually “chew” on your hand while he was latched on, trying to work it in there more. You just had to make sure to clean out the bite really well. Neither one of us died from a lizard bite. 

We didn’t trade him in for a flat-screen monitor, although that probably would have been nice. We actually had to have him put down. The poor thing got an abcess. We fought it and fought it, giving him shots every day (I can actually tell people that I gave a lizard injections). It became clear that our efforts were not helping and, sadly, we decided to end his suffering. A word of warning, those were some hefty vet bills leading up to that point. He had surgery twice.

Not _all_ monitor species have the same type of bacteria in their mouth – the Savannah Monitor depends on its jaw strength for instance (most common pet monitor). Komodo dragons have nasty bacteria that is dangerous to humans… but most monitors are not. They do carry the risk of infection higher than most animals though, as well as with all reptiles/amphibians the risk of salmonella, so very good hygiene after handling is needed.