Pygmy mulga monitor — Fact Sheet

Varanus gilleni · Pygmy mulga monitor · Gillens Zwergwaran

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• One adult: minimum 100 × 60 × 80 cm; additional length and height preferred
• One animal per permanent enclosure; locked doors and sealed cable gaps
• Juvenile starting enclosure: approximately 60 × 45 × 60 cm with full gradients
• Substrate: 10-20 cm packed sandy loam with a slightly damp lower layer
• Avoid calcium sand, dusty loose sand, aromatic wood, sharp gravel and weak lids

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Fixed vertical cork slabs, hollow tubes, rough branches and stable ledges
• Hot basking bark, warm covered hide, cool hollow and humid retreat
• Every narrow gap must allow the animal to reverse or exit
• Deeper secure laying container for an adult female

💡 Lighting

• High-output linear UVB plus bright full-enclosure visible light
• Ferguson Zone 3 starting target: UVI 2.5-4 at the back on basking bark
• Shade below UVI 1 and fully dark hollows
• Measure through mesh with a Solarmeter 6.5; follow lamp replacement guidance
• Photoperiod: 10-13 h, changed gradually; complete darkness at night

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 50-65 °C

• Warm zone: 28-33 °C

• Cool zone: 24-28 °C

• Night: 18-24 °C

• Basking value is a broad bark or tile surface, not whole-enclosure air

• Measure both the exposed bark and the hollow behind it

• Infrared thermometer for surfaces; shaded digital probes for air

• Dimming thermostat on every heat circuit; no heat rocks or exposed lamps

💧 Humidity & water

• Ambient humidity: approximately 25-45% with strong ventilation
• Humid retreat: 50-65%; lightly mist one bark face and let it dry
• Stable shallow water bowl always available and changed daily
• Monitor weight, urates, eyes and sheds; do not keep the entire enclosure damp

🪳 Diet

Feed regularly:

• Gut-loaded small roaches, crickets, locusts, silkworms and black soldier fly larvae

In moderation:

• Rare small whole vertebrate prey or egg for a healthy adult

Avoid:

• Mince, frequent rodents or egg, oversized prey and wild-caught insects

Supplements:

• Plain calcium on most juvenile insect meals and 2-3 adult meals weekly
• Reptile multivitamin at the conservative label interval; D3 less often with measured UVB

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Missing claws, swollen toes or falls → unsafe bark gaps, route or nutrition problem
• Pale, dark or blistered skin → thermal burn
• Tremors, soft jaw or weak grip → UVB/calcium disorder
• Retained shed and hard urates → dehydration or inadequate humid retreat
• Rapid weight gain and reduced activity → overfeeding
• Wheezing, discharge or open-mouth breathing away from heat → respiratory disease or overheating

Consult a reptile-experienced veterinarian for burns, serious injuries, suspected egg binding, marked weight loss or prolonged refusal to feed.