Black-tailed monitor — Fact Sheet

Varanus tristis · Black-tailed monitor · Schwarzschwanzwaran

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• One adult: minimum 150 × 75 × 120 cm; larger and taller preferred
• One animal per permanent enclosure; locked doors and sealed cable gaps
• Juvenile starting enclosure: approximately 90 × 60 × 90 cm with full gradients
• Substrate: 15-25 cm packed sandy soil/loam; 30-40 cm laying zone for a female
• Avoid calcium sand, walnut shell, cedar, sharp gravel and unstable decor

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Broad basking shelves, vertical trunks, cork slabs, hollow tubes and tight hides
• Hot exposed perch, warm covered route, cool hollow and humid retreat
• Heavy decor supported from the base or frame, never loose substrate
• Clean feeding slab or smooth cup to reduce substrate ingestion

💡 Lighting

• High-output linear UVB plus bright full-enclosure visible light
• Ferguson Zone 3 starting target: UVI 2.5-4 at the back in the basking zone
• 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 surface temperature, not whole-enclosure air

• 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 30-60%, adjusted to documented locality
• Humid retreat: 55-70%, cool and lightly damp rather than wet
• Heavy clean water bowl always available and changed daily
• Moisten one deep substrate pocket or bark face; avoid condensation and stale air

🪳 Diet

Feed regularly:

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

In moderation:

• Appropriately sized whole vertebrate prey or egg as rare variety for healthy adults

Avoid:

• Routine fatty rodents, mince, frequent 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 product’s conservative interval; D3 less often with measured UVB

💤 Seasonal cooling

• Optional only for planned breeding of a healthy, established adult from a known locality
• Never cool juveniles, thin, ill, newly acquired or recently fed animals
• Change light and temperature gradually and verify refuge temperatures with probes
• Stop and consult a reptile veterinarian if weight or condition declines

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Pale, dark or blistered skin → thermal burn
• Swollen limbs, tremors or weak jaw → UVB/calcium disorder
• Retained shed, sunken eyes or hard urates → dehydration
• Straining, swelling or absent feces → obstruction, impaction or reproductive disease
• Rapid weight gain and thick soft tail base → overfeeding
• Wheezing, discharge or open-mouth breathing away from heat → respiratory disease or overheating

Consult a reptile-experienced veterinarian for burns, serious bites, falls, neurologic signs, suspected egg binding or prolonged refusal to feed.