Anyone know this monitor?

[ziggy23]

I know this probably belongs in the other reptile forums but those don't seem to get a lot of traffic.

Many years ago, I remember reading about a monitor in reptile magazine and for the life of me I can't remember the name. It was a large one, like 6ft in length. One of the distinctive features I remember was when they get hungry they salivate and there's something in its mouth that makes it turn red and it looks like they have blood dripping from their mouth.

That's all I remember about them. I can clearly see the picture in my mind. It was massive. It had climbed up on a old fence post, it's tail was on the ground, and it's head an neck well above the post and it showed the red tinge to the saliva around it's mouth. Every time I hear about monitors that picture pops in my head. It drives me crazy that I can't remember the name.

 

[shmivy]

Sounds like your talkin about a Komodo dragon?

 

[ziggy23]

I know it wasn't a komodo because this was a pet care article.

 

[DoDaMAn]

Savana ( spelling?) Monitor

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Well your 2 biggest monitors in the pet trade are the nile monitor and the black throat monitor.

 

[shmivy]

oh right yeh, i dont no then, the only one i no of that has red saliva is the komodo

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

I just did a search on google "Monitor with red saliva"
1st hit was komodo dragon.

 

[ziggy23]

The picture I remember looks like the black throat monitor. It wasn't just length that made it massive looking, it was big all around. The other monitors look rather skinny in comparison. Like this

I couldn't find anything on red saliva with any other monitors but komodos either. But I was thinking maybe it's one of those details not mentioned much or something. I could be wrong I suppose, it has been over 10 years. Maybe they mentioned the komodo in the article and I got mixed up.

I was just curious really. I don't plan on actually getting one. Monitors are fascinating to me but not very realistic for us to get one.

 

[nair88]

my dad had a savannah monitor when i was a baby. i have always attributed that to my love of reptiles. sorry, that didn't really help you at all, but i just felt like mentioning it ;-)

wow! that's huge!

 

[ziggy23]

no problem, like I said just curious. I showed that picture to my husband he wants one. He said it's begging for a hawaiin shirt. lol

I believe my love of reptiles came from a box turtle I had as a kid. It wasn't my technically my first pet, but it was the first that was all mine and not a family pet. She was really small, small enough I could put her in my shirt pocket. I took her everywhere with me, even school. But I think I didn't set her hibernation box up right or something and she died. I was so heartbroken. She was like my best friend. I cried for a long time over her, probably still could if I thought about her enough.

 

[RHETORIC]

Wow thats a massive lizard. The only one I can think of would have been a black throat monitor. I think that lizard in the picture was said to be the largest (captive) black throat in the world... I saw a black throat at a reptile place close to my house, this one was super sweet but I'm not sure I'd want to keep something that powerful or massive as a pet lol.