How to Care for an Asian Water Monitor?

This is to provide advice on how to care for your hatchling Asian Water Monitor (AWM) as well as to provide some insight on how we care for our animals at Jade Reptiles. As with every online care sheet, these are just our methods and we encourage you to continue to do your own research and learn everything your can about AWM care. This information will only pertain to your AWM’s life from hatchling to ~6 months. However, you are always welcome to reach out to Jade Reptiles with any questions you may have throughout the life of you AWM.

When you receive your hatchling, it will be about 4 weeks old, without illness, and eating well. You may want to immediately interact with and handle your new hatchling, but it is recommended that you do not do this, and instead allow it to acclimate to its new habitat and life. While we will always give the animals lots of attention and socialize them as much as possible, it will have just gone through the most stressful event of its life: shipping. Trying to handle the hatchling too much immediately upon arrival will make a lasting negative memory of you to the animal. 

How to House an Asian Water Monitor Hatchling?

We recommend an enclosure of 4ft x 2ft x 2ft for your hatchling AWM. These dimensions provide ample space the hatchling to explore and get exercise. It is highly recommended that the enclosure be constructed of plastic (PVC, etc.) or wood. Glass is not an ideal material as it doesn’t hold temperature as well as the previous mentioned materials. It is also not ideal for the animal to be exposed on all sides of the enclosure, which a glass tank would do.

Your hatchling will need the enclosure to have a heat gradient, meaning one portion is at a higher temperature and one portion at a lower temperature so that it is able to thermoregulate its body temperature. The need for this gradient is why we only recommend the 2x2x4 enclosure as a minimum. Anything smaller will make it very difficult to achieve this gradient, as the bulbs needed for the hot spot will heat up the entire space in a smaller enclosure. These ambient temperatures on the hot side should be 83-86°F with a basking spot that has a range from 120°F to 130°F on the surface. The basking spot temperature should be obtained with a heat lamp of your choosing. At Jade Reptiles we use a combination of Arcadia deep heat projectors and PAR38 Halogen flood lamps to obtain the basking spot temperatures. The best surface for this is some type of stone, slate, or tile like material. Ambient light should be provided by a UVB T5 bulb. On the cool side, where the water feature is located, the temperature should be in the 80-82°F range. It is critical that the enclosure holds these higher temps even at night when the lights are out. For this we use the Arcadia deep heat projector or a Radiant Heat Panel (RHP). Allowing temps to fall at night will be detrimental to the newborn animal.

At Jade Reptiles we keep the humidity elevated in all of our enclosures. We aim for 70% relative humidity (RH). This helps a lot with shedding and overall health of the animal. For hatchlings this is pretty easy to achieve because the enclosures are somewhat small and the water feature should put a lot of humidity into the air. In the smaller enclosure, if humidity cannot be maintained with the water feature alone, a spray down of the enclosure once a day should be sufficient. If you live in a dry climate or once you move into larger enclosures a supplemental misting system, like a Mist King, will be necessary.

The enclosure should be front opening opposed to top opening. A top opening enclosure not ideal because if you want to socialize your AWM, trying to pick it up from above will cause it to view you as a predator. A front opening enclosure will allow you to greet and socialize your AWM face-to-face, which is much less threatening for the hatchling.

What kind of substrate and decorations for an Asian Water Monitor?

It is critical to provide a proper substrate for your hatchling AWM due to them having very small respiratory systems for the first few weeks of life. If your substrate is extremely dusty the respiratory system will get irritated and more than likely lead to infection. Substrates that are NOT ideal for your hatchling are: coco fiber, dirt, sand, or anything dusty. We recommend two types of substrates for your hatchling: cypress mulch or compressed coco chips. It is highly recommended to first rinse both of these substrates to remove any small particles and dust.

When your AWM, is small it will find great comfort in taking refuge in a hiding spot of some sort. The hiding spot will not take away from the socializing of your AWM. It can actually help the process if done properly. We recommend that one hiding spot be provided for each hatchling. With socializing in mind, place the hiding spot in such a way that the hatchling can get into the hiding spot and feel safe, but it can still see you the entire time.  This will allow it to feel safe and watch you. Over time it will learn that you aren’t something to be afraid of, and most importantly, it is learning this from a comfortable position.

Feel free to add any other types of decor to the enclosure that your hatchling will enjoy. Many people want to incorporate live plants into their AWM’s enclosure. Monitors in general are known for being very curious and this quickly turns into destruction of whatever they are exploring.

Your AWM will absolutely need a significant water feature. They spend enormous amounts of time swimming, submerged, and often times sleeping in water. It is a huge part of their life. The water will need to be changed frequently or have a high-powered filter. They will defecate in the water feature as well as use it for drinking so keeping it clean is a must.

What to feed an Asian Water Monitor Hatchling?

At Jade Reptiles we start the hatchlings on Calcium dusted Dubia Roaches, crickets, chopped shrimp, chopped salmon, chopped baby quail, and pinkie mice. The hatchlings have an extremely fast metabolism so they will need to be fed very often, possibly daily, but at minimum every other day. It will be hard to overfeed an active and healthy AWM for the first few months of life. At Jade Reptiles our rule of thumb is to keep the animals with a thick tail base and lean body with a noticeable “skin flap” on the sides. This flap may disappear directly after a feeding because the stomach is full, but should be back by the next day, after meals are digested.