Nile Monitor Progress Check

Question
Ok, My question is not an emergency, I am just curious about how i am doing on this whole thing...  Ok i just recently bought a baby Nile Monitor, and also a blue speckled poison dart frog ( Seperate Habitiats ). but my frog is in a small 2 gallon terrarium with a live bamboo plant and a wood cave, plenty of moist substrate, a small repti-pad heat pad, and humidity sustains at about 45-85 percent; at the time of purchase i was feeding him fruit flies... but i also researched that these frogs become poisonous when their diet has toxins in it...  im sure you know what im talking about... but for this i bought a fairly large ant gel farm set up and instead of sending in and waiting 6 weeks for ants; i went and somewhat raided a fire ant colony, and placed them into the farm... now i have let them settle to the point of laying egs in the farm and i have connected a small feeder hose from the ant farm to the frog habitat... so far this seems to eliminate my need to feed him and i think he might cause a burning sensation to the touch now...  but if there are any fatal errors or any suggestions please let me know....   

Ok, now to the fun part...  Sorry for such a long question but i need to know what im doing here...  On to the monitor.

Ok, i got the baby nile monitor. First off i have no idea on how to tell if its male or female, but i named him nigel thornberry (loved that show).  Secondly, this monitor seems to love every type of habitat i have created for him from desert type sand and high heat to forestry with humidity and also aquariums. I cant seem to find which is best for him... what i have done is this; i have a 20 gallon tank (completely temporary due to its potential size) and i have placed a normal household heating pad under about 2/3 of the unit, and the very bottom substrate is a black sand with repti-bark premium reptile bedding and a large assortment of rocks and a large central rock on top of the heating pad...( pad is under the tank ) and i have a black and a red heat lamp 60 and 150 watt bulb... and a large wood cave...  and recently i  just added a one gallon tank inside of nigel's habitat and i have filled with slightly warm water and i have made a little rock cave under the water, and i bought some rosie reds for the tank and i have a few swimming around in his water tank for food... i have observed him eating worms, grub worms, crickets, and a caterpillar ( i wont feed him anymore caterpillar, it just seems risky for some reason). but i read that they can hunt fish under water and honestly that is a much more interesting method of feeding him... but i really need to know if i have set nigel up for a good upbringin or if there are things that i dont know about that i have or am doing wrong... the humidity in there in not very high, about 10 percent but i figure the water tank being slightly warm will continuously add humidity as it escapes....   his tank maintains about 65-85 at night and during the day now that i have placed nigel in direct sunlight, that seems to change his daytime and nighttime temps. almost perfectly...90-115 degrees in the sun and the night time temp is somewhat chilly... i cant really stop that from happening at night....   but if you could please give me some tips and or cheat codes, thatd be great...  i have recently spent entirely too much money to not take care of them right... not to mention that i also found out that i have the monitor with the worst people skills ever...he doesnt appreciate anything...  i have also read that i need to confine me and the monitor in one place for longer periods of time as to get him familiar and possibly accepting towards me...but right now he is too small to be able to put him anywhere he cant get out of...  thank you for any imput u can give me.... u can just email me if its going to be a large response...  its a large question(s)


-Jojo-

Answer
Hi Jojo, I will start with the last question and work my way up. First off, your email on this web site is completely confidential even to the "experts" on here, the only reason your email is needed is so you can access the answer after asking the question, and besides I don't mind typing everything out here. Just be aware a long question gets a long answer.


Monitors are not one of the more friendly lizards and its common especially for the young ones to be shy and not too social. Only time can get him to warm up to you. It might never happen as they are not really known for being docile.
For night time temperatures use a Ceramic Heat Emitter (CHE) it can be kept on all hours of the day and will not interupt the night/day cycle. Red bulbs can be kept on during the night too as they don't register these as lights and they as well don't mess up their day/night cycle. I don't suggest keeping him in a window if that is your "direct sunlight" as the window can magnify the heat of the sun and the glass/acrylic of the tank will do the same it can very well turn his tank into an oven. And we don't want him to be cooked. He could use a little bit of a temperature gradient the temperature is fine but he needs a shady area or something to be sure he can cool down, but still have a hot enough spot to bask. They are from Africa where its rare to find a lot of humidity in desert places like Egypt, but offering the bowl of water will keep him hydrated and he can drink when he needs to.

- Don't feed items from your yard as they often carry parasites and other diseases that can be passed onto your Nigel.
He definately needs a larger enclosure and by adult hood he will need an enclosure the size of an average bedroom as he can get up to 5ft long, be aware of that one.

I suggest you remove any and all sand from all of your enclosures as it is very common to cause impaction which is deadly if not caught early enough. It happens when sand is accidently or purposely ingested and hardens in their intestines causing everything to get blocked up. Reptile bark is not much better, not only can they both cause impaction but it is very common for them to get it in their eyes while digging and Monitors do dig quite often, getting sand in their eye can cause infection and make them go blind. The safest substrates include newspaper, papertowels, linoleum flooring, tile flooring, or reptile carpet. High heat and low humidity is best but don't be worried if the humidity gets a little high. Don't offer any types of rocks or small decor that he/she could fit in his mouth as it can be dangerous if they heat something they are not supposed to.

----Dart Frog----
I am not too experienced with amphibeans but I know this is a GREAT care sheet:
http://www.dartden.com/cs_generaldart.php

I don't suggest feeding the ants because they do might back and can hurt him, not only that but wild collected insects are often carrying all sorts of diseases, best to go with crickets bought from a pet store.
The care sheet link I gave you will help with the rest of your information about your dart frog.

Good luck, anything I missed or you want clarified let me know
-Yexalen