Area Summary.
Semi dry arid environment (air temps 35-42 Degress no lower than 24 degress)
Clusters of Rocks and boulders
Grassy shrubs but very few high trees
Dry Red Clay or sandy surface
Nature:
As a Spencers Monitor grows they are mildly easy to establish a bit of trust with. After they settle in and are fed a few times they will rarely intentionally bite you. Large Monitors tails are like whips and are can knock a small person of their feet. Thier sharp claws and teeth are capable of shredding flesh and bone and can inflict serious injuries to humans if not respected and treated so.
Size:
Spencers Monitors like all larger monitors will grow into strong and powerful lizards. If feed well and given room to move they can grow up to 120cm long and a girth of a saucer plate.
Food:
In the Wild.
Practically anything they can find from highly venomous snakes, small mammals, large insects and any dead animals they may come across. They have an extremely tolerable stomach and can digest anything they can swallow.
In Captivity.
Grasshoppers, Quails, Rats, Uncooked chicken and meat
Enclosure:
Indoor / Outdoor (Both will need heat source in most areas of Australia)
Wood, Safe Mesh, Reptile Pits. Glass not recommended creates to much humidity.
Well ventilated to allow you to have hot temps without humidity.
Substrate: Brickies Loam, Sand, Dry Clay
Make deep enough for spencers to burrow.
Décor : Hide log/rock, Water bowl, Basking rock, Scattered rocks and branches on the ground.
Avoid placing real rocks on the substrate itself. Burrowing will cause it to fall and maybe trap your lizard.
Lighting
Compact Uv bulb( if enclosure is inside)
Heat Light / Sources
So long as you have a good size enclosure, that is well ventilated and is capable of having temperature variants in it.( ie Hot spot (38-45) and cool spot.(24-28) Use a 100w or 150w spotlight. Keep the bulb at least 40cm away from the ground or basking rock. Extreme heat (60 to 70) directly on the head can cause heat stroke even in reptiles and monitors. A better way would be a not so intense heat bulb and to use a heat cord in the substrate at the basking end of the enclosure. This will still give you extreme heat but a more even distribution of it similar to the way it works in nature. (If it’s a 38 degree day the pavement is twice as hot, but just because the pavement may be 50 degrees the air temperature is still only 38)
Information given about reptile care is in our opinion and is gathered through years of experience and by confiding in herpetologists and other relevant sources. Our opinion may not be the same as other reptile keepers (herpetologists).
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Spencers Monitor habitats areas of the Black soil plains which covers most of the Barkly Tablelands. The Barkly tablelands is an area of over 300,000 square kilometers between the Katherine and Alice Springs region, and east as far as Mt Isa in Queensland . Spencers have very sharp claws for burrowing into hard sand, rock and clay. Most will build a little tunnel network with both an entry and exit hole. It is not uncommon for them to remain completely buried for a couple of days at a time. There are very few trees in their region so they are not great climbers and most are afraid to do so.