Setup
The numbers
Temperature
The cool side, 24–29°C, dropping to 21°C at night. This sheet states the cool side only. It gives no warm side or basking figure, so the hot end is not in our data. Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.
The sheet statescool 24-29 °C / night 21 °C
Humidity
The sheet states60-80% on average
UVB
Not needed for this species
Stated in the sheet, not inferred.
The sheet statesAlthough argus monitors have been proven to survive and breed without access to UVB, using UVB light in captivity is still best practice; Arcadia Desert 12%, 46" or Zoo Med Reptisun T5 HO 10.0, 46"; The UVB lamp should be mounted inside the enclosure, with the basking platform placed so the monitor's back will be 14-16" below the lamp; Lights should be on for 12 hours/day
Traceable. The figures above appear in the page we cite, which we opened on 10 Aug 2026. That means you can check them, not that we have confirmed they are right. dubiaroaches.com
Drag the sun. The sheet states a night temperature, so the rail follows it.
Enclosure and conditions
What your climate adds
This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.
What it needs
Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.
Food
Diet
Feeding rhythm
Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window. This sheet states a figure for each age, so each age has its row.
Why
The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56. A young animal's row is drawn only where the sheet gives one: working it out by dividing the adult interval would be inventing a ration.
The sheet statescarnivores; Feeder insect options: crickets, discoid roaches, dubia roaches, earthworms, grasshoppers, hornworms, silkworms, mealworms, superworms, black soldier fly larvae, snails (captive-bred only); Other protein options: mice, small rats, quail, chicks, fish, lizards, snakes, eggs (whole), organ meat; Juveniles (<3' long) — daily; Subadults and Adults (>3' long) — 3-4x/week; Each meal should be roughly the same size as the monitor's head
The species
Identity
CITES II is a global listing and holds in every country. National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.
Questions & sources
Common questions
Is it dangerous?
It has a strong bite and claws, and a very high food drive, so most bites are feeding mistakes. Use tongs always.
How big does it get?
1.2 to 1.5 metres. It is extremely active, so floor space matters more than height.
Is it intelligent?
Notably so. They learn routines and recognise people, and a bored one becomes destructive.
What do I need for it?
Deep digging substrate, a large enclosure, strong basking and UVB lighting, and daily time from you.
https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/varanus-panoptes
Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.
Others in this group
What this sheet states
This sheet states 6 of 7 of the fields this product runs on. What is missing turns something off: day/night engine and awake count on the globe. We show the gap rather than fill it with a plausible number.
UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 420 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.