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So today we're going to meet the newest member of the Kamp Kenan family. His name is Slinky and he's a little bit shy but we're going to see if we can pull him out here so we can make an appearance. Slinky's not shy when it comes to food. Let's see. Slinky happens to be a water monitor, an Asian water monitor and I love the monitor lizards. They're incredibly intelligent. So smart in fact, they know when there's two people in their cage. Slinky don't like a lot of people around. So I'll tell you what, let's roll the intro and afterwards there'll be a lizard over here. This is Camp Cannon. All right guys, so as promised Slinky is out. Slinky really likes his hide box but what he likes
more is food. So let's try and get him interested in some of this fish. Now it's a cool day so he's not super hungry but monitors are very active lizard. It's why they're called monitors. They walk around, they explore. You see that tongue flicking out similar to a snake's tongue. It's got the Jacobson's organ on the roof of his mouth. He's able to decipher any chemical clues that are out there in the universe the small part of the universe that he lives in here. These guys are from Asia from India all the way down to Bangladesh into the Malay Peninsula and into
Indonesia. They have a very large range. Now these guys will eat just about anything they can overpower or scavenge. They're true strict carnivores and I love this lizard man. He's only been here 3 weeks and it's a really cool story. Here he goes. Oh, good boy. There you go. I hope some of you don't get upset that I'm feeding him a live fish, but usually I feed him also frozen thawed rats, chicken legs, bone and everything. These guys have powerful digestive enzymes. And now look at this. Now he's like, "Well, this wasn't so bad, so maybe I'll get
a little more food out of it." And you see that tongue flicking? Really smart lizard, you know? You do have to be careful. I mean, these animals do tame down, but never forget that it's a large powerful lizard that can inflict quite a pretty intense bite if it wanted to. That being said, there's a lot of reputable breeders that have been breeding these animals, and they do tame down. And if you have space, they make a fantastic animal to work with. Again, look, he wants to go back in, but you can see he's not exactly the guy that wants to be picked up. But just look at the way
he moves. I mean, that is true monitor movement. That is an incredible animal. They're related to the most famous monitor of all, the Komodo dragon. We don't have any Komodo dragons here, but Slinky is about as close as you're going to get if you're a non-AZA accredited facility. Look at this guy. That's what I love to see. I love to see the water monitors in the water. We're actually going to do a little bit more work to this enclosure. I want to completely redo it. I want to make a deeper water hole. I want to do a few more things. So, later on in the summer, we'll do another video,
a bit of a video update to show you what I have planned or the finished product. But Slinky, let's see if he'll get himself another fish. I'm just going to grab another one here. I'm a very lucky guy because I have a big pond stocked with lots of different fish. So, what I'll do is I like to use tongs to feed him so he learns to associate me with a positive thing. That's eating. So, I like to be calm around him. Come here, Slinky. Look what I got. And you see how smart he is? You see that he can He sees the movement. He knows there's something on the end of the
tongs. He's very inquisitive. That tongue comes out. Come here Slink. Or maybe not. He's making me look like I don't know what I'm talking about. Animals will do that to you. Never work with children and animals, kids. Here we go. Cuz you never know what you're going to get. Look, Slink. There we go. Yeah, that wasn't so bad, was it? So, he's basically just looking around. He's upset because I shut his door. Usually, he likes to come out, have a bask, have a feed, then go back in and rest. And the thing of it is, I'm closing the door because in order for him to become
more and more used to me since he's a new animal. Only been here maybe 3 weeks, 2 and 1/2 weeks. Um you want to get him used to his new routine. His new uh his old family loved him dearly. In fact, that's the reason I got the animal. Uh they saw on Facebook that I mentioned to someone else that I was looking for a larger water monitor to work with. I had this cage. It was empty. It was ready for a nice big water monitor. And just out of sheer luck, they were looking at that thread, contacted me. We're old friends from the motocross days. And uh week later, this animal was in this
enclosure. So, I got to help them out. They helped me out. And Slinky, well, he doesn't seem to mind the Oh, going to get it. And he got it. Look at that. He even went in the water. Those are some really sharp teeth. And trust me, you don't want to be at the business end. And the funny thing about monitor lizards is there's a lot of ends you don't want to be on, especially if this was a wild animal. Number one, that bite would hurt. He could cut me right down to the bone. Second thing, look at the claws on him. I mean, they are huge. These are some big, powerful
claws. They use these to shred prey. They use them to dig while looking for prey. And then the final thing I have to tell you about is this, the tail. He might even give me a little whip. Look at this. He doesn't like it when I come from behind. And usually, he'll give you a little love tap with that tail about quarter speed. When I first got him, he and I both Watch this. I'm going to illustrate. If I stood up, look at this. See this? And I go to hit him. See? But you see that's kind of a love tap. That's a quarter speed little tap. If he wanted to, he could leave a welt
on me. Trust me. Incredible tail. So, I don't want to stress him out too much cuz I'm actually trying to get him to really appreciate me and know that I'm the guy that's here to help him out, feed him, protect him. And we've had some really cool bonding moments. I got one more fish in here. Let's see if we can get it out. Oh, there's two fish in here. Fantastic. So, what I'll do So, let's see if we can get Oh, jeez. Slinky. Ow. Slinky. What the hell did I do to you, buddy? I didn't even move. That was a little faster than quarter speed. Come here. Let's be friends. Get
that, will you? Yikes. Slinky startled me. I love it, man. But I think I'll forgive him. What do you guys think? All right. This is it, Slink. This is the final hors d'oeuvre for you. There you go, buddy. You see how he's not like really aggressively feeding? I like that. He doesn't go crazy. So, that's good. So, look. Let's be friends. See? He just didn't like that I was making those moves or maybe I was talking too loud. Slinky's a good boy. And he's done well. So, the full size on this animal be somewhere Ah, close to 7-8 ft if I get really lucky. They start
out small, but they grow fast. Slinky's only 3 and 1/2 years old and he's already put on quite a bit of size. Well, folks, I just wanted you guys to meet cuz you're going to be seeing a lot more of him on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, which I can't wait for you guys to subscribe to. So, if you haven't already, don't forget. Hit me up on both those social media platforms to see more videos, little bonuses, and also, folks, don't forget to subscribe. And Slinky is scaring the crap out of my buddy Tom, the camera guy. Go away. No. Keep going,
Slink. Wow. Wow, Tom. Tom, what happened? I'm I'm trapped and I'm trying to shoo Slinky. I hope you leave that. Anyway, guys, a little bit of excitement. Tom doesn't like me. He lost his cool. Yeah, that was awesome. I love this lizard. If you have any questions, post them in the comment below. If you have a monitor lizard and you want to share some pictures, go ahead and share them with me. I'm going to leave you with Slinky swimming, the water monitor in the water. See you next time.
