Your absolutely right, finding good information on the internet is nearly impossible.

Even when good information is posted, others attempt to discount(attack) it so they do not feel about about their efforts.

What is so disappointing to me is, the mass of information on these sites is so 30 years ago, you know, when there was NO ACTUAL SUCCESS. Those days, a zoo would hatch a baby, ONE BABY, and publish it as if that was great. What they did not publish was, it took ten sets of adults and twenty five years to GET THAT ONE BABY.

Since then, we hatch hundreds of babies from one female and many many many species having the same results. Generation after generation.

Yet, folks still want to use that 30 year old crap that FAILED.

Those that have success, get real froggin tired of coming to places like this and posting as it leads to nothing but long drawn out discussions(battles) with a person that knows everything, yet has done nothing.

These forums are full of that. Its true, the average result with keeping monitors is FAILURE. The average lifespan for Savs is a few months. Yet, those beginers think that the information they FIGHT for, is what is causing that complete failure.

The reality is, you the reader need to research what your reading, that means ask the right questions.

In this case, in order for husbandry to be good, you need to ask, what became of the monitor that was supported with that type husbandry.

Then you can pick whatever results that fit your need. You know, a happy healthy pet monitor, a reproductive monitor. Etc etc. Pick what fills your expectations.

As an example, a single pet monitor, kept in a tank, cannot expend the energy of a reproductive monitor in the same cage. So it cannot consume as much calories, it has no way to expend it.

In the early years I hatched thousands of varanids. Lately I rarely dig up eggs. Yet I still promote keeping them in pairs and letting them lay eggs.

The reason is, its a very natural way they expend energy. If fact, all energy obtained in nature is used to grow up and reproduce, that is their design. To keep them non reproductive, is not natural. Not in the least. To keep them where they grow slowly or not at all, is not natural and it does not matter if they are wild or captive.

So you must find methods that fit your intended results, your goals.

Yet, I rarely see questions aimed at how to obtain the keepers goals. Its always about TURKEY friggin diet(nasty crap) or crickets and Savs or some other donkey doodle thing that is out of context to the actual keeping of varanids.

Another example, people fight tooth and claw about insects being natural to savs. Well dang it, its natural to all varanids, every stinking one of them. Either all their lifes, the very small ones, or the neonates of the very large ones.

There are two distint truths about insects. One, they are not the same as the insects they consume in nature, not in species or content. And insects cannot support large varanids or even reproduction and good growth in medium varanids. Not in captivity or in nature.

If that were the case, the larger varanids would still consume insects, they do not and cannot for a reason. Take another example, a large monitor will consume from 1 to 3 pds of food(more at times) How many crickets does it take to make a pound? hahahahahahahaha Three pounds????? It would simply wear the animal out trying to consume three pounds of insects, unless those insects were giant. Do you get this picture, So varanids start by consuming insects, but as their needs increase, they move to larger prey items.

Lets use another example, an ackie can and does consume 30 or more crickets a day. With that in mind, how many could an adult sav consume, just to fill its stomach. Remember, the size of their stomach is for a REAL REASON. They wouldn't need a stomach that holds a few large rats if they were suppose to consume crickets.

I read a report of a male adult lacie that had two fox cubs, three ringed tail possums, and a bearded dragon in its stomach. Hmmmmmmmmm so you think crickets will work, hahahahahahahahahahaha

In one or more of Daniel Bennetts books, he shows a picture of a V.p. rudibus that was feeding on dead roos, it was so full that is stomach was dragging on the ground. There are many pics like this in books of wild varanids. I ask, how many crickets would it take to do that. Or any insect?

They eat like that for a reason.

The truth is, an adult sav is not a little monitor, a large male sav is the mass of an adult lacie. IT has a large head and stomach for a real reason. I wonder what that is! Cheers

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