I haven't noticed the animal inside for more than an hour or so

No evidence of digging yet - either in or outside the nest box.



Putting aside the discussion about whether or not nest boxes are suitable for savannah monitors, I couldn't help but notice the two sentences above. Given that the female is able to get into the nest box, but hasn't been digging, I would assume the box isn't full to the brim with substrate. Otherwise she would have been digging to get in there in the first place. If that's the case, even a habitual nest box layer wouldn't use it for anything other than a hide box. In order for it to function as a nest box, the monitor should have to dig to get into it. The idea of the hole in the lid is that the lid helps to support the burrow, much like a monitor digging under a rock or piece of wood lying on open ground.



For what it's worth, by some coincidence I was talking to Daniel Bennett the other day about savannah monitors nesting in Ghana. Occasionally they nest in termite mounds, but unlike lace monitor nests, the termite mound savannah monitor nests he found were in dead mounds and the monitors dug into them at ground level (lace monitors usually dig near the top or high up on one side, rarely below mid-height). If it were me, I'd be inclined to really compact the nest box material and put the hole down on one side at ground level. If the substrate in the nest box is compacted enough, the burrow should hold even if dug from the side. As I said before, though, for savannah monitors I'd be even more inclined to make sure the substrate of the enclosure itself was suitable for nesting by having large areas of warm substrate with things to dig under lying on the surface.



I don't understand why the box is hotter than the ambient temperature in the enclosure if it's not under a heat lamp?

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