Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok so I have a few questions about my juvenile savannah monitor, a little background first I suppose, Ive had him for about 2 weeks now, he's got a great set up with the ambient temp at about 85 sometimes 90, basking at 125, hes about a little less than a foot maybe 10 inches, great eater.

First question. Im using cypress bedding, but everytime I feed him his crickets he chases them all over the tank and eats them AND the bedding. What is the best substrate to use??? Ive asked this before and gotten contradicting answers, so please tell me what the best substrate is to use, take into mind hes going to be consuming a small amount of said bedding when hes eating crickets.

Ok theres the first question second, I just bought like 20 feeder goldfish, pretty small a little bit bigger than pinkies, im trying to keep his diet as varied as possible how exactly do I go about feeding them to my monitor???? how many?, in the water? on a flat surface? dead or alive? do I cut the heads off?

Third, I ordered 10 madagascar hissing roaches from LLLREPTILE.com. I plan to breed them to feed them to my monitor, anyone else do this and can offer any tips or advice?

Fourth. Ive been trying to keep the tank pretty hot and dry to discourage respiratory infections while hes stressed from moving into the new enviroment, but he appears to have a small amount of white stuffed caked around and in his nostrils, but ive looked at other savannah pix and some look similar, and he has been shedding, does anyone have any pix of absolute infections to compare to?

I want to start handeling him so i can tame him, hes ok at first but very very jumpy, he hasnt tried to bite me yet, but I went ahead and bought a pair of cow-hide gloves, how do i start and continue the process till he isnt aggressive at all anymore?

Im also going to be purchasing his female counterpart soon and I was wondering what the process entails to help acclimate them to each other, can I put them in the same cage when she arrives or do I have to start by having them spend small amounts of time together????

Thank you all in advance for you help.

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technical disruption

Edited on February 20, 2006 at 17:12:53 by phwyvern.

First off this is the monitor forum so you are going to get lots of conflicting but confident opinions

Recheck you temperatures I don't know your set up but a basking temperature of 125F seems a bit high, what is the coolest temperature in the cage?

I use coconut fiber bedding...but that is for indo monitors...coconut or loam (AKA dirt) bedding mix with a % of sand might be a better idea.

At 10-12" are you sure crickets should still be fed? Most people have them turned over to pinky/fuzzys/hoppers/sm mice long before 10". I personally would skip the goldfish completly. The are very very low in nutrition and are a great source of parasites. If your bend on feeding it fish, human grade fish is probably a safer/with more nutrition source.

Breeding roaches is easy. Follow the directions on line from a breeders website. The like it dark (use a solid tupperware container) and warmer then room temp in order to breed. I found glasswings faster to breed.

Because of the low humidity in his tank the salts normaly excreated are coming out of solution around the nostril. Perfectly normal in conditions such dry conditions. Im not sure such dry conditions are normal for a monitor though!

I saw this 2 times ever, this was when I got my first monitor, back then the only sources of info were some very very bad books still available today. I set this animal up in an open top screen aquarium with no substrate, and too high of wattage for a heat light, I saw this happen 2 times before I made more and more changes to his environment. That monitor proved those lousey books so many times, to this day my current monitors do the same only far more so.
Set it up in a cage with deep usable substrate, stick to a diet that works, whole animals, rodents are the basis to the best diet found to this day, whole animals. There are those who say this is an old idea, that they are continually trying new diets to improve their monitors lives. The problem being is that a rodent basis and whole animals has proven to work, thousands of monitors and their owners have failed for 15-40 years using other diets. Theres no new ground to break with captive diets using things commonly available to feed them, its been done many times by many others before. you can still feed them insects (Id stick with captive bred roaches, crickets, etc).
I hope this helps.

Yea sry about the title, but people werent replying to my post, id figured this would be eye catching.

Im trying to find a happy medium with the humidity, i dont want it too moist so he gets a resperatory infection, but not too dry so he "excretes" salt, any clues?

Im feeding him 2 pinkies a day and like 10-15 LARGE dusted crickets, dont the mice have to be small enough for him to swallow whole?

Whats the BEST substrate for a savannah?, this one will hve to be for savannah owners.

Im going to buy the second half to my pair at reptilecity.com, anyone ever use them?

Under the basking light the temp is about 105-115 and the other side goes from 80-90 it varies depending on the time of day, at night i turn off the light and it gets about 70.

Any comments on introducing 2 monitors together?

But first of all use a solid topped cage with vents in the sides and make that substrate deep enough to use (say a foot for now, be prepared to go deeper). The combination of dirt and limiting ventilation and placing it in the sides will cut down of prevent dehydration, theres no happy medium to worry about. They do not get respiratory infections from moist substrate, Im guessing you got that advise from an outdated book or from some other keeper that has no clue that they are killing their monitor or doesnt actually keep them. Of course theres a line between moist and soaked, learn the difference (moist to the touch, but swamps are soaked).
Basking temps, air temps, etc.
Next basking temps are surface temps, not measured by probe thermometers, but with infared thermometers, nor can you use your hand to guess at surface temps like this. Basking temps are as follows, 130f for hatchlings and young, you would be amazed that they use temps well beyond that afterwards. The air temps around the said basking surface is usually 86-90f. Now, understand a cool air temp is also needed, I use from 68-75f.
Ive already explained diet, so have others, this should be enough detail for you to get started and realize that the animal will eat you out of house and home once its set up right.

What part does humidity play with the salt deposits on their noses. The monitors excretes salt(cal. of some sort) its stinking around the nose is because of humidity or lack of it. But it does not effect whether the monitor is expelling it or not.

I live in arizona, and have lived in New Orleans. In the summer in New Orleans you sweat like a pig and your clothes are soaked. In the summer in Ariz. You sweat like a pig and your clothes are dry. In ariz you have salt deposits all over you.(if outside) Why not in New Orleans? Same person, same sweat? Cheers

first off, get the Sav book by Bennett and Ravi, it covers the basics very well.

secondly, scrap your "variable" diet. feed rodents, and feeder insects, period. that is plenty wide and plenty varied. it is a proven and nutritious diet. that is all you need. goldfish are just nasty. whoever gave you that "advice" should be put on permanent ignore. most any monitor will continue to feed on insects throughout its life (as part of a rodent and insect based diet). for larger species, you may need to use larger feeders like hissers, but they will all take insects, and to say that a 1 ft Sav is "too big" for them anymore is just silly. really silly.

as for the care and husbandry of monitors, it is not "all over the place" and filled with "conflicting opinions" as i have seen a number of folks post recently.

it is pretty straight ahead and simple, but very few books are good enough to capture it, instead regurgitating old dated info that will likely kill your animal, not help it thrive. the Bennett Sav bood is current, and very good.

those that suggest wildly different substrates, "varied diets",basking temps below 120F, etc. aren't experts, they are ignorant of actual monitor needs, and they are throwing their lame suggestions around to the detriment of those ignorant enough to listen. being on a monitor forum and reading posts doesn't make one an expert and mean that you can throw out newbie info to other newbies.

check out our Ionides caresheet at our site, the care absolutely applies to Savs. you can find the Allpet Roach book there (and on the ks classifieds) as well, it covers the basics of roach care and breeding.

consider starting with many more Hissers. they breed and grow slowly, and with only a dozen, it will be a LOOOOONG while before you are producing enough to feed off.

as for buying another Sav as a baby or small juvie and getting a "female", best of luck with that, it isn't nearly as easy as it sounds.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Listen to Robyn. I spent a year doing research before getting my first monitor... an sav. I killed it in just under 2 years. It took me years to figure out the truth that I stressed the animal to the point where it caused poor circulation to the tail... resulting in a fatal infection. I didn't realize how valuable the expirience is when dealing with these creatures. I'm still learning 5 years later. Trying to keep your monitor dry to prevent respitory infection can stress the animal out and cause worse infections or death. Stess plays a huge role in your monitors health. If it is trying to escape... something is wrong with its habitat. Simply put, your animal is uncomfortable and is trying to go somewhere else to get comfortable. Remember you chose to put a wild animal in a box... now it is your responcibility to take care of it. Anything that happens to it is your fault for putting it in that box. You've come to the right place for advise... Here you will find some of the foremost experts in reptile husbandry on the planet... just remember that the people here care more about your monitor than your personal feelings.... if you can't except that then you aren't mature enough to care for an exotic in the first place. It is a fact that most people aren't... they just want a "neat" pet.

Hello let me helb
I tink sabanas minotors live in hot lava rock desert, like 180f
You maybe can cool them in refrigerator at nite time, but make sure to hot them afterwards. Don’t listen to all on forums because the minotors don’t not eat door nobs, at least not in wild ones. I sugest hokey glove for better safty when harassing the minotor.

Glad to see new keepers with open mind willing to put time and efforts in understanding those with much experience to help them with new minotors every day.

Thank you

ps.The point is you got good information from others on this site, pleas take the time to understand and put this information to use.

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Ok perhaps I over did it a little, I really mean no harm and surly don’t want to offend new keepers. I guess I got upset by a few posts lately, one saying that you come hear for exposure only to sell your monitors; we both know this is not true. Both you and Robyn come here out of passion for the animals, its disconcerting to see little appreciation of your efforts to help.
rgds