Wow reading your post brings me back, almost the exact same post I left when I entered the world of monitors, currently I have 3 savannahs in my care, ranging drastically in age. Any Help I can offer I will and feel free to ask questions. I will however warn you to take what you read with a grain of salt from many of these people, not everyone wants to help, some say they only care for the animal and who cares about how they talk to people, ignore them, I spent countless hours arguing and fighting with people on here, I have learned a great deal but also have received alot of misinformation. Heres what you need buddy, the biggest tank you can get, a strong heat lamp with a good bulb that offer UVB. Keep the tanks ambient temp at around 80-90 during the day, and around 120-130 under the bulb, this you can only test with a temp gun, but a 55 gallon would probably need a 150 watt heat bulb with uvb, get a good hood too, reflective. Turn off the light at night! at least 8 hours, but make sure the temp stays around 75, dont let it get too cold, of course change the water daily eventually he'll start pooing in it, use either dirt or cypress mulch, hell eat some its ok, try and keep the humidity a little above 50% itll help with hydration and shedding, either get a plastic lid or mist the cage several times DAILY. If your getting a baby hold him daily they can be quite nasty when not tamed as adults, i have one who was never handled and he has a Hatred for me, I can see it in his eyes. As for food, heres the final answer on that. As a baby feed him crickets dusted with a calci/mineral dust, feed him everyday as much as hell eat till he gets bigger, then you can cut down. give him a pinky once or twice a week, dont dust it, as he grows so should the mice, from pinkie, to fuzzie, to hopper, to small mouse to adult mouse. This transition shouldnt take too long, I have a savannah well under a year old and small than a foot eating ONLY small mice every other day thats what you want to shoot for a 100% rodent diet, they are nutritionally complete. All that jazz about a varied diet is a crock, crickets when they are small with pinkies, always feed the largest crickets, babys will eat 3 or 4 of them, and increase the number as he grows larger, dont give him rodents that are too big for him, but dont get stuck on little ones either youll figure it out, I hope this helps if you have anyother questions feel free to ask.
