Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 1.5 year old savannah monitor, Pombe. He is 3 feet long. I feed him 4-5 times a week. Mice, rats, and whole hard boiled eggs. He will not eat mealworms, even as a baby. I am just unsure of the portion size that I should give him. I feed him adult mice and 1 month old rats. The eggs are from my own chickens. I do let him run the house, walk him on a leash, and he has a large out door enclosure that he spends nice days in. He would eat himself to death if I let him. Does anyone out there have a set schedule that they go by. Any info would be greatly appritiated. Thank you so much

Didn't you just post this a couple topics down?

OK. I'll give this one my best shot....
Cut the eggs out altogether or at least cut WAY back to infrequent.
Adult mice, young rats, crickets (if he's interested in them - they may be too small, try it anyway) and cockroaches are good.
There are so many factors to be considered - so giving you a "set schedule" is useless. Does your monitor's belly drag on the ground when he walks? Then he's too fat. Is he running for his meals, or does he just wait for you to dangle something in front of his face? Another sign that he's getting more than he needs. It always comes back to using your best judgment...
my sav eats at least 5X/week, but smaller meals including cockroaches which are lower in fat.
At least you aren't feeding him dog food and hamburgers, you're giving him the oppertunity for exercise, and he's lived past 6 months. You're probably in the top 10% of Savannah Monitor owners. Congratulations.

i have owned a sav in the past and agree they are very glutness. I use to feed hime twice a week about 2-3 mice per feeding and he did well. It is my understnding they will keep eating becouse of instinc, they dont know when the next meal is coming from in the wild so they are very oppurtunistic. Just think in the wild there isnt someone throwing healthy mice to them on a regular basis, and they also must search for their own food. Doing this waste alot of energy and calories, so a wild monitor will never be full. It is good that you exercise it this will help keep his weight controlled but it seems you might be feeding him a bit too much. It is not healthy for a monitor to be overweight and youre love and care could end up killing youre lizard. I am no expert but through much reading I have always found the same thing "dont over feed!". I know you want to provide for youre pet and you have the right idea but maybe you should research it a little more maybe try to google savannah monitors you should be able to bring up plenty of care sheets to find out how much a monitor of his size needs you will probably be suprised its not as much as you think.

I think you maybe feeding him too much! About 2 times a week should be enough. And it all depends on how fat you monitor is. IF he's really fat and has a lot of fat on his cheeks and have a very wide belly, then I say he is too fat. It's good that you let him out for a walk to get some excercise; that's what you should do, anyway. You have the right idea. If he looks too fat like having a lot of fat around the cheek area and wide belly, I would cut back on the food until he trims down. Try only feeding him twice a week a couple mice. And if that still doesn't make him look trim, let him out more for excercise and cut back a bit on the food until he's kindda lean, but not that lean. You want him to look fill out, robust, but not obese, really fill out.

your lizard now, is out of its "growing stage". It is way too much food for an adult or sub-adult bosc. Even if he isnt overweight or obese, do your wallet a favor and start feeding him 2 or occasionally 3 times a week. He seems like he gets plenty of exersize so I cant imagine he is obese.
basically he doesnt need to eat that much, his body isnt in the damand of such a rich supply of food like it was as a juvinile.
just my opinion!