Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male Sav here and he's close to a foot long and a half long. He currently houses 2 mice every 2 days. He's doing good and growing but I'm wondering if he's ready for hard-boiled egg's. Are hard boiled egg's ok? Or are raw one's better for him?

I would stick with a rodent diet, there is really no need to "introduce" hard boiled eggs. Use whats best, monitors seem to do good on a rodent diet so just use that. The occasional birds egg would'nt hurt, but I would stay away from chicken eggs because they hold little nutritonal value and are full of antibiotics and vitamin a which can cause a deficiency. You could try fertilized duck or quail eggs as those would be healthier and easier to swallow. Stick with the mice.

Hello. I feed my 2 year old 3.5 foot sav one raw, fertilized, miniture chicken egg a week. I raise and breed my own organic chickens so I know that my eggs are good. I would never feed store eggs to anything. He eats the entire egg. A diet of rodents and eggs alone for a sav can be deadly. They will become obese unless they are exercised often. My guy hates to exercise. I have read that in the wild 90% of a sav diet is snails. And they will fast for up to 8 months. I feed my guy a variety of mice, rats, eggs, super mealworms, and hissing cockroaches. I did try giving him only rodents and and egg once a week and then everyday insects but he was loosing too much weight. He lives in a 2'x3'x8' cage and for some good exercise I will put a hopper mouse (something small enough that if it bites him he will be ok)in his cage that he can chase around and then I will give him his dead small adult rat or adult mouse. Hope this helps, good luck

Your post is as full of wifes tails and misunderstanding as any. Sorry for being blunt and strait forward, and its not entirely about you. You are just another misinformed person, most likely doing the best you can. So I apologise in advance. Is just so sad, to constantly see this naivity, when good information is abundant and easy to access. Again sorry.

The truth is, you can feed eggs to savs, eggs of any kind, I imagine. Eggs will not hurt or harm them. About your fertilized chicken eggs, they are fine, no better or no worse then an egg from your local CircleK(corner quick service store). The addition of eggs to a good base diet is not problem what so ever.

Your statement about Savs getting obese from a diet of mice and eggs, is silly and wrong. It also shows a misunderstanding of reptiles. Which is the REAL PROBLEM HERE. About the hopper chasing, thats nice, but that is not exercise. Its about like you spending ten seconds on a stairstepper and saying you exercised. ITs OK just like your eggs, but its also just like your eggs, nothing of real benefit.

Back to the real problem. The problem is metabolism and Savs being REPTILES. THE difference between reptiles and mammals is simple, ones warmblooded and ones not, ones cold blooded, no wait, an ectotherm. Hmmmmmmmm thats not right either. Ok, one gets keeps a constant body temp(for the most part) and the other does't(for the most part) How about, warmblooded animals have a consistant even body temp, like us, 98.6. Some mammals have a higher temp, like dogs. One doesn't, the reptiles.

Mammals also create their body temperature mostly internally, by the burning of energy. Reptiles are NOT mammals(your BIG misunderstanding) They do use metabolism to regulate temperature, but they most regulate it by using their enviornment, hence, ectotherms. Simply put, they move to warmer areas to get warm and cooler areas to get cool, again, ECTOTHERM.

Why this is important. CAPTIVE reptiles get obese because they are NOT allowed to reach full operating temperatures. They are also not allowed to operate. Your approach is what I call a bandaid approach. Your not fixing the problem, your simply postponing it with minor measures.

What seems like the hard part to understand is, reptiles(of course in this case monitors) REQUIRE, a range of operating temps, including temps ABOVE what mammals use, and below what mammals use. THIS IS WHAT A REPTILES ARE

They must have a range of temps to properly operate. Which is the opposite of you. If your body goes either above or below its operating temperature, it does not operate very well. Can you imagine how little you would have to consume if your body temps were 94F? a mere 4.6 degress below normal. With that in mind, what do you thinks happening to your Sav?

This is what folks do to monitors to cause them to become obese. They do not allow them to reach operating temps. They don't understand monitors are reptiles and what reptiles are

When reptiles are kept at the wrong temps, it does not matter what they eat, it will not work properly. The REAL MORE ACCURATE fact is, if your going to keep them under-metabolized, you cannot feed them high energy foods. And yes, rodents and eggs are high energy foods. But the foods are not the problem, its not understanding how the animals works, thats the problem.

So yes, you can keep your Sav undermetabolized and feed in poor foods. And have it live in a state of limbo, never achieving lifes events(it takes high energy foods to achieve lifes events) Or allow it to do what it is designed to do, pick its temps as needed and eat foods that will allow it to fullfil its design and achieve lifes events.

What most are doing is keeping their poor animals in a state of hibernation/brumation. Do you know what that is? Thats when a reptile in this case, maintains its body temps at the lowest possible level in order to survive periods of adverse conditions, They do this by using the least amount of energy. Be it heat, or cold or drought. At low levels of metabolism, reptiles only hope to survive and live long enough to try to achieve lifes events.

STOP THE HIBERNATION and allow your reptiles to live. Then you can feed it a huge range of food types, both high energy and otherwise. Then all will actually be of benefit.

Again I apologise for me being me, blunt and to the point. I happened to watch our local basketball team play in the Jimmy V classic last night. Jimmy V was a coach that died of cancer. He gave a talk at the Auther Ashe cancer foundation just before he died. He ended his talk with, "don't give up, don't ever give up". While people love him and respect his attitude, I have to wonder is that what your monitor is doing. These monitors try so hard to not give up, to never give up. Yet we do not listen. Sad.

I can not make my sav lay in his hot or cold spots of his cage. I believe in feeding what they are suppossed to eat in the wild. Feeder land snails are hard to find on the net and I live in the desert so I can't just go out side and get some. They do not eat rats and mice in the wild. And they fast for months in the wild due to the dry season, when food is not available. I don't support the comercial egg laying market because I believe it is animals abuse. Whether it matters if the eggs are fertilized or not I don't know. Especially if the egg is within its first 7 days of being fertilized. I was just stating the facts about my eggs. I will not feed my sav rodents and eggs on a daily basis because I see the affects of it. In the wild they have to actually walk around to find their food which is exercise. Put rodents right in front of a sav in the wild everyday and I am sure that he will get obese whatever the temp is. Savs have died at a young age from liver disease and maybe just a coincidence, they were kept on a diet of eggs and rodents. I love my animals and I will keep them healthy. Do you have a sav that you feed rodents and eggs everyday that is not fat? Do you know of anyone that has that I can talk to? Sav feild studies are hard to come by so I go by what I have found. Thank you.

You start of with " I can not make them" what are you thinking, your not suppose to make them do anything. Your suppose to make conditions good enough they do stuff on their own free will. In simple terms. If those conditions were right, they use them. As that is what they do. You cannot make them do something that is not useful or right to them.

This is the tricky part with reptiles. They are a bit like a cat, they do thing because they want and need to. Not because you want them too. Your job is to figure out what they want and give it to them. For instance, people here often say, I gave my monitor a hide. Holy moly what that heck is that. A monitor hides in a place that is good for hiding. Not all places are good for hiding. Also, its not about hiding, its about being both physically and mentally secure. Hides are places they Feel secure. And places that do not detract from their physical welbeing. They pick whats a hide, you don't. a half round log or coconut shell is not a suitable hide.

Second, you like to feed them what they eat in nature, then you better move to Gana or Chad or where ever they come from. As they do not normally eat land snails. Or what the heck you think they are feeding on. They feed on what ever is abundant and attainable in there habitat. That does indeed change from year to year and decade to decade, etc. In may include snails, but not of any species thats around here. They also consume crickets in nature, but not a kind available here. They consume bird eggs too, again not of birds around here. And without question, they will consume rodents in nature. I have to wonder why all there wild Savs being imported are collected in old agricultural fields?? I wonder if its because the abundance of feral rodents, insects, and soft plowed dirt? I wonder.

The problem is, you confine yourself with self made judgements. When in all reality, you have no idea what is right or wrong. How about letting your monitor tell you what is right. Thats what I do. After all, no one, and no body, knows better then the actual monitor.

Of particular interest to me is that most give no credit to the animals. Even in nature. When in nature, if they have a choice, and they do have choices, their lifes are nothing but choices, would they consume mice and whatever else you said? My bet is yes. Actually its not a bet, as I tested it. Its a rigged bet.

If they had access to mice they consume them. Wild or not.

About your snail thing, I had it explained to me by a noted Ethlogist. He said, at one time, the albig group(including savs) most likely were obligate snail feeders, at this time, the continent of africa was a much wetter place, the huge areas that are now grasslands were swamps. As the continent dried out, these wet areas disappeared and were replaced with much dryer conditions. So in order to stay in exsistance, the albig group had to find other sources of energy(adapt). He also explained, even thought they are no longer snail feeders, they still maintain a base structure and some old behaviors(he used the head shaking behavior). Even thought these structures/behaviors are no longer needed. Sir, that is the reality of evolution, its always changing, hence the word. Animals are always playing a game of catching up. The enviornment is always changing.

The problem is, you read something and paint yourself a picture. a picture of what you think the animals is. The problem is, if you compare the REAL animal to your picture, its not the same. WHich is right? the real animal of course.

Its as simple as this, if your monitor progresses doing something, then that something is right, period. No matter what the book says or what picture you have in your mind.

The reality is, Savs can grow up from a baby, reproduce many times and for many generations on mice. In the meantime your trying to get your Sav to sit in the cool spot or hot spot. Hmmmmmmmmm

If I were you and I am not, I would start with baby steps first, like getting your monitor is the right enviornmental conditions, then get it to progress in a normal a timely manner, then after you learn that. You could explore the differences of utilizing a natural diet as opposed to a successful diet. Cheers

I mentioned about not being able to make him sit in his hot or cold spot because you basically stated the right temps make them not obese. "CAPTIVE reptiles get obese because they are NOT allowed to reach full operating temperatures. They are also not allowed to operate." My monitors conditions are correct. He has options and does what he wants. I believe in feeding him every other day and if I were to do that with just rodents then he would be obese. My point is that savs do not consume just rodents in the wild so there for they should not consume just rodents in captivity. He does get rodents twice a week. I do what I can for him to exercise (operate) and giving him something to hunt does help.
The feild study that I read pertained to savs in Namibia and 90% of their diet was land snails. Obviously I can not feed him exactly what he would eat in the wild but I can try to get as close as I can. A natural diet can be successful, nature is successful.
You really need to relax and try to educate people in this forum in a manner that makes sense and sticks to the topic. Your random rants don't make sense and are helping no human or their pets. You should try asking questions and not jump to conclusions. You go into this long rant about temps and what reptiles are because of a post about feeding eggs. I don't know what you are talking with the hibernation thing. We said nothing about hibernation. If you feel so strongly about certain issues then why don't you write a book or some care sheets and just post them when people have concerns. If you want to splew crap about what you think I don't know then email me and give me some good advice. Monitors are always a new learning thing. We have to help each other out. I think that this forum scares away a lot of people that want to do their best for their monitors. This is a great place to learn, but it is very unnecessary for all the rudeness and asumptions that some of the regulars give. Thanks a bunch

Before you so needlessly discard the advice that was given to you, you should investigate the source of that advice. After all anyone can say anything on the web. If you actually did that, you’d realise that what’s just been said too you is some of the best advice I’ve ever read on the internet. You should heed it. If you don’t, well that unfortunately is not only your problem., but your monitors as well.

I have not discarded his advice. I already know what he has said.

Hello,

Frank's "rant" as you called it was dead on. He spoke of hibernation because with a reduced metabolism, due to inadequate temp. choices, you monitor is in essence hibernating. Any amount of calories other than the bare minimum would cause such an animal to become obese. It has to do with temperature choices and security, not rodents, or eggs, or snails, or whatever. If you give the critter choices to securely thermoregulate between 70-140F, he will metabolize rodents, or any food, just fine and not get fat. If you don't give him those choices, he will get fat and die of organ, or some other failure. Let him feel secure and he will use all of those temps. Just food for thought, but you were given good advice, you ought to consider it.

Will

PS - this female kimberley is currently gravid on her third clutch at 11 months of age. She thermoregulates between 78-145F daily. Rodents make up 75% of her diet.

Any monitor can have JUST a diet of rodents. The key is to NOT over feed the rodents. Like I said, I like to feed my guy every to every other day (small meals) and if I did that with JUST rodents he WOULD be obese regardless of the temps. Do you know of anyone that feeds a sav small adult rats everyday? My guys temps and hide oppertunities are correct and he was on a diet of just rodents every other day and was getting too fat.

Your not getting it, your putting needless hurdles in your path of understanding.

I can feed albigs rodents three times a day and they do not get fat. They simply grow and have babies, lots of babies. Then grow some more.

Wills explination of hibernation is right on. If you monitor gets fat from eating whole foods of any kind, including snails and rodents. Its not the food that causing it, its the conditions. Whether you think its hibernating or not, it is. Its conserving energy, not using energy(which should be the real difintion of hibernation)(to hibernate, longterm energy conservation because of adverse conditions.

Conditions are not exclusively temperature. As monitor will not seek a higher metabolism if they are dehydrated. Hydration is the very first consideration a reptile makes, then energy comsumption is next.

About your study, Yes savs and any monitor big enough will eat snails, in season and surely you understand how seasonal snails are an area with wet and dry seasons. They also comsume other prey types in season too. Other stomach contain studies have found a near complete lack of snails. This is dependant on local and season.

What your missing is, they are seeking available nutrition, not snails. In any givin local, they will seek the best available nutrition. It does not matter if its snails, beatles, rodents, birds and bird eggs, other reptiles eggs, or even plant matter(which albigs do consume) They do what they can. And they do it with what their habitat provides. Which is ever changing. I hope you understand.

Also your somehow thinking Savs only consume snails. That is false.

None of that matters, what matters is how is your monitor progressing on What your feeding it. Is it feeding, behaving, growing well? if so, it does not matter what its feeding on. Just like nature.

About writing books, it seems to me books really confuse people. I happen to think the best book is the monitor itself. If you listen it will tell you all you need to know, but you have to listen. And yes, I have written hundreds upon hundreds of books of many species. Cheers

I completely understand, know, and appreciate what you are saying. I didn't say that they eat only snails. He has a tub of water that he can fit his whole body in and he uses it at lest every other day. I have 16 years of professional animal experience and know when an animal is dehydrated and in poor health. I also soak him in the bath tub once a week.
Albigs are not savs. Do you own savs? How about you get a sav and feed him rodents everyday and let me know what happens. All I know is that my guys conditions are correct. He is beautiful. He is just under 2 years old and 3.5 feet long. He is shedding constantly and has a wide belly but is not fat. I will be getting some pics back soon, I'll have to learn how to post them. Maybe obesity is genetic in savs?
Where could I buy your books? What do you do for a living? Thank you for your time and knowledge

Savs do not live around water(mesic or riparian) they are xeric or arid, type of animals. This means, they are not water monitors and only use water for particular events.

In this case, if your Sav is probably dehydraded. It should not go to the water daily or at all. In fact, if properly hydrated, it would have no need to drink.

Being is you keep trying to use nature as a base, instead of the animal. In nature for most of the year, there is no drinking water. So like many xeric or aridland animals(both reptiles and mammals) they attain their moisture from their food and maintain it behaviorally by not losing it.

They use borrows/crevices that fit tightly so their is no air movement around their bodies. They use burrows or tree hollows that have a particular level of moisture, say 50 to 60% humidity. They pick this level as to not be so wet it causes problems, skin blisters etc. and not to dry as to dehydrate them.

They maintain their moisture levels by using these types of areas and only coming out when the air humidities are high enough, like after rains, early mourning, late evening and during the hottest time, at night. How often they come out is based on their ability to gain moisture. If prey is abundant, they can stand to lose some moisture, in the hopes of gaining more. But once food is scarce or gone, they go down and conserve moisture and energy. This is brumation. Its not because its cold but because there is a lack of moisture or prey.

So again, your monitor using the water bowl is not indication that is in good conditions or hydrated, but indication that the conditions are not good. sir, this is listening to your monitor.

On this forum, newbies come and argue this all the time. They often claim they have all this experiece, yet they have this problem of yours. It normally takes me a minute or two to fix the problem. I will ask this, do you have a screen top? my bet is yes. As a decent hot/basking area and a screen top, equals dehydration.

Dehydrated monitors do not behave right, feed right, or do anything right, they just want to brumate until the next rainy season. You know, wait for the snails to emerge, so they can feed and gain energy and WATER. Cheers

He visits his water tub to poop, drink, and soak. He usually drinks after he eats mealworms and eggs. He always poops in his tub. He's not dehydrated. I feed mostly frozen rats so his food is still wet when he eats it also. His cage is from Animal plastics. How do you feel about their cages? It has a 12"x20" screen top and the cage is 2'x3'x8'. The water tub keeps the cage humid. I also mist the cage. Here's a whole other can of worms. What do you think is the best sustrate for savs? I live in the desert.
I am a woman.

Hi,

I am not trying to offend you or insult you, so please do not take it that way. You keep stating facts that reflect a dehydrated state in your monitor and then you say he is not dehydrated. For a sav to drink regularily, reflects a dehydrated state, for a sav to voluntarily soak reflects a dehydrated state. As Frank stated, well hydrated monitors rarely, if ever, drink. They get all of the moisture they need from their prey. My kimberleys don't drink water...actually the female did once, right after laying and that told me that I needed to improve conditions, but 99.9% percent of the time they don't. Drinking is not a sign of hydration, but a glaring signal of dehydration. When I saw one of mine drinking, I knew that I needed to tweak something. The fact that you have a screen top is also a huge factor. A screen top allows most of the moisture to rise up out of the tank with the warm air from the light bulb. Again, you are telling us that your sav is telling you he is dehydrated, but you keep saying he's not.

About experience, it is great, but monitors make you re-think how much you think you know. I have 30 years experience keeping (and breeding) reptiles, including pythons, chameleons, geckos, frillies, turtles, and lots of colubrids; but to keep monitors successfully (allow more than mere survival), you must accept the fact that you really don't know squat. Again, I don't mean to insult you, but forget what you know and listen to the folks here that really know. Some time you must look through the stinging words to get the message, but it is worth it, your sav will thank you. I hope I did not offend.

Will

If his prey is not providing the hydration that he needs then he must drink. What is so wrong with him drinking? I know when an animal is dehydrated and he is not.

I believe I explained this nearly a decade ago. In the goannaman speaks. Written by the owner of Vivarium mag. It was a two or three part deal.

Monitors require more heat then many other reptiles. To provide this, most use heat lamps or such. The newbies use a heat lamp on top a screen lid. What this means is, you use lots and lots of heat to create a heat spot or basking area thats in the 130's or thereabout. The farther the lite is away from the heated area, the more heat is lost. This heat sucks the moisture out of the air and substrate and sadly the monitor and quickly rises out of the cage. This heated air takes all available moisture out of the cage. I called this the Beef jerky effect or the cage a jerky machine. The reason is, This is the exact design of a jerky machine. To heat the air and remove all available moisture, by allowing the air to escape.

If you place a piece of meat in your cage and it turns to jerky, your cage is a beef jecky machine. If it rots, its not so bad.

To the point, your monitor is the said piece of meat. Your cage in trying its hardest to dry out, dehydrate that living piece of meat. Your monitor is fighting that in all the ways it knows how. Not only do Savs not drink water daily, but they never poop in the water, normally. They normally defecate in areas to mark their range and other specific articules.

As I have already pointed out, in nature, a monitor or any reptile will quickly hole up in a moist spot when its too dry out. As in your cage, if its dry and with lots of air movement, it will dry them out like your cage. Only in nature, they have options, they avoid that will borrows or brumation.

All in all, you are acting just like most newbies, no matter how much experience you think you have. A screen top and monitors is not a good thing. It can be modified and made to work, but its far easier to get rid of it and use a proper monitor cage.

Not to dig my hole any deeper, but I hate to tell you this, commerical cages are made for you, not for your animals. Those cages are very general, ok for lots of things, not good or great for about anything. And sadly suck for monitors. Cheers

Do all you people think that monitors should never spend anytime outside of it's cage? FR do you own any savs and have you done any field studies on them? How do you know that savs never drink in the wild?

Its not about "never". OF course they drink water when available. Its just not available for very long periods of time. So its not a necessity, more like a luxury.

Which is still not the point, the point is, they are not water monitors, If yours is hanging around water on a daily basis that should be telling you something.

Anyway, I wish you luck and success. But you really need to either try something different and see, or don't worry about it and wait and see the outcome. I have said about all I can say, the rest is up to you. Cheers

My goodness. You have absolutely no idea who's giving you advice do you. Do a search on Frank Retes. Then follow whats hes trying to say to you. If you don't, then good luck and you deserve the results you will eventually get.

"Varanus Exanthematicus, the truth about the savannah monitor", by the way they eat almost exclusively a giant cricket in the wild, not snails, they eat beetles, and caterpillars, they eat carrion if available and they are big enough to eat it.
The example of albigs being used by FR is to demonstrate that an animal that was kept and bred such as the bosc monitor years ago (rarely ever today) can be kept on a rodent diet sucessfully for years. He has bred albigs many many times, there are a few who have bred boscs, but those people got out of it year ago, why no one since, bad husbandry among the keepers who have them..

ok, good luck.

Will

You said he always poops in his tub. That is also a sign of dehydration. The poor monitor is too dehydrated to have a bowel movement. He gets in the tub absorbs some water and then is able to poop. All signs of dehydration. You can say he's not dehydrated and is perfect till your blue in the face but if the facts that your providing us are saying otherwise what else do we have to go on.

I used to think that my iggies were potty trained because they'd poop in a tub of water. It wasn't until I opened my eyes, mostly from the help of FR, that I realized the truth of what they had been doing.

It's hard to put down old ways of thinking. I've had to do it and so have most of the monitor people on here. I still have a long way to go but the people that have changed their ways are the ones posting pics of the most recent clutch that hatched.

For the monitor's sake I hope that you'll be willing to forget a little bit of what you "Know", let go of some of that "experience" and chalk them up to a few mispent years of herp keeping and move on.

Good Luck,

Nate

If you start seeing obvious signs of dehydration, then they are very dehydrated. You need to learn the signs before this point.
Dehydration is the cause for a lot of sickness/death that the papers you read say are other problems.

I suggest finding someone with monitors who have had long term success with them and understands what everyone here is saying. Go visit their monitors. Then notice the difference between your monitor and theirs.

Good Luck and remember dehydration can be a slow killer.
Kakes

Do you know how?
You said that it visits the water dish daily and craps in it. How does that work, Ill tell you. When dehydrated they seek water regularly to drink, soak, or crap in, they cannot relieve themselves when dehydrated, so they soak in it to be able to, therefore crapping in the water consistantly.
For some reason I dont think you have any clue what a dehydrated lizard is like. If there is something wrong or off about one of my monitors (been years) I go to the vet, the experienced herp vet I see asks what I saw, and discusses what she thinks might be a sign of a problem, then asks me what this problem may appear or manifest itself as. She then suggests ideas to fix the probelm temporarily (bandaid, like the soaking), then my job as a keeper is to find the real problem, then fix it so no bandaid is needed for them to survive. Ive been keeping monitors a long time, I learn a few things here and there with mine but reading this post and you arguing unproven "petstore monitor book" husbandry techniques gives your monitor a bleak existance.
I hope you start to pick up info that works from real keepers, real sucessful keepers.

i was about to feed my guy small rats everyday, and then this happened

-----
Christian M. Hidalgo
The Woodlands, TX 77381

that species is primarily herbivorous

My Sav... Now keep in mind I had this sav for 7 years myself and it was a wild caught animal at 9 inches which means it was probably close to 18 months old or more due the food availability issue in the wild. My Savannah was fed rodents and only rodents... every day of the week. She had a 6x4x3 cage filled with 2.5 ft of dirt... 3 basking lamps that brought her basking area up to 145 degrees on the surface of the flat ceramic tiles I used for her....which she used every morning to warm up to operating temps. She also had a burrow dug under them where she went to keep herself at operating temperature but become no warmer. Her cold side was room temperature. Her ambient temperature was 85 or so. She ate in the afternoon... at 3 ft she was eating 6-8 wk old rat pups every day.. sometimes 2 or even 3 a day if she were hungry enough to take them. I never had a problem with obesity. My sav weighed 4.5 lbs and was able to walk, climb, run etc etc in the prime of her life. But like all animals she got old... and died last November. When I cleaned out her cage I found dozens of dried out infertile eggs in the bottom of her cage. I think any she dug up on her own she may have ended up eating because she'd create networks of burrows through the entire enclosure. So.. here I am. You wanted someone who had perfectly good success with an all rodent diet and no obesity issues. This is an example of one. And I used all rats save for the very ocassional gerbil. And before you say 9 years is young.. for a savannah even in captivity thats a respectable age to live to. It hits right in their average lifespan range...
-----
Mel Goodrich
RavenCrest Reptiles: Sale and Rescue
drune@charter.net

~Updated animal list coming soon~

"The feild study that I read pertained to savs in Namibia and 90% of their diet was land snails."

Sorry, but wrong country or wrong monitor.

Kakes

Sorry, I ment Nigeria.

Did you not read what was just written to you in the previous post. Mice are a proper food, you can feed them many things as long as you have the right temp gradient. Oh and by the way your little cage that your sav lives in is not the "wild", but rather an imitation. Savs may eat snails in the wild but eggs mice along with other things do not cause obesity or harm in any way. All I said was fertilized eggs would be a better choice because they would contain more nutrients. Mice are full of nutrients and are a easy to afford. If you can supply the proper conditions and give lots of dirt, than you shouldn't have any problems. Mice are proven to work, trust me.

I am with ya about the fertilized eggs. You can have a diet of just rodents just NOT too much. I said nothing about rodents not being good for them. Just not everyday.

Your not understanding what is being told to you. You said that rats are good but just not too much. Well too much of anything can be harmful, if you drink too much water you could deplete the salt in your body and die. This is what I am trying to say, you can feed your sav whatever you want, its your monitor. But you should listen to others and try to get things right. You need to provide the proper conditions. A screen top is horrible for really any monitor, desert species or tropical. It is much harder to heat a cage with an open top. If you provide a large closed cage that will keep in moisture than you should be able to use a few 50 watt bulbs to heat the cage. I am willing to bet that you need to provide more dirt. They are burrowers and need to burrow, give the lizard things it can use. None of what has been said is to offend you but rather to help your situation. Stop replying to the comments with your false ideas and start listening. Thanks, I hope this helps and you can make the needed adjustments.

Only 10 lbs and 54 inches long?
Rodents do not make them obese, eggs do not make them obese, peeps dod not make them obese, bad husbandry makes them obese.
Get your info correct, by the way Frank Retes has been keeping more species and numbers of monitors alive and reproducing than you will ever see in person in your life, just one of his older monitors has outlived all the monitors you have probably ever seen in your life combined.
Mice are a great diet basis, husbandry needs to be correct to allow them to make use of what they eat.

Not caused by rodents, or any whole animal foods.
Gte your info straight.
Fatty liver disease is cause when a reptile kept in the wrong conditions is allowed to get obese, very obese. The animal for some reason (disease, stress, or injury, etc) starts fasting and does not stop for a while, the animals body now mobilizes its fat reserves and the excess fat content builds in the liver which is weakened by other problems, the liver becomes laden with fat after it is diseased or weakened and it shuts down. Thats a problem with many other health issues not any kind of food.
Stop trying to use 30-40 year old out of date books on failed monitor husbandry to tell those who have been keeping them sucessfully for years that they are wrong.

Thank's for the great advice FR. I am in fact "Doing My BesT" for my animal. I'm feeding him what I was told he'd do well with, rodents and crickets. Recently I did some research and discovered they are egg eaters in the wild. My friend feed's her's egg's once a week as well. She also feed's her Sav fish and chicken. I figured I'd give him a shot with egg's. I also figured I'd check in with you guys before I attempted egg's.