Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey my friends new savvanah monitor is quite thin and so far we havent seen him eat a whole lot, does anybody know a quick and healthy way to help him gain some weight? or to entice him to feed? Also, we fed him last night and we put a f/t pinkie in there and the crickets chewed it up real bad, can crickets do any serious damage to the monitor? they chewed the ear off the pinkie and it kinda got me nervous

crickets will not do any harm to the monitor but i mean I would not put a swarm in there they would then stress him out. As for fattening up... is he eating at all? Did you just get him? and how big is he? I have noticed most of the time when a savi is first bought...especially from pet store they are skinny and should fatten up pretty quickly actually a big problem with savannahs is them eating to much and getting obeast..

Tom

yeah we actaully got him last night so i understand that he is quite stressed but he is quite thin, the store told us he was older than 6 months but less than 1 year and is about 8 inches snout to tail so he is quite small. I just wanted to make sure that we get him healthy and at a good weight. he probably ate 4-5 crickets the night we got him (we didnt see him but crickets were missing from the cage). We also got some pnkies fro him and im wondering if there is any tricks to get him to feed off them cause with my snakes i can just leave the f/t in the cage and they will eat em no problem. Should we use live pinkies maybe they like to hunt for their prey?

You should read the threads throughout this forum and make sure your set-up is correct, especially your temps. Once you do that, the best thing to do is to probably just leave him alone inorder to minimize stress. Post a pic if you can. Congrats on your new pet, and good luck. Your little guy has A LOT of growing to do.

I got my savy when he was about a month old in July.

Se7en,
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Hi! COngratulations on your newest family member.

Get the basking temperature to 130 degrees (F), that's what the surface temeperature of the basking rock, platform or whatever, should be. 130, not 110 or 120. Oh, and no guessing. KNOW that's what the temp is.

Make sure the cool end of the enclosure stays around 75. Wet down the substrate to get humidity to 65 - 75%. If you have a screen top, cover the majority of it so the moisture won't escape.

Put a hide closer to the hot side than the cool side. Give it a tub of water big enough it can get into to soak if it wants to.

Leave it alone until you see it starting to move around, then offer it some crickets & pinkies. Don't go peeking under it's hide to check on it because you'll set it back by stressing it more when you do.

The biggest problem with savs from pet shops are they've not been kept hot enough and are usually dehydrated. Meet those needs, give it time to adjust, and it will.

Keep us updated.

Take care!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

the temps are all good and we have a hide under the infrared so he can bask on it and id lvoe to post a pic but every time i try to apparently the photo is to big and im not sure how to shrink it down

Glad to hear temps & all are fine. Just give it a few days and it should liven up, and if your temps & humidity are good and you feed it right it'll be in good shape within a few weeks or so.

You can create an account on www.photobucket.com for free and post your pics in messages that way. But if your photo is a large file like some cameras put out I would download a free photo editing program and reduce it's size so you don't have to wait so long for it to upload.

Here's a great program that's freeware, no spyware or any strings attached. I've been using it for years to resize & add text to photos, among many other things.

IrfanView

Later!
HH

-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

yeah i bought him at a pet store and they didnt seem to have a clue as to his natural surroundings, they had him on aspen chips with a tiny water dish and a huge heatlamp so he had pretty much no humidity but we have him on 4 inches of eco earth right now so the humidity is right up there now

Alex,
I'm sorry for hijackin' your thread, I didn't mean to it just kinda took off.

Definitely do what Robyn said and get Daniel Bennett's "The Savannah Monitor Lizard" book. You'll be glad you did as it's loaded with both natural history and husbandry info. And Pro Exotics' FAQ are good, too. You can't read enough.

Catch ya later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

That's a cool pic you got there! I assume you used food inorder to make him do that. Cool savy though, it looks similar in size to mine.

Se7en,

She thought I had food for her. She raised up to see if I had anything in my hand but I was getting her for some pics. My wife snapped that one in a hurry 'cause that was the first time she'd done it. I've only had her for abot 2 1/2 months.

She's just over 3ft long & about 4yrs old. That's a 120-gallon tank with a solid glass top that she's in till I get my cage finished.

Here's a few more pics of her. In this first one you can see her scar from who knows what. The previous owners said they didn't know how she got it but it happened about a year or so ago. It's healed, just scarred.

Ya'll take care!
HH

-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

That's a big girl you got there. Is she still getting larger, or would you say she is fully grown? Even with the scar on her back, she's a definite beauty. Do you own any other monitors? I would love to see them.

Se7en,

> > > Is she still getting larger, or would you say she is fully grown?

I don't know. She proably hasn't grwon during the 2 1/2 months I've had her because I've been trying to get some of that fat off of her. She's lost some of it.

She's pretty docile. I never have any problems getting her out of the cage or handling her. She's never tried to bite, hiss or tail-whip and she's loaded with personality.

Last night I had fed her but the male wouldn't come out of the hide so I had to distract her (she was out of the hide) with one hand while placing a rat in the hide with a set of long tongs. While I was busy trying to peek into the hide she decided to see what was in my hand and gingerly nipped one of my fingers. She was going for the tongs, thinking it was a black rat, but thankfully she doesn't have an argus feeding response. She pretty much just casually nipped my finger & looked at me as if saying, "That ain't no rat!"

I've also got a male sav that's a tad smaller than the female. I've got a nile, too, but he's pretty reclusive. I don't have any recent pics of it.

Here's a few of my male sav. These pics are almost a year old.

Here he is being his usual self, a bit of a sour puss. He was a fresh w/c imported at 2ft long.

The last photo (bottom of this page) is a fairly recent profile of him.

Ya'll take care!
HH

-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Awesome savys you got there. Since you house them together, are you trying to breed them in the future? Thank god the female is docile, because at that size, I would hate to be whipped or bitten. You being nipped, was probably just a love bite. As for the male, by just looking at the photo, he does seem like a "sour puss" ready to bite really really hard. Considering he was in the wild until he was 2ft, being able to handle him should be considered an accomplishment. Atleast he went to you, and not to some novice keeper, who would have a much harder time handling a 2ft wild caught sav. Very cool monitors, I'd love to see your nile when you happen to take the next pic. Thanks.

Se7en,

> > > Since you house them together, are you trying to breed them in the future?

Yeah, I'm gonna give it a go. That's the only reason I traced down the female. Now I'm glad I did just for the sake of having her, her disposition.

And, yeah, an inexperienced, non-suspecting person would've really been disappointed with my male sav and there's no tellin' what would've happened to him. He's comin' around, though. I can pick him when i want or need to, but I have to be patient with him when I do.

Take care!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

HH,
That might be a burn scar. After seeing how the skin falls off on a fresh burn and then reforms, it prob will look like that after its all done healing.

yes i think that is a burn scar because mine that i adopted has the same looking ones and thats what i was told they were.

Tom

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a burn scar, too. The small faded areas around the main scar make me wonder a bit sometimes, looking almost like a splash, but they could all be from the same bulb at different times. Might could even be from an exploding bulb of some type.

Catch ya later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

get a copy of Bennett's Sav Monitor book, available at our site and here on the classifieds.

you ask odd questions, then claim to have the right husbandry. those two don't usually mix so well.

this type of post has been done ten thousand times before, and it is always a husbandry issue.

your animal will "fatten up" when you provide a proper setup and diet. the book, and perhaps the FAQs on our site, are your best bet.

good luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Might as well get a temp gun while your at it. It should still only be $15 for the mini. It works great.

Se7en,

Crickets can and will cause damage to a unhealthy lizard if left alone.
I have rehabbed savs that were chewed on by crickets.
Not a pretty sight.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.