Reptile & Amphibian Forums

At first when I got my Savannah monitor, he was nothing more than skin and bones and would only eat crickets. I provided him with a really hot basking spot of about 130-150 degree with the rest of the cage being kept at room temperature and he slowly recovered from a brink of starvation. It seemed in the beginning he hadn't had much to eat before he came to live with and when I offered him lots of food, he became sick, didn't eat for over a week and threw up his food. I took him to the vet and she said his digestive system had shut down and he literally didn't have enough digestive juice to digest all that food so he apparently became sick from too much food. The vet suggested to keep the ambient air temperature at about 80-85 degree with a really hot basking spot. She also gave it some fluid and did some fecal test and administer some shots to get rid of parasites. After he slowly recovered from becoming sick because I offered him too much food, I began to feed him smaller meal everyday. I offered him a pinky mouse everyday. At first he didn't know what to make of the pinkies....he had never been offered one before, but after much persistance, he took it. I did this for over a week and then I offer two pinkies a time, but he threw it back up...so I only gave him one pinky everyday again. About 3 weeks later he seems to be improving and gaining some weight, so I offer fuzzy mice instead. This time he ate it without throwing up, so then I offered him 3 or 4 fuzzies and he ate it without throwing up. I kept doing this everyday and he grew and got fatter. Now a year later he is guzzling down mice like crazy and never look at crickets as being food. My vet told me he may be getting too big for crickets. He sure came a long way from being that scrawny monitor I bought from a pet shop. Strange thing is...the petstore I bought him from used to be a really good petstore--one of the best. They would put their reptiles in large enclosure inside a well heated cage...and their reptiles were well fed. Now they downgrade and keep their reptiles in small 20 gallon cage and sell starving animals. I don't know what happened...they used to be really good.

What happened?

They forgot the reason they opened a pet shop in the first place. Instead of being motivated by the love of animals they are driven by money, animals coming second(or sometimes not at all).

Sadly, the ones that didn't ask to be there(animals) are the ones suffering.

That's what I've been dying to know! It was a good petstore, but not anymore. They got rid of there reptile room and just decided to diplay them in 20 gallon cage next to all the fish! I believe they use the old reptile room for dogs and cats they sell.

Hi Paradon!
As for your sav not eating crickets anymore, no biggie, no worries. I wouldn't bother with french fry crumbs if I knew I'd get a steak if I held out. Varanids are incredibly smart and will make the best choice when given choices.

The pet shop situation you mentioned is very common, unfortunately. However, I persoanlly couldn't draw any reasonable conclusions unless I was in a position to know more. I always try to be fair and try to take everything into consideration.

I persoanlly know the owners of two different pet shops. I know them personally, not just business-wise. I know their mindset, their way of thinking, how they feel about animals, etc...

One owner takes pride in some animals but not others. Their fish deptmt is spot-on, but they just want to get the reptiles in & out, to make a buck. "Just keep it warm & alive and hopefully someone will buy it soon." Needless to say, I very rarely walk thru the door. Maybe 5 - 6 times in the 2 yrs it's been open.

The other owner genuinely cares about ALL animals. They've been slowly expanding their reptile deptmt but expansion (growing) comes with a price. The cost of more heat/basking lamps, the time it takes to maintain the setups, time needed in caring for animals, the quality of animals available to them, etc...

When only ordering just a few animals here & there, the dealers tend to send their better looking animals, but when more animals are ordered at a time the quality tends to drop. So it becomes a dealer issue. Ahh, but wait a minute....., the dealers are experiencing the same thing from their suppliers. Are they supposed to be the ones to have to eat the costs of poor-condition animals? No, we, the keepers, are the ones that have to pay the price, in one form or another.

The last owner I was talking about, the good one, will usually keep poor animals in a back room while nursing them back to health, but every now & then one falls thru the cracks.

Pet shop owners also have to rely on their employees. They can't do everything themselves.

So, sometimes there's more than meets the eye in what appears to be a bad pet shop. Sometimes.

I'm just saying, "Don't be too quick to judge every pet shop for every lil' detail." (I'm not saying that you are, Paradon. )

I hope this sheds some light & spreads some "fairness."

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