Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok so I have a few questions about my juvenile savannah monitor, a little background first I suppose, Ive had him for about 2 weeks now, he's got a great set up with the ambient temp at about 85 sometimes 90, basking at 125, hes about a little less than a foot maybe 10 inches, great eater.

First question. Im using cypress bedding, but everytime I feed him his crickets he chases them all over the tank and eats them AND the bedding. What is the best substrate to use??? Ive asked this before and gotten contradicting answers, so please tell me what the best substrate is to use, take into mind hes going to be consuming a small amount of said bedding when hes eating crickets.

Ok theres the first question second, I just bought like 20 feeder goldfish, pretty small a little bit bigger than pinkies, im trying to keep his diet as varied as possible how exactly do I go about feeding them to my monitor???? how many?, in the water? on a flat surface? dead or alive? do I cut the heads off?

Third, I ordered 10 madagascar hissing roaches from LLLREPTILE.com. I plan to breed them to feed them to my monitor, anyone else do this and can offer any tips or advice?

Fourth. Ive been trying to keep the tank pretty hot and dry to discourage respiratory infections while hes stressed from moving into the new enviroment, but he appears to have a small amount of white stuffed caked around and in his nostrils, but ive looked at other savannah pix and some look similar, and he has been shedding, does anyone have any pix of absolute infections to compare to?

I want to start handeling him so i can tame him, hes ok at first but very very jumpy, he hasnt tried to bite me yet, but I went ahead and bought a pair of cow-hide gloves, how do i start and continue the process till he isnt aggressive at all anymore?

Im also going to be purchasing his female counterpart soon and I was wondering what the process entails to help acclimate them to each other, can I put them in the same cage when she arrives or do I have to start by having them spend small amounts of time together????

Thank you all in advance for you help.

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technical disruption

Edited on February 20, 2006 at 17:13:15 by phwyvern.

>>Ok so I have a few questions about my juvenile savannah monitor, a little background first I suppose, Ive had him for about 2 weeks now, he's got a great set up with the ambient temp at about 85 sometimes 90, basking at 125, hes about a little less than a foot maybe 10 inches, great eater.
>>
>>First question. Im using cypress bedding, but everytime I feed him his crickets he chases them all over the tank and eats them AND the bedding. What is the best substrate to use??? Ive asked this before and gotten contradicting answers, so please tell me what the best substrate is to use, take into mind hes going to be consuming a small amount of said bedding when hes eating crickets.

Different people will tell you what has worked for them. Cypress has worked for me. Right now I'm using bark chips. Dirt from your back yard will work too. I'm sure wild monitor ingest this stuff all the time.

>>Ok theres the first question second, I just bought like 20 feeder goldfish, pretty small a little bit bigger than pinkies, im trying to keep his diet as varied as possible how exactly do I go about feeding them to my monitor???? how many?, in the water? on a flat surface? dead or alive? do I cut the heads off?

I wouldn't use fish. I'd stick to insects/rodents which is closer to what they would eat in the wild. I'd feed whole if I did and live or dead, monitors usually don't care.

>>Third, I ordered 10 madagascar hissing roaches from LLLREPTILE.com. I plan to breed them to feed them to my monitor, anyone else do this and can offer any tips or advice?

10? I hope they all mature adults, otherwise you'll be waiting for them to mature and reporduce. I started with 50 2-3 stage and these guys took about 3-6 months to really establish a colony. Once they do you can feed at will. Starting with 10, you'll be waiting to have some to feed.

>>Fourth. Ive been trying to keep the tank pretty hot and dry to discourage respiratory infections while hes stressed from moving into the new enviroment, but he appears to have a small amount of white stuffed caked around and in his nostrils, but ive looked at other savannah pix and some look similar, and he has been shedding, does anyone have any pix of absolute infections to compare to?

Could be too dry. You want your humidy levels at the right level just as you would your temps. Too high or low and you get problems.

>>I want to start handeling him so i can tame him, hes ok at first but very very jumpy, he hasnt tried to bite me yet, but I went ahead and bought a pair of cow-hide gloves, how do i start and continue the process till he isnt aggressive at all anymore?

One of the big debates. Some will say not to force the relationship, others will say to handle daily to make them tame. Do the research and decide what make more sense to you.

>>Im also going to be purchasing his female counterpart soon and I was wondering what the process entails to help acclimate them to each other, can I put them in the same cage when she arrives or do I have to start by having them spend small amounts of time together????

Always put new lizrads in QT. You never know what they may be bring in eg mites and other parasites. This is debatable, but after you make sure that there is nothing wrong with the new lizard, put them together. You'll find out real quick if there is going to be a problem. This is a future consideration though.

You need to focus on getting your husbandry skills down first beofre you can really consider a breeding project. I'm not trying to be harsh, but passing on what I've learned. Get the sav book and read it. Also, with monitors there is not too many answers that are definitive and most will be arguable.

>>Thank you all in advance for you help.

No problem and I hope that you are eventually succesful breeding these guys.
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hbailey

0.1 argus monitor

Savannah stomach content studies have shown them to be very non-selective carnivores. They feed on Brachytrupes and other insects and arthropods, rodents, fish, clams, snails, worms, birds, lizards, frogs, antelope and pop-tarts (okay, I was kidding about the antelope and pop-tarts).
In my terribly humble opinion, goldfish are no more hazardous than any other farmed food. Crickets are just as likely to carry disease and/or parasites as rodents, goldfish, etc. Chicks might be a bit safer because of their limited exposure to "the dangers of the real world" before harvest.
If you do feed goldfish, make sure they appear healthy. I feed them out whole and alive. They swim around in a shallow dish in my monitors' cages till they are caught, which resembles a fraternity prank gone awry!!
They fish in one of two ways, either keeping their nose in the water and their eyes above, raking their mouth sideways to snatch a fish when appropriate, or, the standard thrust method (like grabbing a cricket).
I would never consider goldfish a primary food source, but a variation or treat. They do seem to enjoy the occasional shrimp, and crawish are great.
Why am I craving antelope filled pop-tarts?
Cheers

lol antelope pop tarts. Relished by thousands of monitors every morning chased by none other than starbucks komodo blend of coffee

Too bad they don't sell that freak giant cricket around here, I'd buy some for my sav. Looks like a great feeder insect.
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hbailey

0.1 argus monitor

"In my terribly humble opinion, goldfish are no more hazardous than any other farmed food. Crickets are just as likely to carry disease and/or parasites as rodents, goldfish, etc. Chicks might be a bit safer because of their limited exposure to "the dangers of the real world" before harvest.":

I dont believe from experience that goldfish are a hazardous feeder source, but they are of little to no nutritional value. Ive kept carnivorous fish, lizards, etc, etc over many years with good luck and sucess. I can tell you that sometimes when really hungry they will eat goldfish, but with bosc monitors they usually wait until the fish jump out or die then eat them (dont like catching them too much I guess. I can tell you if given the option they prefer mice and peeps (if big enough to eat them) over any other food source in captivity (remember this is captivity, imitating the wild is not at all a good or great option when it comes to diets. Of course you are free to try fish, experience is the best teacher. But you must use a period of time to guage each source of food to compare, crickets, grasshoppers, fish, turkey, mice, peeps, etc. Ive been there done that and moved on a long time ago. Of course like my usual responses, I try to keep others from making the same mistakes and learning the hard way.
When you take advice from someone look at what their monitors have accomplished while in their care, also how long theyve been in that owners care. A good friend has a bosc I sold him for $25 (to recover some of the food costs), it was as small as my tiny flip phone when I got it, it quadrupled in size in no time at all, since then in his care it has also doubled in size, all in a few months time.
Use dirt, real dirt, they do not like organic material in their substrate, most times a bad substrate equates to a monitor that will not dig, or use it. You can use alot of stuff with them, why not use what has proven sucessful, then adjust other aspects of the husbandry?
Have a nice day.