Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK, my gf said not to worry but me being the person i am im worried, i got a baby Savannah 6 days ago, he hasn't eaten yet, i have about 4 crickets running around his tank right now and everything ive read said he should pretty much eat when ever fed, he has used the "washroom" twice in the week but as far as i can tell hasn't eaten, i counted the crickets and none have gone missing. Hes still nice and fat, just worries me. Any ideas?

Not eating can often be a sign of over-stress, or temperature problems. How warm is his enclosure? Do you have a hot spot/cold spot set up so that he can thermoregulate? Does he have a hide spot? lastly, how often are you handling him? Monitors aren't very fond of being forced to be held, they like to do things they chose to do, not that you chose for them.

The enclosure averages 85F and he has a basking spot of 120, he has 2 hiding places a cave and a big log. I don't really handle him anymore cause the 2 times i did he didn't seem to like it at all, i was thinking stress from a new environment, but as i said its been 6 days.

As long as he still looks healthy, and isn't loosing a lot of weight and really skinny, I wouldn't worry about it too much as of now. It could very well be acclimation stress (i know when i moved in to my new house i was miserable for a month!) I wouldn't be to worried quite yet however if he still looks healthy. There is the possibility that he is sick, or has some internal parasites, but rushing him to the vet while he otherwise looks healthy would be jumping the gun in my opinion.
keep his temperatures right, make sure he always has drinking water, offer food every other day or so, and for the most part leave him alone for a bit and see what happens. If he still doesn't eat it may be worth it to head to the vets.

That is my 2 cents, maybe someone else will have another opinion. I'm sure everything is fine, and wish you and your monitor the best!
-chris

a whole 6 days!! thats nothing let him be for at least a month,also do not leave the crickets in his tank if he hasn't eaten them within a hour or less take them out and try again the next day at the same time, they(crickets) can stress him even more than he allready is if you leave them in to crawl all over him.. his temps sound ok although his basking spot could be a little hotter about 130-135 cool side anywhere from 75to 80 dirt is the best substrait as deep as you can for burrowing,and nice tight hides in hot warm and cool places.

but for now just leave him alone try feeding once a day at same time and any uneaten food remove after a hour and try again the next day ,also try a pinky live to mabye get his attention if he dont eat remove it try the next day i sure you get the piont also make sure he has plenty of fresh water.

if none of this works ask frank... lol
but really if it dont ask him, also let us know how he progresses
best of luck with your little sav

I think yours is just getting acclimated to his new surrounding. Mine was the same way, and now, he feeds willingly everytime I dangle a pinky mouse infront of him. I just recently got mine, too, and now he will take frozen mice from me. Before, it was a pain. I thought there was something wrong with him. I even went out and got a thermometer because I didn't have it and thought what a dumb way to go about doing it, and at one time I hand fed him. He's really skinny when I first got. At first I didn't notice how skinny he was. I wasn't sure how they were supposed to look, but somebody told me was really skinny. So decided to feed him mostly pinky mice for now. But now, I'm happy to say he eats willingly on his own. I say put his cage in a low traffic area where he can have time to himself without stressing out. Every reptiles need that...even the most docile ones need to left alone.