Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well i was in Dominican republic for a week visiting my dad now my dad breeds fish like Betta's and Cichlids so he wanted to show me some of the local pet stores were he gets his fish from because i like Betta's to so we went to 2 different pet shops the first one had a lot of fish,birds,and a monkey that was not for sale the second one had mostly fish but had reptiles to there iguanas,geckos,boas.python,and savs they had 5 baby savanna monitors and one Wat they called a orange phase which was priced at 5300 pesos that is like 150 us dollars it was one of the nicest monitors i have ever seen so i bought it spend almost 1000 dollars to get it hear it had to be tested and treated for any disease i could of had and i had to get approval from the Dominican government to be let out of the country but all in all i am really happy that i got so Wat i want to know is is my new save a albino or a new morph

i sware this is my sav and the pic is mine to

well it looks more like a orange hypo phase. Ive never seen one though

kyle

NO its not an albino its either a hypo or it just turned that color from the bedding type which ive seen happen before. I have only seen 2 albinos and 1 leustic

It's a nice one you got there. Look like a hypo to me to, in this morph world . Here is one nice also. Not as much orange as your, but not bad.
Take care.

not an albino, but the most orange ive ever seen. absolutely gorgeous colors. i dunno if he was worth the money you spent to get him here, but if that proves out in babies, youll easily get your money back within a year.

[i dunno if he was worth the money you spent to get him here, but if that proves out in babies, youll easily get your money back within a year.]

If he's thinking of breeding, shouldn't he start it out in a group, so there's a better chance of pairing him/her up sucessfully?

what im saying is that its an amazing looking sav, the orange is amazing. i dont know the exact way to breed savs, ive never truely worked with them. i was just saying since he spent the 150 plus as he said over 1000 to get him here, he most likely isnt a 1150 dollar lizard, but if he did breed him, and the high orange proved out, id think theyd sell for a little more than the 150 he paid, and hed have a good shot at earning back his money within 1 to 2 years depending on how many eggs a savannah lays. i do not know though if itd be genetic, so i was just putting it out there as a possibility since ive never seen that much orange.

With other angles so we can tell exactally what it looks like.

Nice coloration though.

Is shining over a normal baby bosc monitor.
Actually most babies are much much brighter colored and in no time at all they lose all of that color and turn dull, also some dark.
The reason I mentioned the light, is because the orange is in locations where there is no shadow, and at the top edge of the mouth closest to the right side.
There were 2 albinos purchased a while back at a reptile show. The term hypo, and hyper do not apply to these creatures because the simple fact is that they have NOT been selectively bred in captivity to produce brighter, or lighter patterns, they are after all almost exclusively wild caught (with a few rare exceptions in the last 15 years worldwide).
Enjoy the colors while they last, enjoy it for being a monitor.
Over the years I have seen thousands of baby bosc monitors for sale at petstores, and reptile shows. When you have seen enough of them you would agree with me, they are all just a bit different in color, and brightness, depends where the geographic location they originated from, lower altitudes produce consistantly lighter colors.

I meant the left side on the original responce.
When you blow the picture up its easier to see that the majority of the orange is from a light shining at an angle from the left side above the lizard. There is no shadow casting on that side as if there is a light angled above on that side.

i did not use any lighting the only light that was on at the time was one of thoses lights/sealing fans which is really dull but most of the light came from the flash

Why don't you just snap a couple more pics at different angles so we can see what you're seeing.

I'm sure other members would like to see more pics anyway.

here is another pic

Now that looks more like it. I was skeptical about the first photo. The lizard looked like it could have been stained orange somehow.

If you look at the left rear leg there is a section that is mysteriously clear of reddish color (either recently shed or that spot was cleaned off a bit by water etc.
The first pictures show reddish light being shined from the left top to exagerate the color, its obvious by the lack of shadow on one side, and heavy shadows on the opposite side.
None the less as that lizard gets a bit larger all of those colors will go away. Ive seen many many hundreds that are light colored and bright orange/red colors on them as babies. My big male (had many years ago) was like that, in about 2 months he was way different). In fact 2 males I had were like that as hatchlings.

It's kind of disappointing to see your lack of enthusiasm. You are convinced this animal is nothing more than "average".

You've been in this a long time, so you've seen a lot of stuff. I've been doing what I do a long time too, but I never fail to get excited for others when they pick up something cool or different. I hope I never loose that excitability.
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Mike Heinrich,
Mike@amazontreeboa.org
www.amazontreeboa.org

forums. Hypo simply means less black, and that individual surely has less black them most. But in the trade(captive circles) Hypo must mean that that trait is genetic and can be expressed thru captive breeding.

So yes, its a very nice savannah and it may be a hypo if it will breed true.

The problem with varanids is, they have a wide phenotype as well as a wide genotype, which means, they can throw a very wide range of colors from the same genetic coupling.

Also, those really nice babies have a very bad habit of turning nearly normal as they grow up. As in, the normals are really ugly when they get old, and the light babies are only semi ugly after they age. Ok, ugly is a relative term and indeed they are wonderful monitors, but this thread is about color and value, etc. Cheers

The point is that hypos are a result of breeding multiple generations of very light individuals together to exagerrate the feature, ergo hypo or hyper (much more black).
So this is a normal wild caught imported light colored bosc monitor which will turn dark and dull in no time at all, in fact will probably change multiple times in the first year before settling into its adult colors and pattern like all monitors do when they grow up.
Value is in the eye of the beholder, unfortunately the owner probably got taken by a good sales pitch and the lack of experience to understand that they all appear differently when hatchlings.
I used to see the majority of fresh WC bosc hatchlings from lower altitudes just like this and many much lighter and brighter. All still cost about .50-$1.00 each by the crate full plus shipping.
Look at the difference lighting and temps can make in the same lizard as an adult, even covered in dirt as she almost always is. Heres Sobek almost as light as the cape banded WT (part of her genetic background).

Coming out of the log covered in dirt, notice how dark she is, almost black.

Again always shedding, but clean, and cooled off a bit by the water she was in. Kind of in between in color, brownish.

Ive seen many light colored boscs, as I posted, thousands. When they grow up they all turn dull, that one is a hatchling size, all hatchlings are far brighter and more colorful than any adult will ever come close to being. In fact Ive seen bright, colorful, intricate patterned boscs, and niles turn into dull patternless brown/grayish subadults in a few months, as adults they look not different or some more dull. I had a very bright colorful bosc like that at one time, only his patterns were more intricate, and he was lighter. By the time he was a foot or so long he was almost one solid color of brown. During their first year, and the following year they change so much, in colors, patterns, sizes, shapes, that they look like 7 different lizards in the pictures.
My big albig Sobek looked like a brownish blackthroat at first as a hatchling, in no time at all she became dark, then brighter, lighter, bluish, then bright orange (not like this monitor, much brighter), then she dulled out, and at a few times she gets a complicated intricate pattern of black, robin egg blue, gray, brown, and white. But in a day from shedding she truns brown again mostly with dirt.

[i did not use any lighting the only light that was on at the time was one of thoses lights/sealing fans which is really dull but most of the light came from the flash]

I agree with MikeH- I hope the poster continues to post pics and not be put off by the neg comments. Whether the sav stays orange or changes, right now it's something different and it's nice to see.

i dont care wat if others belive me or not i know i have thats all that matters i will be posting more pics as it gets older but iwill be doing it weekly or biweekley

The poster hopes that he bought something rare and unusual, they are here to find reassurance of what they hope. Its not the point that the animal is bright or colorful now, to me I see colors exaggerated by light and possibly as others have posted by red/orange substrate (calci-sand and aquarium gravel is common to cause this in petstores).
None the less the animal is completely normal for a bosc monitor, in fact Ive seen brighter more colorful. If it was about the owner being proud of it, they would not be trying to convince anyone it is different or unusual.
Im happy that they are happy with it, but I dont want them to harbor any illusions that it is anything rare or unusual, they will only disappoint themselves.
I remember years ago the craze in "blue niles", people spent thousands buying what was sold countrywide for next to nothing as a hatchling, because it had some blue at one stage of life.

Hello,
A couple of years ago I purchased a small group of savs that had similarly bright coloring. Some people even asked if they were V. yemensis hahahaha!- They were not. There are some strikingly beautiful savs out there- glad you found one too... Great lizards. Best to you- Mike

[A couple of years ago I purchased a small group of savs that had similarly bright coloring]

I don't suppose you have any pictures of them to share?

If it has red eyes it is albino. It is a hypo if it has dark eyes hard to tell from angle of pict. Either way worth the time & paperwork. Now get some more & breed them

Many Savs have Red/Orange eyes. If the Iris itself is red, then their is a chance of the animal being an Albino. I wouldn't confuse the two.
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South Central Herpetological

Male bosc monitors have reddish or red/orange eyes. The majority of females have brown eyes. An albino has a lack of color in its skin which makes it mostly white or yellowish.