Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just picked up this sav monitor last night. The previous enclosure was a plastic rabbit hutch about 3ftx1ft long with reptile carpeting and a heat lamp. I currently have the monitor in a temperary 6ftx2ft cage. I am going to build something along the lines of a 10ftx4ft cage. I am about to go to home depot for some top soil and sand to mix a good substrate. I also have a basking light set up and hooked to a thermostat set at 130f and the ambient tempatures are around 80f.

Any suggestions so far? The monitor looks very dehydrated and needs a good soaking. The monitor was being fed every 3 days with a diet of mice and eggs. I was told the monitor is around 5 years old. The set up I am builing I eventaully want to house a pair together. Should I go bigger with the cage? I do not want the minimum size enclosure but something two healthy adult savs will be comfortable in. My budget so far is arounf $600.00 for this project. Also anyone have good building plans? I plan to start building toomorow.

Harsh criticism is much appreciated. I was planning to build a cage then get the monitor. But I felt bad for this little guy.

I would suggest not soaking the animal as it can really irritate and stress them out. Bump the humidity levels up to what they need to be and keep fresh, clean water readily and easily available at all times and it'll work itself out.

Also, a monitor that size can easily take advantage of a 140º F basking surface. I'd put 3 or 4 lights side-by-side to create a large enough area where the lizard can heat up from nose tip to tail tip. Just elevate the basking site to 6-8" from the light and use lower wattage halogen flood lamps (around 40-65 watts) as higher wattage bulbs suck moisture from the air.