Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We have had a Savannah Monitor for almost a year now. She (I think a female) is close to 3 feet long. Usually, she is a very aggressive eater and quite active. Lately, she has been more mellow, hanging out in the cooler end of her cage, not actively seeking food (unless its put right in front of her) and not deficating a lot. Is this normal? A time of the year thing? Temps have not changed in her environment. Her diet consists of grasshoppers, super worms, horned worms, and occasionally cooked eggs and wet cat food. We have soaked her in warm water and she then will deficate.
Any advice/help?
Thank you.

You should tell everyone about your enclosure and the temperatures, both airtemps and surface temps of basking site.

Be very specfic, the better they can help. Season should have nothing to do with it.

Mike.

I over sized her, shes more about 2-2.5 feet long.
She lives in a 75G tank. The tank has aspen bedding, a hide box that I made out of wood, a log, a rock and large water bowl. the highest part of the cage is 95 degrees, on top of her hide box. Ground level hot spot is around 88 degrees. On the opposite side of the tank the low temp is 76 degrees. Shes hanging more where it is cooler lately.
Thanks.

>>I over sized her, shes more about 2-2.5 feet long.
>>She lives in a 75G tank. The tank has aspen bedding,
>>a hide box that I made out of wood, a log, a rock and
>>large water bowl. the highest part of the cage is 95
>>degrees, on top of her hide box. Ground level hot spot
>>is around 88 degrees. On the opposite side of the tank
>>the low temp is 76 degrees.

I see several issues with your husbandry that should be improved. The monitor should have access to a basking spot in excess of 120 to 130 degrees F, over an area about the size of the monitor's body. 80 degrees F is a good temperature for the cool side of the enclosure.

Aspen is inadequate for a substrate. Monitors are diggers, and use burrows for not just shelter but controlling water loss and heat retention. The best substrate is a good dirt that will hold a burrow. Keep it slightly moist so the burrow has high humidity.

Keeping a monitor with low humidity and inadequate temperatures slowly kills it. Chronic dehydration leads to long term organ damage, particularly to the kidneys. With the conditions you describe, you can expect your lizard to have a lifespan of perhaps 3 years before its organs give out (usually the heart or kidneys, in my experience).

I go into much more detail on this page
http://panoptesv.com/HBD/tricks.html
The page is primarily dedicated to argus monitors, but the same husbandry applies to all monitor species. The Pro Exotics website also has good information on keeping monitors
http://www.proexotics.com/care_savannah.html

Good luck. I hope you can get your lizard turned around and healthy.

Luke

Dehydration perhaps, as aspen screen top (if you have one) heat source = dry as a bone with no humid spot (burrows) to retreat to.

Also keep in mind, staying on the cool side is not a problem, though some of the stuff your describing could be. In fact my monitors spend the majority of their time in areas where the temps do not exceed 80ish.

What type/wattage of bulb are you using? Pictures also are good.

Cheers,
Mike.

Just to add to the advice given, there's a good explanation on this link about your type of setup & why you need to change it, good luck with your monitor>

Link

who did that website? I like it.

I miss my sav I wish I'd done better by him. 13 years for a lizard that should live 20 . Maybe someday I can keep one again.

You're going to need to do some work with your set-up. The cage si nowhere near large enough. Basking temps need to be at least 130 degrees. You made no mention of humidity, so you probably pay humidity no attention at all.

Give your Sav a large home made cage (there are no commercially made cages suitable for monitors), damp diggable substrate, proper temps and basking site temps, and your Sav will thrive!

-----
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Heinrich,
Mike@amazontreeboa.org
www.amazontreeboa.org

Thanks for all the good advice and links. we are going to re-do her tank tomorrow, then start planning/building a new habitat in the near future.
As far as bedding is concerned, is the Zilla Jungle Mix a good choice, or should we go with something more like top soil, perhaps mixed with moss and maybe sand?

Dirt is fine. You'll play with it over time to get it right by adding this and that though.

Cheers,
Mike.