I have a Savannah Monitor I rescued. She is about 11" long and very small. I don't know how old she is but she was starved. Because she was starved, she bit whenever she saw fingers and whoever had her mistreated her, although I am not sure how. I got her about 4 months ago. She was very thin and dehydrated. With TLC, a great appetite, and lots of humidity, she has gained a nice amount of weight and looks 110% better than she did. She is very timid and the only person who can touch her right now is me. She is fine with my 14-yr-old son as long as he doesn't try to hold her. She has bitten me a few times but now I wear gloves and that is a non-issue now. I fed her a couple days ago and she was fine. I held her on Tuesday night and she was fine. When I got her out of her enclosure last night, she seemed a bit weird and it wasn't long until I noticed that the toes on her front and back feet were constantly moving. Even when she was sleeping they were moving. Not twitching, but moving as a person would move their fingers in an effort to get any stiffness out of them. It was just her toes and more so on the front than the back feet. I picked her up and went to set her down on my bed and she let her front legs go under her body, which is not normal behavior for this girl. I also have a 2.5 year old male Savannah and I feed them the same food - pinkie rats, some chicken and pork. Does any one have any idea what this could be? She had a very hard life before I got her.
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Savannah Monitor w/Motor Control problem
Replies (2)
Not sure what the problem could be, but I do have a few other things. I would not handle her regularly. If you have to wear gloves to handle her she obviously doesnt like it. Its just adding unnecessary stress. Only handle her when you have to remove her to do something. Also at that size you should be feeding mostly insects. Even your 2.5 ft you should still be feeding a good bit of insects, and some whole prey items. And you have to be careful with pinkies, even they they are a whole prey item their bones arent fully developed so they arent as good as adult mice.
She is about 11" long and very small. I don't know how old she is but she was starved. & She had a very hard life before I got her.
I really can't comment on the twitching, but can comment on these two statements of your post. At 11" he/she (they cannot be sexed at that size) is either an under fed 8-12 month old, or a healthy 4-6 month old. Either way, that Savannah was collected from the wilds of Africa within the last 6 months probably and hands and fingers represent danger to them and they will continue to bite. Actually, just the sight of hands will stress them to the point of causing health.
I would say give him/her lots of privacy, a healthy diet, proper heat and proper basking site surface temps, and then slowly start interacting with it when it gets a bit older and feeling more settled and secure.
So basically, he/she had a very good life going before a collector dug up his/her burrow and raped him/her from the savannah, along with a hundred others.
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Mike Heinrich,
Mike@amazontreeboa.org
www.amazontreeboa.org
