Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I just bought a baby savannha moniter and I was wondering how i can tame them down. They are hissing and biting now... can I stop this aggressive behavior before they reach adulthood? Also... please give me some general info like when they can start on pinkies... and how big they will get. All help is appreciated... thanks!

they can get like 3.5 feet just alot of gentle handling will help their temper and hopfully worm up to you.

You can usually calm them down. It just takes a lot of patience. Give him a few days to get adjusted to his new home, then start to handle him gradually. Start by just touching him (mine seemed most tolerant of having his head and tail stroked). See if he'll come investigate you while you sit still or hold your hand still. Once he's had time to get used to your touching him, start handling him. With mine, I handled him before I fed him, so that after handling, there was something positive waiting for him and so he didn't associate the appearance of my hand with food. (I'm not sure everyone would agree with that method, but in my sav's case, he behaved very well, always being a perfect gentleman about feeding.) There's a good chance he's never going to be completely calm when you handle him. Most monitors really don't like to be held.

As far as feeding, savs tend to swallow their prey whole,unlike some monitors that prefer to shred their food. Remember the rule of thumb about food sizes. The mouse you give him should be about half the length of his head. In other words, when he grows large enough that he can handle a pinkie is probably the time he can start eating them. You will still want to keep insects a regular part of his diet, however. If he rejects his first pinkie when the time comes, try cutting it in half. Mine looked at me like I was nuts the first time I offered him a pinkie. I cut it in half, and he took one sniff and gobbled the rest of the pinkies down like they were the best thing ever.

Oh, one more thing: Since you asked how big they get, I assume you are wondering about enclosure size. Monitors are usually active lizards, so the bigger the better. At a minimum, your lizard will eventually need a 7'x3' enclosure. I'm not sure how much you know about savs, but we could probably help you more if you gave us an idea of what kind of set-up you have for him now (cage temps, etc.). If you bought him from a pet shop, there's a good chance he wasn't being kept properly (I saw two poor baby savs in a pet shop last week that didn't have a basking light, their cage was too small to have a temperature gradient, and they didn't have a bowl of water to soak in).