Reptile & Amphibian Forums

With the Tegu I could hibernate it in the attic.It had 12ftx12ft of space and could cruise around(sometimes he would hide for a few weeks and then come out for stroll in winter).But with a Savi I cant do this because i cant heat that big of an area up to the high temps they need all year.
Summer isnt a problem with a nice big outdoor pen. but I just cant come up with an enclosure big enough indoors that I can heat that high.

Also with the tegu he had a dirt pit in the attic.Basically it was a smaller enclosure with a ramp that was full up with dirt/cypress mulch for him to bury himself or get the humidity he needed to shed(along with baths)..

Im going to keep thinking though I may come up with something.

You do not need that much space for a sav monitor. They are fine in a 3 or 4 foot by 8 foot. That will hold a 4 foot male. They do not do well in outside set ups too much. An advanced keeper can do this but if you are just starting out with them you should not do that. They do better in indoor set ups year round.

I would not put one in the attic they tend to get too cold or too hot.

Might I suggest starting with a ackie? I wish I would have instead of a sav, I love the ackie I have now. Ackies have the same basic care, but on a smaller scale. With the largest ackies (red and yellow, red usually growing a tad bigger) being not more than 2 foot, they are much more manageable. A 2 foot by 4 foot cage would work well for a single animal, but more space will be readily used. Savannas usually are imported in poor shape, and the import process makes it even worse on them. All ackies are captive bred and are insanely hardy animals. Also, ackies are more active than most savannas available at pet shops (which is actually a sign of god health) and are absolutely fascinating to watch run around their cage climbing, burrowing, and my personal favorite, feeding. Just make sure you do your research and have everything planned out before you bring a monitor home, and you'll have a great shot!

Also, gaining experience with an ackie will teach you a lot of valuable information that will greatly help if you decide to add other monitors to your collection. And be careful, once you get one monitor, it won't be your last! About this time last year, if you weren't talking about geckos, I wouldn't listen. I decided to see what the buzz was all about and fell in love! If your not talking monitors, you must be crazy

Good luck
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Jason

By the time you pay for the ackie and the shipping theres nothing left for the enclosure.LOL..
If by chance I happen to find one at the expo at a good enough price(under 200) then it may happen otherwise I doubt it.

I may just stick with snakes, they are rather easy compared to lizards.I got my eyes on a nice Bredli's python.But the kid will not be happy.

>>By the time you pay for the ackie and the shipping theres
>>nothing left for the enclosure.LOL..

Oh, ackies are MUCH cheaper than savannas. The initial price has little to do with how much it will cost to keep the animal properly - the price for the enclosure (if it is a proper sized habitat for the animal) will end up pushing the sav into more expensive territory than the ackie. Then there's food - a sav will eat a lot more. And electricity costs - a bigger cage and a larger basking area requires more or higher wattage bulbs. And so on.

Luke

But most people dont mind spreading out the money over time then one big lump sum.

You are delusional if you think it's better to to get an inexpensive monitor species that over time will will run up large expenses to properly care for. That's the key word: properly. If you cut corners to save money, it will not do well for you and you will have to factor in extremely expensive veterinary bills on top of the large food bills and electricity bills.

If money is a concern, you would be better off saving up and investing in something that has a larger up-front cost while doing the research in your desired species and planning the enclosure. You will be much happier with the results, and the animal is less likely to suffer.

Get an ackie. You will not regret it.

All the best.

If your goal is to find something under 200 total, you might be able to find a Yellow ackie for just around that price including shipping. I actually got mine for $155 with shipping. And you'll spend way less on caging and food. Maybe you wouldn't mind spacing it out, but the costs aren't going to be spaced out very much with a Savanna. Plus in that 12x12 is going to need a deep substrate for burrowing, 18 inches to 24 inches deep. Let's do some quick math, if you have a 8 foot by 4 foot cage for a Savanna with an 18 inch deep substrate, that's 48 cubic feet of soil. Now an ackie would need about 12 inch deep substrate in a 4 foot by 2 foot cage would be 8 cubic feet. Which would you rather carry into the house, 48 cubic feet of soil or 8 cubic feet? I have about 8 cubic feet in my ackies cage, and I had enough of that bull crap after 15 minutes! Lol.
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Jason

>>But most people dont mind spreading out the money over time
>>then one big lump sum.

So try this ... get a proper enclosure for the lizard FIRST. Then worry about getting the lizard. Plan out the cage, then go to home depot and price out what it would cost. If you can't afford the cage, you can't afford the lizard.

Once you build the cage, then look around for the proper animal to go in it.

Luke

Expenses aside.I mean Im not a college kid with a part time job either.Its not really that I cant afford it, its more of, will my spouse raise his eyebrows when I spend that much on a "pet".He does put up with an awful lot from me.I do have a room dedicated to my snakes.
I have decided against the Savi anyway, mostly because I just cant justify using so much room.

But I am still thinking either way.I was looking around and alot of ackie people seem to complain that they hide all the time.I dont really want that either.

A lot of that depends on the way you define hiding. Monitors, and by this I mean all monitors, are burrowers by nature. As FR says, they spend most of their time "IN". Inside the ground or inside a tree or wherever, but burrowed in something. You could prevent that by not providing substrate out hides, but then the monitor can't be a monitor, cause that's what they do, burrow.

I will tell you from my own experience. I keep 3 yellow ackies together. 1 is IN all the time, 1 is OUT a lot of the time, and the last one spends about 50/50. But it is much better for the animals to give them choices and let them do what they want.

Mike W.