Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all, I picked up a Savannah from a home it had outgrown (literally two hours ago). I'm pretty sure he's a male and he's definitely shedding. I was just wondering if there are specific things to look for in a less-than-healthy monitor while it sheds. He does look a little underweight to me, and it looks like he's either just begun to shed or is nearly complete and has a few pieces stuck. The previous owner wasn't able to shed much light on his condition for me. I could get a few pictures if that would help someone help me! Tomorrow I was going to start him off with a hard boiled egg and see how he does with it.

Cage atm:

40gal breeder (it's absolutely temporary, I swear, me and a buddy are converting an empty closet for him this very weekend), hide box with a basking rock on top of it, a CHE keeping the temps at about 80, I didn't bother setting up a basking light since I picked him up after dark, and he's got a bin of water which he has been consistently soaking in and out of since I put him in the tank. He's on about six inches of a regular untreated soil and sand mixture.

You know what, taking another look at him, he must have just begun shedding, he's really faded in color except where he's sloughed a bit. He'll still eat in a shed, wont he? They're not like snakes, they shed in pieces over time, right?

Careful what you choose with the closet idea, as Savannahs should be in a bit more humid area - I doubt your closet can withstand that and you'll likely end up with moss which will harm your monitor. Also since it's so tall it'll be difficult to keep the humidity and heat up in the first place - That's just my opinion though, I usually opt against the use of a room for a monitor, but lean more towards the side of a custom built enclosure to accustom their particular needs. Savannahs like a deep sustrate - at least a foot - for burrowing. depending upon the size of the monitor, I would just build a 4X2X2 enclosure, or an 8X4X4. If you need help with that email me and I'll send you instructions or a general idea of what you'll need and how to do it. You'll want to look into rete stacks, which I think we've all found invaluable for our monitors. The idea of a rete stack is to provide all kinds of heat gradients in a vertical fashion, rather than just along the length of the enclosure, that's not to say you shouldn't have a gradient along there as well. I provide hot spots for my monitors at about 150 degrees personally and find them basking there through out the day, but many people would also find that to be rather extreme. 130 degree to 140 should be sufficient. Here's a good site : http://savannahmonitor.org/
but please be sure to vary your information. Weigh out what you think is right or wrong, or what works best for you and more importantly for your monitor. From your question about the shedding, I'm not sure you've had many lizards, so do a lot of research! They do shed in pieces, and you should mist him with dechlorinized water(just fill a clean plastic jug with water and let it sit over night and it should evaporate most of it out) room temp! Don't pull the shed off him, it should come off naturally if you're doing things right. Good luck.

This is my first monitor, but not nearly my first lizard or reptile. x] I guess I was just a little anxious. He's doing excellent now, and he's really a very docile monitor, he seems to be shedding fine on his own and he's gone to the bathroom normally! He has a heat gradient in his current tank from 85 on the cool side to ~130 at his basking spot and he really seemed to enjoy his first few meals with me (I'm feeding a variation of the SDZ diet, ground turkey/raw egg shell/multivitamin powder, and a good variety of insects on the side).

As for the closet, I think I just explained it poorly. I'm only going up about four feet height-wise, and the closet base itself is 6x3, so essentially I'm just building a big enclosure in a closet. I was hoping to avoid mold by tarping off the first ~2 feet over the plywood to hold the substrate and using high-humidity bathroom paint to seal everything else. As for stacks, I googled them and I think I got the rough idea, but I'm going to shoot you an e-mail for a little more detail on the actual construction.

Thanks for your help so far!

Hi, I think the cool side is too warm, you need a temp range of between approx 75f (ambient), up to the surface basking temp of around 120 to 130, humidity between approx 50 to 70%.

Sorry, I needed to put it in two replies...
The CHE is not good for getting the basking area temps, they heat the air all around, which dries out the atmosphere (too low humidity). Better to use a (spot) basking bulb, which will direct the heat downwards, or low wattage halogen floods (40 or 50 watts).
What type of top do you have on the tank, and what type of thermometer/hygrometer are you using, analogue or digital?
Can you put a few photos up? Thanks!

I have both a CHE and a basking spot lamp atm. The top is screen covered with a towel in the areas where the lamps aren't, but the top of his permanent enclosure is going to be wood. I'm using an analogue in his tank because I've already hooked up the digital to the closet, I'll be able to move him over shortly, I'm getting some information on heat gradient stacks first. I can put up some pictures of the temporary set up in just a minute, but he wont be in there much longer.

Although now that I think about it, should I get another digital for the hot end in the closet enclosure? I put it on the cool end because I have a temp gun to check his basking spot temperatures.

No, if ypu have a temp gun to check the basking spot, you only need the digital thermometer at the cool end, but you do need a digital hygrometer for the humidity..

It's a 60 halogen flood light. humidity stays up to about that - plus I have a humidity hide in there. I use a temp gun and a digital. I had posted some pictures up for FR, but I'll throw some more up. Do you have some of yours? Also I've since lowered the basking spot, not that he wasn't using it, but it did seem a bit excessive. These enclosures are new, so I'm still working out kinks in 'em.

Sorry, forgot this image.

Ha, sorry I didn't even pay attention to what post this was. I thought it was on the older one.

Gee, it`s nice to know I`m not the only one who makes silly mistakes... Thanks for joining me!!