Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how fast can a sav monitor grow in its first year? can it get a foot or longer in its first year? how many years will it take till it is it full size?

It can and probably will reach almost its full growth in its first year when fed correctly.. thats about 2.5 ft to anywhere near 4 ft as far as I know. My Sav, which I got in May at 8 inches long total.. is now almost 23 inches in total length.. Thats almost tripling her length in 5 months..
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Lucien

1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
2.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 1 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)

Ive seen males grow to 39 inches total length at a year old, yet some are only 10 inches at a year old. In the wild they live in very very harsh conditions, yet are 12-24 inches at a year old. Many boscs dont live to see a year old in captivity.

why is it that some captives dont live over a year? from people not caring for them right?

The local pet store sells a $5 monitor they bought to you for $20-50 and tells the new owner a 10 gallon aquarium for now, crickets, ocaisional pinky mice for care. They dontknow how to properly care for them and dont care what happens when it leaves with your money in their cash register. Along with people not spending the time and money to set them up the way they need to, the result is dehydration manifesting in kidney to liver damage, many other health problems that seem nothing related. Some live a year or so but die of these similar problems. The animal is the cheapest part of their purchase and care, the food is most expensive, followed by cageing, heat, etc.

i got my sav for only $15 at a rep expo, i didn't notice he looked kind of bad till later, he was skinny, his eyes lookd weird, he was kinda green. but after a day or so in his tank he was fine, hes fattening up, hes very perky, before when i pickd him up he would just lay in my hand, now i have to hold on to him pretty well or he will jump or wiggle his way out. his cage is usually around 95 degrees, he has a log he can climb to get as close to the heat lamp as he wants, he usually stays about 5 inches from is, its probably a basking spot of 100 degrees or more. he eats alot of meal worms and crickets and has eaten a few pinkies. no uvb light and occasionaly i sprinkle rep vitamins on his meal worms. he also has 2 hiding areas, on the hot and cool side of the tank, a pretty big water bowl, he could almost swim in it, and newspaper substrate. does this sound ok? any thing i need to change?

From 130 to 188 basking spots (surface temps) down to 68-75 on the opposite end in large enough areas to use those temps (for their whole bodies). Chances are if your bosc monitor is swimming he needs to cool off bad and needs to preserve water in his body, which he cant do because his environment is messed up and not close to what he wants. Bosc monitors dont like water, if they act like they do then somethings seriously wrong. Get Daniel Bennetts new book read it and ask questions from there on. Good luck and make the needed changes to his environment. Ask specific questions of specifics about his cage to be corrected as we cant see it.