Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just purchased my first baby savanna monitor. I have been keeping snakes successfully for several years but this little guy is bugging me.

Since the day I got him he seems very sluggish and doesnt do much besides lay around. He is ignoring the crickets I am putting in his cage. He is also ignoring mealworms. However, the first day I got him he took a pinky that I threw in there that was refused by my wifes baby ball python.

Hasent eaten since, its been three days and im getting worried, so I thawed out another pinky for him this morning. Wham! Took it right away. I have heard that its not good for a monitor to eat a diet of all rodents, and im wondering what I should do? Any and all help and suggestions for a new monitor owner would be appreciated.

Supplement the pinkies with a good vitamin/calcium supplement until it can eat bigger mice.There's nothing wrong with rodent diets.Usually once they taste mice,they don't want crickets anymore.

So I should get some vitamins and dust the thawed pinkies before I can give him them? I can do that.

Should he be eating 1 pinky a day then?

Yes on the dusting and how big is your Sav?(to answer the food question)

7 or 8 inches from nose to tip of tail? Rough estimate, havent checked for sure yet.

7-8" can't be more than a few weeks old.1 pinky is fine.Check it's belly,don't let it's stomach get too bloated looking.They will almost eat until they explode.Use your judgement,but feed them well.

Good Luck!

Its aspen mulch. Cheapest I could get at the local pet store

first of all, that isn't mulch, those are shavings, whether they are pine or aspen, consider something that holds more humidity...

check out our caresheet for Savannahs at our site. care for hatchlings is pretty straightforward.

your situation sounds like 1000 other first time Savannah monitor keeper setup situations, i would check temps, setup, and diet, and start at square number one.

a baby Savannah should be ravenous, active, and probably trying to bite or whip your fingers off.

99% of the time, a "lazy" non feeding baby Sav points directly to substandard setup and temps. get those things squared away and on track, and the animal should eat a ton of food every single day. and with proper basking temps, you should feed just about as much as the little guy will eat.

care for these guys isn't difficult, but you do have to meet a few minimum settings like food, heat, and water to at least have a shot at success and a healthy animal.

is your baby Ball also a first snake of that type? baby Ball pythons come out of the egg eating hopper and small adult mice, they are entirely too big for a pinkie mouse, you will have a better feeding response with an appropriately sized prey item, that is one that is the same diameter as the widest part of the snake. pinkie mice are for baby Corns : )

best of luck.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Thank you for the advice. i will be switching to pesticide free dirt soon. As far as the temps go, I have no belly heat on him right now, just a singly standard light fixture in the back corner of the cage. This is a VERY temporary cage setup and I was wondering was wattage bulb I should use to get the correct basking/ambient temps?

As for the ball, no that is not my first one. I generally like to have the first meal be small, to make sure there is no regurge. After it takes a pinky, I switch to appropriatly sized feeders.