Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The Savannah I purchased yesterday (his previous owner named him Bacchus) is obese. I will try to trim him up with exercise. he was in a tank that was tiny so probably did not move around a lot.
Is there any reason that a monitor could not be a 'house lizard' confined to, let's say, the kitchen such as mine with vinyl flooring with a basking light and water dish? If digging is required for their mental health, I could always put a catbox size container of dirt in a corner. What do y'all think? I have materials I purchased yesterday before I did all the research yesterday evening, for an enclosure 2x2x4, I could construct it with a door he could walk in and out of, and put his basking light and a box of dirt in there?

i dont think you would want a sav in your kitchen or even out of a cage at all. Those things are big and mean so watch out.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Mine is not that way now?

i have 3 savannah monitors and they are like kittens it all depends on how much time you dedicate to them some are nippy ,but if you respect them and spend time with them they can be wonderfull

sorry worded that wrong. If you let them roam what i am saying is that if they are hungry and are roaming and know you mean food they may or may not try to bite you.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Mean is the least of your worries when keeping a monitor in your kitchen. Unless the climate (temperature, humidity etc) in your kitchen matches that of African savannah, your lizard is going to live a short, unhealthy life.

You are better off building a large, heated enclosure with the entire bottom filled with dirt, not just a kitty litter box full. It's much easier to control the temperature and humidity in an enclosure than trying to replicate the tropics in your kitchen. In the few years I have been hanging around this forum, there have been a few very nice people posting photos of their large, house roaming monitors. A few different species, all tame, all looked like healthy animals. Coincidentally or not, all of those monitors are now dead and not one died of old age. The causes of death were different in each case, so it may have nothing to do with them being free roaming, but my gut feeling says their resistance was compromised from living in sub-optimal conditions.

What was I thinking.....but between the folks here who are being very patient with my idiotic ideas, and my hours of research, I'll hopefully get it right. I am talking to someone about buying their homemade enclosure, if that doesn't work out I will be building one of my own.