Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We've got the baby sav in a 15 gallon setup on paper towel with a water dish, hide box and his heat is proper...but we only brought him home maybe 5 days ago and he hasn't eaten very much...only a couple crickets and he seems to be getting pretty skinny.

Any suggestions??? Help?
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Chris Vanderwees

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Jaye- " When you try of all your forces to make your own way, you will help some of others and will be helped by others. As long as you do not make your own way, you cannot help anybody, and nobody can help you. " (Shunryu Suzuki)

We tried to hydrate him with some pedialyte and we got a few crickets in his mouth which he swallowed but he just puked them up an hour later or so.

What now???

Any suggestions???
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Chris Vanderwees

E-mail Me
1.3.0 Veiled Chameleons
3.2.0 Corn Snakes
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2.2.0 California Kingsnakes
1.3.0 South Florida Kingsnakes
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Baby monitors have very finiky tummies. Is the monitor in a glass tank w/ a screen top????? What are your temps????? A monitor of any age will gurg it's food if it's not hot enough. Monitors need plenty of heat in order to digest their food. If they don't get that the food spoils in their tummy and decays. So in turn the monitor throws it back up. Check your temps first before anything else. Also keep trying to hydrate the monitor. Soak the small one in room temprature pedialite non-flavored. Monitors absorb water through their skin also.
Your temps need to be 120-130 basking, 95 ambient, and 85 at the lowest on the cool side. Are you getting these temps?
Also only having the baby five days the poor kid is still really stressed out. Hatchling monitors take a lot longer to aclimate compared to an adult or a juvie. Most babies die due to the stress incurred on their fragile little bodies.
Also if your handling the monitor in any way, especially after eating, stop. That also could be stressing it and yes a baby monitor will gurg due to stress or handling on a full tummy.
Best of luck with your new baby.
Christine

Yup the temps are good...we put in lots more hide boxes to make the poor guy feel more comfortable...he used to only have one now he's got 5 or so. His hot spot is a flat rock with a surface temp of 115 so I'm sure that the temps are fine...abient ranges from 88-95. At night temps drop to 70-75.

He's in a 20 gallon with paper towel...cardboard hides (out of granola bar boxes and whatnot, a water dish, and the flat rock which is under the basking spot with the surface temp above.

I think we're going to leave him alone totally for a couple days and let him get a little calmed down then maybe we'll try crickets again.
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Chris Vanderwees

E-mail Me
1.3.0 Veiled Chameleons
3.2.0 Corn Snakes
1.3.0 Tokay Geckos
2.2.0 California Kingsnakes
1.3.0 South Florida Kingsnakes
1.1.0 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snakes
1.5.0 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Green Iguanas
3.4.0 Mali Uromastyx
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor

Assuming he doesn't have any serious problems like illness, just leave him be, put the water dish in and food and leave him be. Ensure humidity 0f 40-50% since its a savanna monitor. Basking spot maybe around 42 degrees celsius. That should be sufficient.

My water was the same when I first got him, very skinny, the previous owner was force feeding him. I put him in the tank, left food and a water container and by the second day he was eating happily by himself. THat was almost two months ago. He's doing fine now, no more loose skin or anything.

Try not to go near the cage or disturb him for awhile too. Let him get acclimatised to the new surroundings.

Firstly your basking spot shouldnt be just a rock laying under the heat lamp, you should offer it a variety of temps under the heat source with the highest of those choices being around 130f. Go to proexotics.com and check their facts and look for the Retes Stack, and build something similar for your monitor. Allow your sav to make the choices , hes the expert not us. Also you say your night time temps drop to 70-75? This is a no no! Your temps should never drop below 80 degrees! This is one reason so many monitors get RI. So watch that. Also make sure you have a water dish large enough for it to climb in and soak, and please if you are using a screen top you'll need to switch to a plexiglass or wooden one to hold in the moisture. Screen tops dehydrate monitors more often than not. Hope ive helped.
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Jaye- " When you try of all your forces to make your own way, you will help some of others and will be helped by others. As long as you do not make your own way, you cannot help anybody, and nobody can help you. " (Shunryu Suzuki)

Thanks, that actually helps a lot. We'll be leaving him alone (without any food) for the next few days to let him calm down then maybe we'll try crickets again.

The water dish is fairly large and he can get into it easily.

He seems to be a little bit more like himself today...I went to chenge his water and he hissed and tried to tail whip so I think that's a good sign...

anyway, I'll keep you guys posted.
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Chris Vanderwees

E-mail Me
1.3.0 Veiled Chameleons
3.2.0 Corn Snakes
1.3.0 Tokay Geckos
2.2.0 California Kingsnakes
1.3.0 South Florida Kingsnakes
1.1.0 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snakes
1.5.0 Leopard Geckos
0.1.0 Green Iguanas
3.4.0 Mali Uromastyx
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor

Actually, my temps get down below 75 at night in my Sav's enclosure and I've never had a problem with RI as long as she's given sufficient temps during the day to warm up properly. I give her a very wide range of temps.. from 145 degrees at the top of her basking spot...with 3 10 degree drops and then the cool end around 83 degrees... at night the ambient temp drops to between 73 and 78 depending on the room temp..So far no ill effects and I've had her for over a year now keeping her the same way all the time. I also know alot of other people who have healthy Sav's who's night time temps drop into the low 70's with no problem.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.1.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short) and 1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

but i wouldnt recommend it to anyone. This may very well be fine for you but my enclosures will never drop below 80 degrees. I too have never had a problem but if betting was my addiction i'd bet you that your animal would fall ill before mine would and then we'd be right back here except it would be you that im giving this advice to, dont let your temps drop below 80f.
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Jaye- " When you try of all your forces to make your own way, you will help some of others and will be helped by others. As long as you do not make your own way, you cannot help anybody, and nobody can help you. " (Shunryu Suzuki)

What are the average nighttime temps within the Savannah Monitors' natural range?

Truthfully, in their range Bosc's have a very large variety of temps... Annual lows in Kenya can reach 17C or 62 F or thereabouts... So to say that night time temperatures lower than 80 degrees will cause them to contract RI's is almost completely unfounded. They regularly will suffer natural temperature drops, and sometimes on a nightly basis of much lower than that. Reference this page for climate in parts of V. Exanthematicus natural range:

www.kenyalogy.com/eng/info/clima.html
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.1.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short) and 1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)