Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a friend who recently purchased a baby savannah moniter i would say its approximately 8 inches. i was just curious about certain up keep for it, he isn't very interested in doing much research which i know doesn't make him look good he likes to think that what the pet store told him is as good as gold. I had to disagree with some of the things they were saying and judgeing by some of the other cages i cant say they knew exactly waht they were doing. Anyway tey told him they could keep it in a 10 gallon tank for right now and that it wouldnt need UV light and could eat crickets and pinkies and pretty much anything. It seemed a little off to me mainly about the UV light normally that is important for any diurnal animal. thanks for any help

hahaha, that was for you jody. i am kidding. technically they are not fossorial, they only spend part of their time underground.

they are correct. however, i don't know what else was said so i will fill in the gaps with some decent advice.

yes, you can keep a hatchling sav in a 10 gallon. as it grows older though (like within the next couple months) you will need to move up. perhaps a good enclosure for it while it is growing would be a 55 gallon with a plexi glass top with a vent on the cool end.

i don't know if they talked about substrate. savs are diggers. you can dig dirt up out of your yard. if you live in a place that that is not feasible, you can pick up a half yard of sandy loam from the local nursery if you have to.

savs don't need uv and don't show any benefits to it. i would give the sav a bank of lights (two forty watt bulbs) so that the basking is at around 140. the ambient should be 84-86 approximately and the cool end should be around 78-80. i would buy a temp gun, they are good tools.

i supplement everything i feed to my monitors. others will disagree with me though. i use minerall.

you can feed it pinks and crickets, that is a good diet. just remember that savs will gorge themselves to obesity. you need to watch out for that. you want to see a monitor that has good weight with the ability to easily navigate a burrow.

and yes, i have kept savs. they are a lot of fun.

andrew

I wonder about how fossorial they are. I've raised two sav's up from hatchlings; one died of heart failure at three years age, ones' going strong at 5(ish?). They both started out digging massively, when they were small, and would construct elaborate burrows. However, as they grew larger they seemed to stop. They'll still dig, but only for food. It's really pretty funny actually; if the feeder insects congregated in a certain place, or if the (thawed) feeder rat set a while before getting eaten, after eating, basking, and going back to cruising mode, they'll dig at the area where the greatest concentration of prey smell/chemical traces seems to be. The holes/burrows seem to hold well, but they get torn up eventually; General would always mess them up when he went schizo and George just seems to tear the top off of them for fun.
So maybe they're less fossorial as they age? I know in some species marked habitat changes occur with age, esp. in Komodos (they become less and less arboreal with age). It could also be that their fossorial tendencies in the wild relate to the location of prey rather than any innate desire to dig.

No wonder Savs are some commonly collected for the pet and hide trade, they must be laying all over the ground, all you have to do is pick them up. Man that must be neat, adult savs laying all over the place. Nice FR

Sarcasm suites you.
Seriously, I do recall that they're inveterate diggers in the wild,and capable ones in captivity, which is what makes me wonder about them digging for food; mind don't/didn't just tear a little dimple in the ground, they'd dig a full fledged tunnel/burrow in the area around the scent. It's just they seem to tear it up through casual use, and they don't just dig; they dig only where the prey has been. It makes one think

people run, but will they run of quicksand? they swim, but will they swim in a pond of oil? We dig holes, but whats the sense if there is nothing to dig for and no place to dig.

I have a gopher(rodent) it dug as a baby, but now no longer digs, so gophers are not really diggers?? I have a gopher(tortoise) it never dug, so gophers do not dig either.

I wonder if the temps were perfect and humidity was perfect, and there was no predators, and no people, and food was just sitting there in a bowl, wild savs may not dig either. On the otherhand, maybe your sav thinks its in a burrow, after all, its in a cave(cave) thats in another cave(room) thats in a bigger cave(house) thats burrow entrance is always closed(door) How deep am I suppose to go?

I don't know, I keep albigs, I did have savs once, they both burrowed a lot as adults, but then silly me, I think I allow reasons for them to burrow like they do naturally.

Well I guess sarcasm is used because, you sound so smart yet do not understand that animals do things out of inherent behavior, learned behavior and need. If the tools or reasons are not there, then well, you have a tomato(more sarcasm). Your job is to give your monitor what it needs to be a monitor and do what its designed to do, then judging it will be much more accurate and fun.

You have to admit, its funny that your sav, in your house, in your cage, does not burrow like its suppose to, I wonder why? Thanks for allowing the sarcasm. FR

Actually, Frank, if you read my post, you'll recognize that I mentioned I know they're inveterate diggers in the wild. I'm actually trying to get at why they dig. You mention inherent/innate behavior, hunting, predator avoidance, learned versus innate behavior etc.

Well, I can't account for the first one; I can't read thier minds. However, as for hunting; I feed live insects on a regular basis, so he does get to do that (and as I've been saying, it does seem a trigger). Predator avoidance? I don't really handle him very often (although he does come climb on me occasionally during water changes) so he likely doesn't percieve a predator to hide from. I don't have friends over, exept for my fiancee and she doesn't handle him very often (ever) either.

I highly doubt my husbandry's perfect; I keep him with a good temp gradient (115/120-80), diggable substrate, decent sized (soakable) water dish, climbing and basking oppurtunities, etc. The substrate is moderatly damp but not very; it's moist, espically around the water dish, but not wet to the touch. So it seems good, or at least I think so, and their behavior seems to pretty well indicate. However, everything perfect? Doubt it.
Could it think it's in a burrow? Possibly. Like I said I can't read it's mind. But I dont' see how. The cage isn't low, although it's smaller than I'd like over all (5X2X3). He does have visible lights, in the form of both flourescent and incandesnt.

So how do you allow reasons for them to burrow naturally? Inquiring minds want to know; I actually think the behavior is pretty cool, and always enjoyed watching other animals I keep burrow (Pitouphis comes to mind). Watching animals without the benefit of a shovel, or even hands, construct huge burrows is fundamentally cool.

I think I've possibly removed some of the impulse but not the ability. Trying to give back the impetus would be cool, and if (big IF) I can find out why they dig, I can do that. But I gotta find out first, or I'm just shooting in the dark.
Oh yeah, and as for learned behavior, they did both burrow fine as babies. So learning how to dig isn't an issue. They seem to know how.

Its been a while but didn't that guy Bennett(?) find that baby sav's tended to stay in trees when young? They feed on insects and avoid the predators on the ground. Mine would always like to climb until they got too big and couldn't hang on.

Its nice to see that the UV thing has finally died off. That used to be one of the biggest arguments with monitors a few years ago when I used to frequent this forum.

Check my web site for basic care and other info covering most aspects of sav raising your friend will experience. Good and bad.

You don't have to check a dictionary when reading my stuff...8)

Stan's Savs