Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all,
If you read the post yesterday you know my roommate and I found a released savanna monitor and he is now caged. I've researched monitors in the past when deciding if getting one was a possibility. I'm taking him to my vet in 2 days when I take a recently adopted kitten there for her physical. Yes, with my other snakes and 200 gals of aquariums I own a menagerie of animals. But I've been searching the information online and have some questions regarding feeding. Some sites say high quality wet cat and dog food are good in small amounts, while others warn about the high fat content and this monitor's susceptibility to obesity and hepatic lipidosis. As for feeding a 15 inch juvi monitor, some have said 1-2 f/t adult mice twice a week with vitamin supplement gel for canines and felines works well. Some claim the mice diet makes them more aggressive. Some say ground meats work well, while others say they lack fiber for a good diet. I understand variety is the spice of life and health for any animal, but what are the tried and true feeding sources you savanna monitor keepers use.
As for caging (4X2X2 for now) and feeding requirements, I can afford the space and money to keep this monitor. He may have been abused by his previous owner, he joins the other rescues I now have. A side note he is in quarantine until his clean bill of health from fecal and other testing come through. He has eaten one adult mice with vitamin gel injection this morning (heartily and quickly upon introduction) and has a 95 F basking spot with ambient cage temp of 80-85 during the day. He also has a limb he’s using for basking right now.
Thanks,
Aaron
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"Bones heal, chicks dig scars. Pain is temporary, glory is forever."
-Evil Knevel

Basking spot needs to be higher, around 130 surface temp.

There are a lot of posts on the proper husbandry of Sav's. I know there are at least 5 on another forum, so I expect you would find at least that many here. (This site is more frequently visited.)

Whole food items seem to be the favorite among the long-timers. What foods are "best" seems to be a point that is passionately argued, from many perspectives. What I can tell you that is somewhat nuetral is that Sav's are opportunistic feeders. They are very resourceful and can tolerate many foods from insects and birds, to rotting carion. So, you "can" feed them just about anything you can find. For optimum health, however, fat-rich foods like dog and cat food should be avoided, in my oppinion. These, and other similar foods, are prone to causing health problems for reptiles.

What we feed our rapidly growing sav is crickets dusted with nutrients nearly daily, canned monitor food in small quantities with calcium supplements two to three times a week. We are trying to get her to take whole foods like pinkies. We've had her for 2 1/2 months. She recently had metabolic bone disease due to insufficient calcium. Pay particular attention to ensuring there is enough calcium available. Insects alone will not provide this without a supplement. And, nutrient and vitamin supplements do not provide calcium in most cases. Also, stay away from relying soley on canned or processed foods. These can also cause obesity in reptiles. These are best used to ensure specific things are taken, in our case, the liquid calcium prescribed by her vet. We have noticed that during our sav's recovery, she has developed a preference for the canned food, no doubt because it requires no work and is put right in front of her face. So, we now have to retrain her to take pinkies, a more stable, balanced and reliable food source. (Our sav is 10".)

I think the fairest thing to say is that proper diet will take some time and money from you to ensure the quality foods that sav's thrive on are offered. Turkey, chicken, crickets, mealworms, superworms, mice and rats are a good place to start. Spend time evaluating your sav and its particular needs. If it is dehydrated or under-nourished, I would recommend using the canned foods to make delivering the needed meds and vitamins easy on the animal during recovery. Then ween the animal off of this and move it over to a varied diet of whole foods. Keep in mind, if it has been outside for awhile and is dehydrated, large meals will further dehydrate the animal. Offer pedialite or similar product. I would also recommend feeding smaller meals twice a day until the animal recovers its strength, vigor and water stores. (If hydration is not a problem, feed on a normal schedule.)

I have never read or been told about this method for rehydrating animals, but we have used this technique a few times on animals we took from pet stores, and a local vet who found sav's that were improperly cared for. It works very well to nurse them back to health.

Sorry for the long winded response. I hope there is something useful in there for you.

temps are up to 125 in the basking spot with a full spec 150 bulb outside and pointed at the enclosure and the ambient is at 88 F. Dehydration shouldn't be a problem with this monitor since FL is mighty moist and with huricanes it has rained in my area for the past week almost everyday. It appears fine, hasn't tried to drink from the water bowl and has just basked and climbed it's limb.
The vitamin supplement is "Vital Cal Nutrional Gel" from DermCare. The gel actually contains protein, the omega fatty acids, calcium, and a slew of vitamins and minerals. So I think this might be a good all around supplement to inject the mice with. I may buy some chicken to feed, but will stick to whole ft rodents since with my snakes these are in large supply. This monitor is probably too big for crickets, but superworms might do it. He's actually 22 inches including tail, with about 14 of that being body. He is thick and well muscled, and doesn't appear underfed or troubled. The vet will give me the final verdict on overall physical and internal health.
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"Bones heal, chicks dig scars. Pain is temporary, glory is forever."
-Evil Knevel

A hungry savannah monitor will eat anything it percieves as food, as will most other varanids. But what is best for it? The savannah knows that better than any of us ever will, but the field reports on them, and if you get Daniel Bennett's recent book on savannah monitors, it will suggest insects, insects, insects....so try insects (dust with calcium, minerals), and see how he/she goes for that.

I have a hard time with 'retrain to feed pinkies' you stated; is this suggesting it will not eat pinkies and you want it too? Is this force feeding it something it does not want to eat? Would this be analogous to eating Gerber baby food at age 30? (my brother ate it until 30 w/his daughters!) Why force it to eat something YOU want it to eat rather than something if would prefer to eat? You might try this: put a variety of foods into little glass bowls (aka finger bowls) and put them into the terraria simutaneously and see which one (bowl) it goes too = try this a number of times and from the varied selection, it wil tell you which foods it prefers, and then perhaps go with that??

They are doing this same idea with a captive white shark in Monterey CA aquarium = first Carcharadon carcharis to feed in captivity! We are the ones who need to adjust our regimens to their needs (I think) rather the other way around (in my opininon)...

cheers,
mbayless

I also want to make sure she gets a balanced diet. Prior to her getting sick, she showed interest in pinkies but wouldn't take them. We have offered pinkies three times. Each time she has shown no interest at all. I am confident that she is getting everything she needs because we are supplementing crickets and her canned food. Also, she is growing like a weed! Her tail is fat. Her limbs are strong and bulky. And she's fast!

I like the recommendation of various foods at once. I'm definetly going to try that.

Good tip. Thanks.

Your welcome...have fun testing it out. For canned food, I would avoid it all together, as these 'garbage' protein/inert meals have alot against them nutrition wise; the protein is too high for varanids metabolism and is stored in the liver, which can over long exposure tax this organ and when liver is sick, you're a goner! Livers in reptiles fed dog/cat food tend to have spotty livers, very hard to touch, and smell horrible - whereas a healthy liver will look dark brown, no spots, no smell anywhere in organs (except inside intestines/cloaca perhaps)...

cheers,
mbayless