Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently had to take in two animals from my job, one being a Savannah Monitor. He is about 2 1/2 - 3 feet long. He is pretty obese in my eyes. I'm posting a picture so everyone can see what I mean. He might be mine permanantly, or until I can find him a good home. It was supposed to be temporary, so now I have to get a bunch of stuff for him at the pet store. It's going to be hard to afford, because I also have my other animals & the other animal I had to take home along with the monitor (a Uromastyx).

Now, my main question right now is, is there anyone he could lose weight? Anything I can do for him to help him out?

Thanks!
Jackie

he is not too bad, just keep him on mice and rats every 3-4 days and give him plenty of room to exercise, possibly even keep him on a soil substrate to promote digging, which burns lots of energy. I feed most my monitors baby chics and mice, with groud turkey from time to time, and i dont have a problem with obesity even with their feeding schedule of every other day for my still growing monitors while my adults eat much more infrequently.
good luck
scott
baltimore MD

This Sav does not look obese.
I can see a ridge on it's back and the tail base is not that heavy (tail base is where the fat should go on a healthy Sav)
It does look like one that has not been kept hot enough and fed the wrong diet though (it has that look that people get when they eat fast food daily =P )

It's also very dark (could be just the picture though ) but Sav that are that dark usually have a dietary problem.
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Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com - Ron St.Pierre

The picture does him no justice, he is lighter than that but he is still a grayish color, the picture just came out dark.

Next a basking light made from hardware store floodlights (45 watt is what I use) to heat his entire STV length at once, on a plywood surface. Next dont starve him but feed small food items (small adult mice)over a long period of time often, feed insects (crickets roaches) for exercise, if you allow him to go without food he will mobilize his fat reserves causing hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disorder), happens during a fast not while building the weight. Hiogh basking temps and good ambients, as well deep dirt to dig in will burn it off and build muscle. Weight lose will occur over months safely, not sudden loss, thats not safe at all.