Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought my monitor about 5 months ago, thinking it was a malnourished sav., but it has onli grown about 3 inches (hes only 9 inches right now), has a longer neck, darker coloration, and is skinnier than any of my frens sav.s, I feed him as many crickets as he'll eat every day, and occasionally give him fish, pinkies, or the rarer piece of egg. His basking spot is around 110-120, and at the coolest ends of the tank, the temp. is about 80-85. lol,it possible he's a midget? or is he another species altogether? also, since 1 of his sheds a month ago, hes taken on a greenish tint... sorry it doesn't show much in the pic, i'm using a camera phone.

The bulb attage is way too high, or the cage has a screen top allowing too much moisture and heat to escape which in turn causes you to use a higher wattage bulb. One or many othe the above reasons occured in your situation. The cool end of the cage should be between 68f and 75f, not 80-85f, thats an air temp you would expect to se on the warm end. Ty also deep digable dirt to allow the animals to hide preserve moisture etc. The basking temp you mention is that an air temp (probe thermometer, or surface temp from an infared thermometer? The basking temp should be a surface temp of 130f plus but the air temp there will be around 80-90f. If they eat good (daily, whole animal foods) and they burn it off without growing then they are not able to grow because either not enough food, or too high of temps, which the temps can also cause dehydration in turn, its a vicious circle.