Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I grossly overestimated the monitor's weight at my humane society. I feel much better, that seems like a reasonable weight. He is a little over 3 feet long. If I go back over there today I'll take some pictures. He has not gone to the bathroom but when he does I'll bring in a fecal to see if his lethargy is caused by parasites.

Peter

if you mean that the sav is not always active, likes to stay in only a few places and only moves to bask, eat and drink, then the sav is a normal sav. mine are all lazy. (i keep two at my place: 1 baby and one adult), Christine has several at her place. All very lazy.

cheers

ps: i keep all my monitors in a similar manner that you can view on my site under "caresheet"
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Varanus Creations

Lethargic means to be lazy not over weight if thats what you mean. If hes lazy then yeah, dont worry, mine is lazy too, all he does is eat, drink, bask, hide, etc, etc. All monitors do that. Speaking of weighing monitors, whats the normal weight for a monitor almost a foot in length (counting the tail though). I think my monitor is about a lb or more.

At that size they should be about 3-6lbs. Even my big bosc was a bit overweight at 10lbs and 4.5 ft.

Does he look hugely overweight from the picture above? Any advice on diets? I know that overweight savannahs are prone to fatty liver disease which usually happens when the monitor STOPS eating. The body tries to mobilize the fat reserves and does so too quickly and the liver cannot handle it. Maybe small meals (small mouse?) each day or every other day? If his owner calls I'll talk to him about his monitor being overweight and if he doesn't I'll foster him and get him on a better diet and hopefully some excercise.

Peter