Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my Savanna for oh...almost 9 months to the day. She is my first monitor and ill admit that I have made a few mistakes in the past with her. The problem is that when we got her she was little more than 5 inches from nose to tip of the tail and now she is only about 9 maybe 10 inches. Ive been told that other monitors about the same age as mine have grown to twice that size. Since i started noticing this as a possible problem I have done things such as feed her a little more now she is eating about 18 crickets everyother day with the very occational ground turkey (I do not gut load or powder the crickets tell me if i should). Im prepared to feed her pinkies but i dont know if shes big enough. As for her cage, right now she is in a 40gal with bark chips as substrate. She has two hides one on the warmer side one on the cooler she prefers the warmer. And she does have a basking spot though im not exactly sure on the temps, im in the prosses of geting digital thermometers for her cage. One more thing about her cage is that right now we have a screen top for it, a UVB light a basking light and a florescent light. I was told to cover the top with somthing like a plywood cut out with holes for the lights, if thats a good idea tell me. Thats about all I can tell you please give me any advice you can but dont be to harsh hehe I am a beginner but at least im making every attempt to make things better.

Food plus Heat = Energy
Energy in a healthy young monitor = growth

Food: I would guess you are a bit off on quantities. I tend to think monitors require very little food to grow very fast, but I'm pretty sure any of my medium sized monitors were eating much more than that when they were a foot long. I'm always shocked at the enormous quantities of food people feed, but you are on the other end of that spectrum.

Heat: You need to know the temps, at least have an idea about them, it is as (or in my opinion more) important as food, in fact more food without proper temps can create problems in itself.

Dusting: I would dust them, at least sometimes, especially if they aren't getting calcium from other sources.

Turkey: I've never used it, I doubt I ever will. Normal ground turkey is not really all that useful, whether the SDZ Turkey diet is good, comparable, etc, I don't know, but that is completely different than just plain ground turkey.

Mice,Pinkies,Fuzzies: I would expect it to be able to handle a small fuzzy with ease, best way to see is to try. As long as they can get it down without too much work, all is good.

Screen Top: Ditch it, cover the top, it will be much easier to get the temps somewhere workable for the monitor.

Health: All this is assuming the lizard is actually healthy, if it doesn't seem to have an appetite for more food, and/or you still don't feel it's doing well, by all means take it to a qualified vet.

Temps again: You need to know them, not down the degree, but at the very least approximates. We do not know whether your basking temp is 75F or 350F, or whether the 'cool' retreat is 40F or 180F?

Re-evaluate the basics (look at the link below), correct, and good luck.

--Robert
Captive FAQ