Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been reading a lot on this forunm it seems that you know quite a lot about savannah monitors and I have a few questions for ya about my baby savannah.I bought him the 22 of april he is about 4 1/2 or 5 inches at the most.When I brought him home the first day he was pounding some crickets he ate about 8 or so and was feeding regulary on the dusted crickets untill I decided to feed him some pinkies about 4 days ago.He ate one whole pinkie and a day or so later I fed him another chopped into pices because it was too big for for him to eat.Since then he has not been eating any crickets when I offer them to him.When I read your post below you said you offer your baby savannah 2 pinkies a week plus crickets and it made me wonder why all of a sudden mine wont eat like when I first got him.Right now I have him set up in a 55 gallon tank with foil covering the screen his basking spot is around 120 and his cool end is 80.The temp gun I had before had water damage and it was giving me some crazy readings so I went out today and bought a new one.I have nice hides set up for him but I am having a real hard time getting his basking site to 130 I dunno if it is the type of bulb (65 watt flood light not the helogen type) or if it is the the crappy screen lid.If you could get back at me on how you have your baby savannah basking site set up so I can try something new because I have been stacking drift wood pices to get a nice basking spot but its not working for me.sorry the post is so long but if you could get back at me and tell me how you would go about setting up a 55 gallon tank for a baby savannah I would appreciate it greatly and any info on all of a sudden he is not interested in the crickets any more.

Thanks a bunch

First things first, I am by no means an expert on savs or any other monitors. I have just been lucky enough to learn how to keep them alive and healthy.
When you say basking spot, I take it you mean surface temp since you are using a temp gun.
Is the light on the screen or in the cage?
You basking fix is easy, you can do it one or two or three ways.
But first lets address why you aren't getting the temps you want.
Driftwood is either thick wood or hollow,it will heat up but it will take some time. You can lower the light closer to the basking spot, add a flat rock to the top of the basking spot or build a platform using scrap plywood.
Another problem with new keepers is they don't have the patients to live the poor critter alone, they have to get it out and hold it and this causes stress. A stressed out lizard will not eat or be healthy.
Some are pickier than others, I have an adult female sav that will eat roaches all day, but will rarely eat mice.
She does like chicken peeps though. I have the one I just got from Kevin and it doesn't seem to be afraid to eat anything.
You need to see if you can lower the cool side a few degrees.
What are you using for substrate?
A good usable substrate will give the critter a cool spot to go to underground. I use about 6 to 8 inches of dirt from a local sand a gravel place.
Oh yeah, what is your humidity reading?

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Thanks for the reply. I am by no means stressing out my baby savannah by handling it.I like my monitor the way it is I realise that it is not a cat or dog and they do not enjoy being handled I just like it being the way he is I do not handle him, but maybe later on down the road I will when hes a little larger so he is not a monster that wants to tear me apart when I need to move him for some reason. By basking spot I do mean surface temp and yes the light is on the screen. The substrate I am useing is a soil/sand mix just regular dirt bought from my local lawn and gardening store and plain play sand all mixed together. My humidity is around 60% and I have 5 inches of substrate for him to dig in but he hasnt started to burrow yet because I only got him like a week ago. Today I stacked his basking site even closer to the bulb and im going to take the reading with the temp gun as soon as he gets done basking. I have a nice size water dish for him too but I never see him drink out of it but I know he uses it because I change it daily and the water is always has dirt in it. Also should I keep his soil moist on top when the top half inch or so dries out.