Hi All,
So as regards an earlier post I was hoping to see what all the Savannah monitor owners are doing with their animals. I would like to have this be a private matter that is sent to me in PM as I feel like people will likely answer more truthfully to the following questions. Please understand a couple things. Firstly, that I will most likely at some point be using this information collectively in an article on captive care. Secondly, that I will never use any personal information such as names, forum handles, or any other information that could trace anything back to a particular owner. In other words, I would never use any specific information in any public forum about a particular keeper or their practices. I am merely hoping to gather a larger sample size of how people are keeping this animal and any successes that might have come as a result. If you have the time please answer these questions for me and send them to me as a PM, unless you dont care and just want to answer them here.
1. How many Savannah monitors do you have, and what are the sexes of the animals, if known?
2. How old was the animal when you got it? If you do not know the age for sure, do you know how large the animal was?
3. How old is the animal now, and how large? If possible please give both length and weight.
4. Please describe everything you know about its care prior to your receiving it. Example, what habitat was it kept in? What was it fed? Was it kept with other Savannahs? Was it captive bred, captive hatched or wild caught?
5. What is the habitat you are presently keeping your Savannah(s) in? Please give measurements, substrate, depth of substrate, humidity and temperature, light source, etc.
6. What do you feed your monitor? Do you supplement their diet with any vitamin or mineral powders/sprays? Please be as specific as possible regarding species (if known) and percentage of total diet.
7. Do you raise your own feeder animals? If so what do you raise? If not, where do you buy your feeder prey?
8. How do you raise your feeders? Please give both the habitat for the feeder prey as well as the diet you raise them on.
9. What information source led you to the habitat and diet you presently have? Did you change these criteria at any point in your animals life? If so, when and why?
10. Have you ever owned Savannah's prior to the one(s) you have now? If so, please describe the same for those past monitors and why you changed your procedures. How old did the animal live and do you know the cause of death?
11. Have you ever bred this animal? If so how big was the clutch(es)? Of those eggs, how many hatched? Of those hatchlings, how many lived? Have those animals been raised to breeding age? If so, have they also bred?
Ive got a million more questions, but I dont want to go on endlessly. If the need arises I may try to contact each of you individually for further information. Honestly, I think with all the debate going on about various things, its past time for a survey of known practice and successes. This is genuinely about trying to see what is working and passing that information on to others. Thanks for your time and good luck with this amazing animal!
