Savannah Monitor Help

And PLEASE do not base your care ideas on what you see on You tube. That site has alot of total garbage!

They do take vertebrates occasionally, but not rodents. Acceptible vertibrate prey includes american green tree frogs, corn snakes, fertilized quail egg, day old quail chicks, and small geckos.

Edit: Also, why do you use being captive as an excuse to not feed them the most natural diet?

Originally Posted by Merlin

And PLEASE do not base your care ideas on what you see on You tube. That site has alot of total garbage!

Oh.. Youtube is loaded with trash videos, half of those idiots pushing "instructional" videos have had a Sav for a week and think they are frigging experts.

You are among some of the best keepers around right here on this site, follow OUR guidance and you will have a happy healthy sav, follow their advice (youtube jerks) and you may have a year or two tops, but expect a gruesome ugly death at the end of it.

My caging may be a bit extreme, but is a good basic guide to go with..

My Overbuilt Savannah Monitor Enclosure.

That is the basic construction, here is some recent modifications...

I installed a 4 foot UVB light, the frame is from an aquarium light hood, so the humidity will not hurt it, I also used a cord from a Christmas light string with the tiny fuse in the plug so that if anything goes wrong the fuse will blow quickly...



To brighten up the "dark end"



Ground fault to keep the enclosure safe..



applied wood sealer to keep away mold..



I buried some drain pipe hides.. they have dirt on the bottom for a natural floor.



I dumped in some forest floor.



added a basking platform..



Live grass!!! yes.. I hacked up my lawn, but we have live grass in there.



This conceals the opening to the hide,



With these changes, I get these readings without any misting at all.

That`s a great build Wayne, well done!

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

No, don't put the lights on top of the towel. You don't want fabric of any kind touching the heat source. Just keep it clear of the lights, and you'll be fine.

As far as enclosures go, 8x4 is the minimum recommended size. Bigger is ALWAYS better.

Murrindindi, that doesn't even make sense. Restructure your sentence and try again.

Hi BarelyBreathing, in the hope of clarification, I`d ask you to explain who checked the whole population and found they NEVER take rodents in the wild in any part of their African range (your words), and if that`s the case, what on earth`s that you`re carrying around under every post; rodents WERE found!!
I stand by my advise, no animal will be harmed if keepers take it (including how to support their animal/s, of course).. Thanks, you`re surely a law unto yourself!

Ok one more thing. Since I'm going to build his big boy cage this weekend. What kind of lights and everything should I get. And should the enclosure be completely sealed?

Thanks for the build advice.

Murrindindi doesn't keep savannah monitors, nor has he once backed up his advice with evidence supporting his opinions (and that is exactly what they are), despite me nagging him several dozen times over several months.

To Jimmie, yes, your enclosure should be completely sealed, although some keepers opt for adding closeable floor type vents. For heat, use three 60 watt FLOOD lights (spot lights are bad because they cause burns) in a row. I also like to provide a linear UV-B bulb, 5.0 strength. You can also use low wattage halogen lights or leds for extra lighting.

Originally Posted by Jimmiemwarren

Ok one more thing. Since I'm going to build his big boy cage this weekend. What kind of lights and everything should I get. And should the enclosure be completely sealed?

I found that the tighter I sealed my cage, the more humidity it held without help.

Last night I turned on the cage lights and turned off the room lights, then I checked for leaks by light and found several hairline cracks, as soon as I sealed them down, my humidity went up a full 15% higher.

If your moisture is evaporating out into the room, it's of no benefit to your Monitor. Right now my cage is sustaining a 70% humidity level with the basking lights blaring and the dirt in there is staying nice and moist.

Hey my iPad won't let me upload these pictures off it, I'll have my wife put them up tomorrow morning.

I was able to get him to eat today, not out of the tongs, but at least he ate. I'm getting kinda concerned about his size. Y'all will see him tomorrow morning. Please take a look at the photos in the morning and let me know what you think I should do.

Hey y'all, if you could send me your email address in a message I can send you those pictures right now. If not then I'll have to wait till I get off work

Untitled Album | Facebook

As the old saying goes, as picture is worth a thousand words.
First off, I am no monitor expert but he does look a bit on the thing side. And the wrinkles in the skin could be a sign of dehydration.
You also need some different guages. Good digital ones. Both the circular dials as well as the strip thermometer are one step off of useless. The dials are notoriously inaccurate and the strip thermometer reads the temps of the glass it is stuck too, not the air inside the enclosure. Think touching an outside window in the winter. THAT is not the temp in your house unless you live in an igloo.

Ok cool thank you. What should I do about the dehydration? An about him being thin?