Sav Roll Call

[dorton]

Just curious who all has savanah monitors? I just ended up with one yesterday on a trade, and am letting it get settled in. It has allready eaten and seems to be doing well. it is a CH 07 and is a pretty cool looking little dude. I'm kinda anxious to see how it turns out personality wise.
Later
Justin

 

[DZLife]

You might want to ask Mike (i don't know about RehabRalphy, but I mean the guy with the actual username Mike.) He's a good friend of mine and has a wonderful Savannah. I was just cuddling him a few days ago. (the savannah, not Mike)

 

[dorton]

Here are a few pics of mine.

 

[VARNYARD]

Too cool, but you are going to need more crickets, he is getting big enought that he will loose interest in those soom, he will be looking for larger prey items.

 

[dorton]

Yeah, he wolfed down about 40 in just a few minutes, then about a dozen large meal worms. I am going to feed invertibrates still, but it is already eating FT small mice. I am just wanting for it to have lots of variance in diet. I might go ahead and order 1000 or so super worm for it and my little tegu.

 

[angelrose]

Hi dorton, I have a savanah monitor he is with me for almost 3 years now. 'Bear' was about the size of yours when I got him and now he's about 4 ft. long, he's wide and very heavy. from the looks of the pics (cutie) it looks like he should be looking for something more, like hoppers/small mice as mine did at that size and then he will not want any more crickets and then him and the food only get alot bigger they love to eat all the time (watch they don't get obese) Bear is eating large frozen/defrosted rats now. :jadr .
ok, personality, way back in the beginning he would try to intimidate me but like usual you spend the time with them and feed him. in short, he is a big, heavy puppy loves to lay on your lap or next to you, take a nap on the sofa and most times he sleeps with my daughters (he will only leave when he is hungry) :-D believe it or not very sensitive and gets stressed easy if your not around

 

[shiftylarry]

If you want to talk monitors, hit me up any time. I can give you some tips for a setup. I'm assuming that's just what you're holding him in right now.

I can't tell if you were giving him a bath or not, but it isn't necessary. Savannah monitors never bathe in the wild. Compare the tails of exanthematicus (Savannah Monitor) and albigularis (white throat/blackthroat) to that of niloticus(Niles) and salvator(water monitor). You'll notice that the bulky African species have rounded tails, whereas the monitors such as the ones I mentioned have tapered tails. They are designed for swimming, and a large bowl of water should be provided. Giving a savannah a bath will just cause unnecessary stress. You can find videos on Youtube, but I think we all know by now that youtube is BS.

Look out for kaffir and MuffDaddy. They are immoral keepers who have a devout following on youtube. They promote tactics such as confined cages as punishment for bad reptile behavior and even holding their lizards underwater when they misbehave. All to "tame them down". Not to mention that MuffDaddy keeps 3 adult savannahs in a 75 gallon tank. It's sickening.

Best of luck! They are great pets.

-Chris

 

[dorton]

Thanks for the tips! For now he is in a 60gal. My plan is move the tegus outside when warmer weather comes around. I have an 8ftx4ftx4ft enclosure it will go in at that time. It loves FT rodents, but like I said, just throwing in some variety for now, I may even try some roaches and see how it likes them.
Thanks for the offer Chris, I might take you up on the advise.

 

[shiftylarry]

Roaches are probably the best thing you can feed him when he's young. Here's a list of some other choices:

Shrimp
Crayfish
Mussels
Chicks
Worms
Herring
Octopus
Locusts
and on and on and on

Basically any whole prey item, meaning fur, organs, bones ect is good. Whole prey items are a well rounded meal, and have much more nutrients than something like ground turkey, which is often recommended, but is basically just fat and protein. I see a lot of obese savannah monitors that have been fed dog food and ground turkey or beef. With any animal, a diet that is not nutritious will lead to over consumption. The animal keeps eating more and more food, hoping to fill their nutrient quota.

8x4x4 is great. It seems like you're going to give this guy a great life.

-Chris

 

[dorton]

I got the little guy out today, and it was gorgeous outside, so I decided to take him out in the backyard for a walk. It did great!!
It tried to run off to begin with, but then it calmed down. I just let it go where it wanted and I followed. I even let it climb a couple of trees.
There were a couple of times it came back to me, and tried to climb up my legs! I am super pleased. Now if I can just get my little tegu to wake up to play.

Oh, yeah. While we were out, a neighbor walked by and got a little freaked out with the monitor...I wish my big lady tegu was out and about, he probably would have ran!