Baby Salvator. Picture Heavy! Lots of Questions!

[Vegasarah]

Here's my new monitor lizard. Varanus Salvator. "Sumatran" I was told. Rescued from someone I know that felt the little love would be better off in my care than hers. She was given him by someone else that impulse bought it. So now she's living with me! We all know I love monitors and provide them with proper care as best I can. This little one is about 4 inches long tip to tip, not sure of weight or age. A little on the thin side, so I am going to be feeding her like crazy. This is what I was thinking as far as WEEKLY feeding goes:

Sun- 50 crickets
Mon- 10 super worms and SZD (if wont eat it, fertile goose egg)
Tue- 30 regular meal worms
Wed- 25 small dubia
Thur- 10 wax worms and SZD (if wont eat it, fertile goose egg)
Fri- 3 to 5 whole f/t silversides
Sat- 3 to 5 f/t pinkie mice

My Nile and my Savannah gets pretty much the same, just in larger amounts. I like to provide as much variety as I can while keeping their bellies full. Soemtimes I get nightcrawlers or goliath worms or phoenix worms if I can find them as a treat. She's too small right now for baby quail or chicks but that will come with time.

Enclosure: 6' x 2' x 18".
Substrate: Banked and a 50:50 sand:soil mixture
Basking: Single flood light, 125 degrees at hottest
Temps: 80 cool side, 90 warm side
Humidity: 80 cool side, 30 warm side

Anything I should change? Anything I could add other than some more climbing/ hiding areas? If I buy minnows for her water feature will she hunt them? Can she eat garden snails?

[smy_749]

Scratch the pinkies and cut up some fuzzies. You might not even need to cut them up honestly.

[metalcopper]

What a beauty! I am also a big fan of Water Monitors. Although, it's been many years since I've had one; my last one was about 4 feet long and his name was Dave. I've had a couple of small Nile's as well, but not nearly as docile as any Salvator I've had.

[murrindindi]

Here's my new monitor lizard. Varanus Salvator. "Sumatran" I was told. Rescued from someone I know that felt the little love would be better off in my care than hers. She was given him by someone else that impulse bought it. So now she's living with me! We all know I love monitors and provide them with proper care as best I can. This little one is about 4 inches long tip to tip, not sure of weight or age. A little on the thin side, so I am going to be feeding her like crazy. This is what I was thinking as far as WEEKLY feeding goes:

Sun- 50 crickets
Mon- 10 super worms and SZD (if wont eat it, fertile goose egg)
Tue- 30 regular meal worms
Wed- 25 small dubia
Thur- 10 wax worms and SZD (if wont eat it, fertile goose egg)
Fri- 3 to 5 whole f/t silversides
Sat- 3 to 5 f/t pinkie mice

Enclosure: 6' x 2' x 18".
Substrate: Banked and a 50:50 sand:soil mixture
Basking: Single flood light, 125 degrees at hottest
Temps: 80 cool side, 90 warm side
Humidity: 80 cool side, 30 warm side

Anything I should change? Anything I could add other than some more climbing/ hiding areas? If I buy minnows for her water feature will she hunt them? Can she eat garden snails?


Hi, I would cut out the mealworms and SDZ diet, the roaches can be at least the size of the monitors head, if not bigger. I would offer fuzzies not pinkies (more nutritious), fresh or saltwater fish and other sea/freshwater items. Garden snails are o.k if the monitor will take them (mine won`t touch them).
I don`t see any supplementary lighting, it`s important that the enclosure at least approaches daylight. I would also recommend using the low wattage halogen (flood) bulbs. Personally, I`m not a fan of banking the substrate at one end leaving the other half virtually empty.
The surface temp is fine (it can go higher), I would drop the coolest ambient to around 24c (75f). The ambient temp around the basking area isn`t important so long as it doesn't get too high.
The water needs to be heated to the mid 80`s to 90f, they often spend extended periods in there (it doesn`t necessarily mean they`re dehydrated).
They can catch live fish but it`s much easier to feed f/k or f/t, at least until the animal is acclimated to the enclosure and eating normally.
I think you meant to say it`s 14 inches ToL, it cannot be 4!?
Have you any idea how long it`s been in captivity?
By the way, you have a V. s. macromaculatus ("macromaculatus" means "large spots"), this subspecies is known to get over 270cm (9 feet) ToL.

[Vegasarah]

Scratch the pinkies and cut up some fuzzies. You might not even need to cut them up honestly.

I think he could power down a small fuzzie, probably. If not I'll cut it in half- I cut up the fish as well anyway.

[Vegasarah]

What a beauty! I am also a big fan of Water Monitors. Although, it's been many years since I've had one; my last one was about 4 feet long and his name was Dave. I've had a couple of small Nile's as well, but not nearly as docile as any Salvator I've had.

He's already much calmer than my Nile was when I first got him. He doesn't instantly go defensive like a nile, he waits and watches me before deciding to either hide or stand his ground. I don't harass my monitors, I let them do their thing a lot.

[Vegasarah]

Hi, I would cut out the mealworms and SDZ diet, the roaches can be at least the size of the monitors head, if not bigger. I would offer fuzzies not pinkies (more nutritious), fresh or saltwater fish and other sea/freshwater items. Garden snails are o.k if the monitor will take them (mine won`t touch them).
I don`t see any supplementary lighting, it`s important that the enclosure at least approaches daylight. I would also recommend using the low wattage halogen (flood) bulbs. Personally, I`m not a fan of banking the substrate at one end leaving the other half virtually empty.
The surface temp is fine (it can go higher), I would drop the coolest ambient to around 24c (75f). The ambient temp around the basking area isn`t important so long as it doesn't get too high.
The water needs to be heated to the mid 80`s to 90f, they often spend extended periods in there (it doesn`t necessarily mean they`re dehydrated).
They can catch live fish but it`s much easier to feed f/k or f/t, at least until the animal is acclimated to the enclosure and eating normally.
I think you meant to say it`s 14 inches ToL, it cannot be 4!?
Have you any idea how long it`s been in captivity?
By the way, you have a V. s. macromaculatus ("macromaculatus" means "large spots"), this subspecies is known to get over 270cm (9 feet) ToL.

I know that mealworms aren't the BEST feeder and obviously SZD is also not ideal, but I have a lot of hungry mouths to feed and with as much variety and proper husbandry as they get I am more concerned about keeping them full. I wish I could afford to feed nothing but organic fish and crustaceans and roaches but I don't have the money for that. So this diet is my solution to my problems. As soon as she is large enough I will cut out the SZD and give baby quail and chicks. I will take your advice and offer fuzzies rather than pinkies!

As for the lighting- it's actually right up against a window! You can't tell from the pictures because the shades are drawn and it's night time. But there is plenty of natural light during the day and she can even look out into the back yard.

The basking light hits the water feature and keeps it pretty warm, but I'm going to actually add an under tank heater to go half under that tile and half under the water feature. Will keep that whole area nice and warm. She does spend a lot of time in the water so I want it to be nice and warm for her.

She is very very tiny (maybe stunted?) and snout to vent length is 4 inches! Another 3 inches of tail means she's right around 7-8 inches long. The girl I got her from had her less than a month- so I'm guessing she is still pretty young and was probably imported this last spring/ summer.

[franks]

Awesome! Heres some great journalism on your new little guy.
http://varanidae.org/Vol_1_No_2.pdf

[Vegasarah]

Awesome! Heres some great journalism on your new little guy.
http://varanidae.org/Vol_1_No_2.pdf


Thanks! That was very interesting! :)

[Vital Exotics]

Vegasarah.... check out my care sheet for some good info and tips: Water Monitor Care Sheet | Black Dragon Care Sheet | Varanus salvator Care Sheet | Vital Exotics (http://www.vitalexotics.com/water-monitor-black-dragon-care-sheet/)

[infernalis]

Sarah, Kristopher Brown (Vital Exotics) has a very comprehensive and well written care sheet page.

So well done that I link to it on my sites and display it in an Iframe on varanustalk.

No one I have encountered in cyberspace has anything better. ;)

[Vegasarah]

Vegasarah.... check out my care sheet for some good info and tips: Water Monitor Care Sheet | Black Dragon Care Sheet | Varanus salvator Care Sheet | Vital Exotics (http://www.vitalexotics.com/water-monitor-black-dragon-care-sheet/)

Sarah, Kristopher Brown (Vital Exotics) has a very comprehensive and well written care sheet page.

So well done that I link to it on my sites and display it in an Iframe on varanustalk.

No one I have encountered in cyberspace has anything better. ;)

Thanks, guys! I'm going to check that out right now.

She is a little thin looking to me so I've been trying to feed her as much as she will eat... But last night she ate like 10 silversides. After the 5th one I started to question if she would ever act like she was full. Never did. I had to cut her off- her tiny body looked like it was going to pop! Was I wrong to cut her off? Should I just keep offering them to her one at a time? Will she stop on her own?

She sat under the 143 degree basking spot all day after that, still looking like she was going to pop. Like a lil' sausage with legs haha. Then she moved to the water dish which is at about 82 degrees. Is that too cold for the water? Should I try and heat it up more than that?

Sorry for all the questions- I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing! :)

[Vegasarah]

A few more pictures of the little one. I don't know if it's her age or her species but she is SO much more friendly than my Nile when I first got him. I don't try to ever touch/ hold her but she will take food gently from my fingers, it's the cutest thing. I love all my monitors but her being so itty bitty makes me just melt every time I see her!

[mdfmonitor]

Sarah, Kristopher Brown (Vital Exotics) has a very comprehensive and well written care sheet page.

So well done that I link to it on my sites and display it in an Iframe on varanustalk.

No one I have encountered in cyberspace has anything better. ;)

Just read it! he's put a lot of work into it! :)

[Akuma223]

She is soo tiny! I remember when my boy was so small, its hard to believe how big he's gotten! Just out of curiosity, are your nile and water monitor permanent residents? Or are you caring for them until someone comes along that would also take them in?

[murrindindi]

One of my previous Water monitors was reasonably "calm" from day one, though he had been in the petshop for a couple of months, I suspect they did force handle, and obviously there would be people glaring in the tank for that period, too.
I wouldn`t get into the habit of feeding from your fingers, I can tell you if you get bitten when the monitor has grown another foot or so it will hurt quite badly and that pain and damage increases with size! :)
Edit: You previously mentioned the SV length was 4 inches and the tail length is 3, is half the tail missing, because it should be around 6 to 7 inches long (and that would still be a very small hatchling size), they can measure between 12 to 15 inches ToL?

[Vegasarah]

She is soo tiny! I remember when my boy was so small, its hard to believe how big he's gotten! Just out of curiosity, are your nile and water monitor permanent residents? Or are you caring for them until someone comes along that would also take them in?

Wellllll that's a tricky question. In a perfect world, I'll keep them for the rest of their lives. But I did take them in as rescues knowing that I might not be able to keep them into adulthood (space requirements). Let's put it this way: If someone wanted to adopt either one and had a fully set up 12x6x4 enclosure with all the bells and whistles? I would say yes in a heartbeat. But until I find someone 'worthy', I'm going to continue to keep and care for them and throw more money into the black hole that is private monitor keeping lol.

Would love to have my own monitor rescue some day. I am a board member/ volunteer/ community relations officer for a 501- c3 non-profit animal rescue. I get all the large lizards when they do come in because I have the space to house them and the money to feed them. And the patience to love an animal that constantly wants to rip my face off (my Nile)!

[Vegasarah]

One of my previous Water monitors was reasonably "calm" from day one, though he had been in the petshop for a couple of months, I suspect they did force handle, and obviously there would be people glaring in the tank for that period, too.
I wouldn`t get into the habit of feeding from your fingers, I can tell you if you get bitten when the monitor has grown another foot or so it will hurt quite badly and that pain and damage increases with size! :)
Edit: You previously mentioned the SV length was 4 inches and the tail length is 3, is half the tail missing, because it should be around 6 to 7 inches long (and that would still be a very small hatchling size), they can measure between 12 to 15 inches ToL?

Good call on the hand- feeding, I was using tongs and just wanted to see if she would take it from my hand. But I'm going to switch back to using just the tongs- definitely don't want to get bit. She might not be able to do much damage now but I know that's going to change so soon your head will spin haha. Growing is what they do best!

I totally forgot to go back and change that measurement. My spacial awareness is obviously not as good as I thought it was lol. Her snout to vent is like 4 inches, but that tail when it's straight out has to be at least another 6. Hard to get a good judge on it when she's moving around and she hides under the fake ferns/ branches a lot. But you're probably right, her total length is probably somewhere between 10 and 12 inches. I wish I could weigh her, I would love to track that over the next few months. Maybe if I lured her on to the scale with a roach on tongs or something...

[murrindindi]

I personally think it`s quite important to keep a record of growth, especially in the beginning with wild caught monitors which have usually had a hard time of it during export/import. Maybe you could lure the monitor into a small box by leaving some food in there, as he/she enters close it then weigh, the stress should be minimal.

[Vegasarah]

I personally think it`s quite important to keep a record of growth, especially in the beginning with wild caught monitors which have usually had a hard time of it during export/import. Maybe you could lure the monitor into a small box by leaving some food in there, as he/she enters close it then weigh, the stress should be minimal.

She follows those tongs pretty well if I have a moving cricket in them. She would walk on to the flat scale i have no problem. I'm going to try it tomorrow. I also weigh her good just for record keeping as well.