Stunted?

[Tamizan]

Is my poor sav stunted?

I've had him for 7 months, and when we got him (assuming he's a he lol) he was 6'', now he is 19'', i was told they should reach total length in 16 months........i feed him 2 mice everyday, with reptile vitimens (Calcium, and others, no Phospherrous(Sp?)), i have a 8.0 Uva (right? it's a long purple strip light, i ge tconfused lol), his usual basking temp (right where he bask's) is 165 F, whole tank is usualy 100-110F, i'm using 3'' of Eco earth substrate (dryed out) and always clean water. So, is he stunted, or am i doing something wrong, or what?

[crocdoc]

whole tank is 100-110F?

[Tamizan]

Yeah.....is that bad.........?

[jungleshadows]

Thats way to high of ambient temps. I am suprised your sav is still alive. Typically that either causes death or irreversable brain damage.

The ambients you should have would be more like 70-80 cool side, 80-90 warm side, 120-160 basking area. You may need to change some other things but for right now that one is a biggie.

[Jeff_Favelle]

VERY bad.

Thermal gradients is your FRIEND. Actually, its your lizard's friend. No monitor is EVER 110F constant in nature. It'll die at that temp constantly.

READ this. Actually READ it. Don't browse it or speed-read it. Read it and understand it. It will be way more clearer than I can try to explain to you.

http://www.varanus.net/faq/housing.htm#3.8

[Tamizan]

I did.....okay......now i relized that i need a temperature gun thingy, because the stick on tape things are ****, my dad JUST bought me and it was actualy 87 F.......Lesson learned........don't use stick on temperature gauges......and thanks for the link, i'll read it!

[BoidsUnlimited]

Also.....a diet of just mice isnt good at all.

Very rarely do Savannas feed on JUST mice in the wild...if at all. Offer him a VARIETY of insects. Hamburger meat, and eggs arent a bad treat either. At least this is what I was told, and did with my girl. And she was extremely healthy and grew quite fast.

[V.hb]

BU - a diet of mice is fine, rats and mice are perfectly fine.

I feed my savannahs and albigs, mice, rats and chicks. No problems. Beef isn't very good, eggs are alright once a month.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Also.....a diet of just mice isnt good at all.


Wrong. This diet has supported sooooooo many good events. Not sure where you got that info from.

[Bartman]

I read it ravi's book it was totally fine. Ive also talked to a bunch of people and read a tons of stuff that suggest ground turkey or ground beef is not good as well as eggs. The eggs can be given once in a WHILE.

I feed my savannah a sea food mix, chicken giblets, smelts, and horse meat from my work (havnt gotten any yet but will when we have :))

[crocdoc]

Bartman, there doesn't seem to be enough whole animals in your monitor's diet, other than the smelts. You should include a few mice, rats or day old chicks in there, perhaps some insects.

I'd also take it easy on the smelts. Frozen/thawed freshwater fish can be fairly rich in an enzyme called thiaminase which (as the name suggests) breaks down thiamine and can therefore lead to a vitamin B1 deficiency in large doses.

[Tamizan]

I don't feed all mice, i also feed chicks, and
rabbit peices (i use rabbit meat for a soup i make for my ferrets, i use half for my sav and half for the ferrets) I heard Savs should eat a stedy diet of mice/rats

[Tamizan]

So is My lizard stunted? is is small for his age? And why don't the thermostat thingys that stick to the side of the tank work properly, why did it read such a high temp?

[Steve]

cause those sticker thermostats suck. Investing 15-30$ on a digi thermostat is much better in the long run. The 1 stuck on my used aquarium if off by about 13 degrees all the time.

[Bartman]

Bartman, there doesn't seem to be enough whole animals in your monitor's diet, other than the smelts. You should include a few mice, rats or day old chicks in there, perhaps some insects.


Oops :p sorry I missed that. I do feed him at least 2 pinky rats a week.

[Tamizan]

Eh....so my lizard is not stunted? LOL..still asking

[BoidsUnlimited]

Originally posted by Jeff_Favelle
Wrong. This diet has supported sooooooo many good events. Not sure where you got that info from.

Originally posted by V.hb
BU - a diet of mice is fine, rats and mice are perfectly fine.

I feed my savannahs and albigs, mice, rats and chicks. No problems. Beef isn't very good, eggs are alright once a month.

I see...well when I had my large Savanna. I was crapped on when I told some people that I fed mainly mice and rats??

My apologies

[jungleshadows]

About your savs growth. They will grow to whatever the potential is first, then to whatever the enviroment can support.

So yours has the potential to be from 3-5 foot, rarely has there been larger then 5 foot savs. It is upto you to supply him with the means to support his or her growth.

If you feel he or she is not growing or doing so fast enough, then you only need to look into your husbandry. Either change to a larger cage, offer more food, change temps, etc.. These are living creatures so you should be adjusting things to them often.

[Jeff_Favelle]

I was crapped on when I told some people

You were telling the wrong people. Tell people who actually know and work with monitors successfully.
No worries though. I still think monitor-keeping has a HUGE learning curve, especially with people used to snakes. I know I had trouble grasping it at first.

[Tamizan]

Originally posted by jungleshadows
About your savs growth. They will grow to whatever the potential is first, then to whatever the enviroment can support.

So yours has the potential to be from 3-5 foot, rarely has there been larger then 5 foot savs. It is upto you to supply him with the means to support his or her growth.

If you feel he or she is not growing or doing so fast enough, then you only need to look into your husbandry. Either change to a larger cage, offer more food, change temps, etc.. These are living creatures so you should be adjusting things to them often.

Okay, well, he'll to a good size, i'm feeding him well (untill he gets bigger, than he'll get fat) And i'm moving him into a 6' X 5' X 6 ft cage, no lack of space, well, yeah, but i would give him a bigger one if i could LOL

[dean_h00]

lol
no matter what on this forum someone will "crap" on you for saying just about anything
lol
and its ussually constructive critisism or the person know jack all about what they are saying