Please read.

[beanersmysav]

Ok I just did my first care sheet and it's on Savannah Monitors. I will touch up the looks later. Give me your 100% oppinion, and things I could add. Hope everyone likes it. I wrote this all by myself this afternoon.

http://www.freewebs.com/dsreptiles/savcs.html

[crocdoc]

Don't take this the wrong way, but you shouldn't be writing a care sheet until you've had more experience with monitors. I know your heart is in the right place and I think you've put a lot of effort in, but the danger of care sheets is that someone new to keeping reptiles will read them, take them as gospel and follow the instructions. I've had a very quick look and immediately found a few things which would either lead to a monitor being poorly looked after, or in some cases injured.

"A good sized minimum however for a Savannah to thrive is double it's length in length, equally as tall as your Monitor AFTER the foot of dirt has been added., and half of his size in width."

Half its size in width? That would be cruel.

"Other substrate possibilities ALTHOUGH I HIGHLY RECCOMEND DIRT! Are newspaper, and mulch"

Never ever even suggest newspaper as a possibility. Keep in mind that newbies reading care sheets will often go for the easiest way out, so if it says they can be kept in an enclosure that is half the animal's length in width and can use newspaper as a substrate, they will.

" The most accurate way to sex your monitor is to have an experienced individual probe your monitor."

The least accurate way to sex a monitor is by probing it, but it could well be one of the quickest ways to injure a monitor. Unlike snakes, monitors can't be sexed by probing. Females have hemiclitori which, in many species, are as long as the hemipenes, so inserting a probe will tell you nothing. On top of this, monitors have far more muscular tails than snakes, so a bit of squirming during probing and your monitor's hemipene or hemiclitoris will be perforated, leading to infection.

The easiest way to sex a monitor, once it is above a certain size (and assuming you haven't seen it evert while it is defecating) is to get photos of animals of the same species and of known sex and compare them to yours. Look at the shape of the base of the tail and the profile of the head. If you have photos of males and females in front of you, yours will look more like one than the other, usually. In some species, adult males will show signs of hemipene tip ossification under xray, also.


" Monitors are heavy eaters, and regardless what you hear in other care sheets they have a fast metabolism and should be fed on a daily basis"

Babies, yes, adults definitely not. There are way too many obese monitors out there living short lives, no need to add to that.

"Other things you can offer them are ... fruits (apples, pears etc),..."

They may eat them, but why bother? They aren't really designed to digest fruit and get more of the nutrients they need from small animals.

"MBD - Metabolic bone disease... It's caused by inappropriate amounts of calcium...You can suppliment with calcium and add a UVB light in the case of MBD as well (if it's because of too much D3). "

MBD is caused by insufficient D3, not too much D3. D3 is required to absorb and assimilate calcium. It is normally produced by the animals themselves through basking in the sun's UV rays, but can be replaced by dietary supplements in captivity (supplements of D3, not just calcium).

[snakers55]

Also, the latin name should be like this (Varanus exanthematicus ).. not varanid, and latin names should always have the first letter of the first name capitalized, and in italics, and the second and/or third parts of the name with no capitals.

[beanersmysav]

Well I expected this. I knew there would be mistakes I did not read through it after I wrote it, and I just gave it to you guys to read through and help me correct. Most of my errors of course were misworded. I've only spent about a 1/2 an hour on this and have more to add of course.

First off the latin name I know what it is just definatly spelled wrong, as far as italics I didn't use any html, all the html used is standard. If you looked at my website it's the same on all the pages I have it set that way for the links.

Now to the important stuff...

The cage minimum OBVIOUSLY a huge mistake! I meant one and a half of his size. I know that's definatly a biggie as I keep my monitor in a lot large enclosure than I even mentioned.

Another was the metabolism issue, I meant to put Young Monitors.

And on the MBD issue I totally messed up, I was meaning to add the important of too much D3 from that point but did not. As there are definant problems with too much D3.

The rest I guess I would be misinformed. I've seen on numerous sites that probing is one way of telling. As I posted you could check for it by defecation and mentioned that's how I found out. Newspaper I did put and will delete because I agree with your point of view. The fruits I've never offered myself but I saw a guy at the White Plains show feeding his monitor small slices of apple that he was eating. Again I will take that off.

Honestly, although I could be wrong, but I think 5 years of caring for monitors and reading everything I could find is enough to write a small care sheet. I don't really see anything wrong with it besides what you've posted. I've since gone through it but haven't yet fixed it. I mean there's 10x less informative care sheets out there with alot worse information. This is the reason I wanted to get feedback on it so I could correct anything that I should as I stated in my first post. I know 5 years might not be as much as your experience but I find not too many "experienced" monitor keepers are writting readily available care sheets. I've honestly only seen one or two decent care sheets and they are the hardest to find. Hell I haven't seen but one care sheet that reccomended dirt as a substrate. But this is your oppinion and I appreciate all your input alot.

None of this bothered me except the fact that you said I shouldn't be writing a care sheet. However that's an oppinion but atleast I asked for help with it I didn't just leave it how it was. I probably should have read through it before I asked for feedback in the first place, but I guess that was my biggest mistake as I could have had a couple mistakes corrected by just wording them properly.

Again thanks alot for the help and info.

[dave68]

Well beanersmysav (dont know your name) I think if you correct it as necessary then it is a great care sheet, it gives alot of good information, and kudos to you for taking the time and effort in making the attempt to write one up- That said good job.
-Allison

[beanersmysav]

My names John-Paul, JP for short :). I've just got done correcting what was mentioned that I should, and am still looking for more mistakes. I wish crocdoc would have read through it possibly found more, but I'm sure someone will comment if there is something more I did wrong.

I mean I honestly wish there was enough good care sheets out there to where I wouldn't need to write one but I find most of the care sheets written when I started keeping are still at the top of search lists and on alot of websites. The same ones that say newspaper and repti carpet are good substrates to use, and that say glass cages are fine, screen lids are fine etc. I mean when newbies on here ask where they can find good information on owning a Savannah they are quickly told to "Go check search engines for monitor care sheets" Well I ask someone to do that and tell me what kind of info they find, and link me atleast 2 good care sheets from the first 5 pages... Can't do it...

Thanks for some moral support though :)

[crocdoc]

There is a good 'care sheet' out there, but it's in the form of a small book:

The Savannah Monitor Lizard - The truth about Varanus exanthematicus

Daniel Bennett and Ravi Thakoordyal

John-Paul, I did say that your heart was in the right place and that you clearly put a lot of effort into it, so I'm sorry you took personally what I said about gaining enough experience to write a care sheet. It wasn't meant to be a personal attack, and I do think it's great that you asked for comment on it before posting it.

However, I am not a big fan of internet care sheets as there is no indication of the level of experience of the person posting them. Try to imagine if someone read yours, for example, and then started probing their little monitor to determine its gender. It doesn't matter to that monitor that you included that bit of information only because you found it on another care sheet somewhere else. With a bit more experience you would have known that probing is useless and potentially harmful and wouldn't have included it on your care sheet.

[beanersmysav]

No I know it's not a personal attack. I know how you meant it, and like I said I appreciate every bit of what you said. You would not have said it if you hadn't meant only the best not only but most importantly for the treatment of monitors, but to help my information.

But I agree about internet care sheets but as I mentioned over a dozen times to read books and not take my care sheet or any other as a guide, or bible to caring for Savannah Monitors.

I honestly don't think any amount of experience I could get where I'm at would have ever shown me different. In fact the only way I think I would have found out as by making such a mistake as posting it and being corrected by a more experience keeper as yourself which makes me glad that I made that mistake because it teaches me something new.

No hard feelings I know none were meant by you I just wanted you to know that I have nothing but amazing amount of respect for you and your information you've helped me multiple times in the past weither you remember it or not but I can recall more a few times including this one. And I can't stress enough how much I appreciate all the information.