Monitor Questions

[Manitoban Herps]

Hey there, I have no monitors at the moment but a few other herps. I was offered a savanna and a nile, the sav being a bay and the nile is 3 feet. I think the sav would be better for me b/c there calmer and smaller. But you could easily perswade me.

Do you ahve any tips on either.

I like pics too, thanks

[Woodpusher]

If you are looking for opinions on this then mine is that you take the baby savannah and let him teach you a thing or two about monitors in general before you start getting into varanids like Niloticus...

[Woodpusher]

Should you go for the Savannah make sure he has at least 16 inches of solid substrate to burrow in!

Good luck

[KLiK]

have to aggree with you there. go for the sav, it is a smaller monitor and are known for being pretty docile, but some can choose who to be calm to. my sav loved me but would go to bite anyone else

[lonewulf]

I have to say the Savanah as well but mind you I have had no experience with Niles but with handling they can be nice from what I have been told ... my two savannahs are beaut's I can do anything I want in their enclosure and they are cool with it unless it is feeding then wll as they say all's well in love and war lol .. my wife tried cleaning for me once while I was at work and Boomer thought he fingers were food ... she has never out her hands in there since ... I love my Savannahs

[Woodpusher]

Klik, Lonewulf: Good replies, I'd have to agree in general...

Manitoban Herps:

Temperment depends on the individual monitor, although some different types of monitors are more prone to aggresion than others.

You just need to ask yourself, "Am I willing to have a 6ft. 30+lb potentially aggresive Nile monitor living in my in my home?" If the answer is yes then I suggest you choose very carefully when selecting a baby, as most Niles here in Canada are imported/farmed. Choose a healthy looking ALERT robust little Nile. Check his vent, snout, eyes and mouth for any signs of crustyness, or possible illnesses. See if there is any dead skin from his last shed etc, etc etc...and if you do decide to buy him then start saving now cause food gets expensive!

But as everyone has said it's probably better to go with the Sav;)

[Rikki]

I would also recomend the Sav. My nile is small at the moment though like most nile's he has a nast attitude, and bite.

[coldblooded]

Apparently EVERYONE recommends purchasing a savvy for first timers... they are cheap. Got mine for $45.

I made the purchase on a whim, my buddy has done it before me, as have many others.

I say get something else.


$3.00 in crickets a day (nearly from the start) and $1-$2 for pinkies/fuzzies/adult mice every other day gets overwhelming.

Also... scorpions, giant millipedes, and what I CALL a "large grasshopper" are not cheap... not that you must feed these to your monitor, but why not? They like what they like.

Not to discourage you, but there must be a better monitor species to start off with. If I could go back to last year, I would have made a different purchase. Maybe a blood python, BP, or maybe ackies (if they weren't $1000 a pair... WTF!!!)


Mike :)

[coldblooded]

Oh, as for calm, doscile savvys... sure, some are. My buddy's sure is. My savvy on the other hand will curl up and hide, then bust out and snatch your finger when you least expect it, all while tail whipping non stop.

Or he won't.

He's such a little *******!

Good luck hunting...


Mike

[Jeff_Favelle]

Everyone buys a Sav for their 1st monitor because they are CHEAP - a$$ because they are imported pieces of crap. But if they magically turn around and they get them healthy in their so-called monitor setups, they quickly realize that its costs 100x more per year to feed a $50 Savanna, than it does to feed a $400 dwarf Aussi monitor.

Funny stuff. But not funny for the WC monitors. Because they are the ones that suffer. Which sucks, because they are such an intelligent animal.

[Woodpusher]

Jeff;

Calling any reptile an "imported piece of crap" isn't cool man.

I fully understand the point you are trying to get accross; that a CBB dwarf monitor is not only cheaper to feed but much less likely to contract illnesses than a WC Savannah, and I agree with you.

But c'mon now, "imported pieces of crap?"

[Jeff_Favelle]

And I think NOT calling them imported pieces of crap "isn't cool". That's why its great to live in a free country where you can have an opinion and not be persecuted for it.

Isn't it?

[coldblooded]

We can have our OWN opinions??!! :eek:


I've wasted my life then... :mad:


Maybe some of us savvy keepers should start a captive breeding project... no more importing then (at least less, maybe).

Then, instead of cheap a$$ savvy's we can try and sell $500 one's.... PEOPLE WILL LOVE IT!!!! :rolleyes:

Savvy's will always be cheap ($) only beacuse there are people buying them and treating them as disposable pets.


Mike

[Slipknot]

I say don't get either because there is a reason he is giving them away...go get yourself a captive bred Ackie. :)

[Jeff_Favelle]

Indeed! ;)

[V.hb]

They are pieces of crap, man-made pieces of crap. They're perfectly fine and awesome animals until they get crated up with hundreds if not thousands of others, shipped over and then thrown into a petstore loaded with parasites and other..Crap?

Jeff is perfectly right using that slang, it's about the only way to get a point accross to some people. Not saying the author of this thread needed such a blunt response, but he's right...

[Jeff_Favelle]

Exactly, and way better stated that I had done! :)

[mark129er]

I surf here alot looking for info. Jeff may be about as subtle as a 20 lb sledgehammer but is is RIGHT every time he types something.

[Jeff_Favelle]

LOL!

[monitor12345]

he may be right but no animal is a "piece of crap" animals are living beings the same as you and i and your not a piece of crap, well , maybe but if you call a sav a piece of crap then you have no right owning a herp

[V.hb]

Hmmmm, if you look at Jeff's NUMOROUS animals you would see the last thing he thinks a herp is, is a piece of crap.. Look at his animals..... He's comparing a sickly, sad basically dying imported savannah monitor to a captive bred, raised HEALTHY ackie. He's blunt, but thats obviously what it takes for some people to get a point.

[monitor12345]

and another thing, ive noticed by the pics on your site you seem to like ball pythons, a ball python is the same in the snake worldas asav is in the lizard world, people buy them because their small and "pretty" and just end up getting rid of them because theyre too big, even though theonly get to an amazingly small three and a half to four feet

[kap10cavy]

That's why its great to live in a free country where you can have an opinion and not be persecuted for it.
Damn, and all this time I thought you were in Canada.
Hahaha
I have to sort of agree with you though. Go look at any reptile rescue. What do they all have? Savs and iguanas.
I myself have spent countless hours and money trying to save some of these critters. They can be fun little critters if you are willing to spend the time, money and energy to get it healthy.
My wife is a sav freak. I get them healthy and trade them off for fun critters like my argus and amazon tree boa.

Scott

[SnakeyeZ]

You all seen to forget that every reptile started as an import..how else would they get here?....saying there peices of crap...you should make that statement too all herps, because they all did get imported from somewhere at some point in time and have been captive bred, I am a savanna owner and am looking for pairs so I can get the savanna's up there with the rest of the captive bred species in canada. Gotta start somewhere, correct? Anyone care to join me?

[V.hb]

No, not every single animal was imported in the masses savannah monitors, iguanas etc are.

Look at say, Argus monitors. You never see tons and tons of them imported, and no, not all argus monitors are aussie species either.

Savs come in thousands, mostly DOA, then shipped to crappy pet stores where they either die, get purchased and die due to inhumane neglect (most often, the owner doesnt know any better in regards to husbandry) Or the very rare occasion, the sav goes home and lives a somewhat normal exhistence... It's sad. But, Jeff's Blunt attitude does have merit.. You just have to think into it a bit more than you have.

[SnakeyeZ]

I didnt say the exact same way..but every herp was imported at one point...not matter the quantity we brought them here at....and its sad that alot of these herps repuations are ruined because of this...and that so many die because of our 'needs'.
Jeff does have a point, but there all living animals and deserve some sort of respect. Its not there fault our human nature is to remove somthing from the wild...so we can go home with a healtier wallet, not caring for each individual animal as a being.
My point is....id like to have them captivly bred in canada..so that there's no need to mass out with the importing. Jeff, I got nothing against you mang, you know that :-D

This is straying off topic...soo...I definatly wouldnt choose a nile monitor..and many of the other suggestions of ackies, and argus would make much better pets.

[kap10cavy]

Some people love savs, my wife is one of them. They are fun when they are young and growing. I enjoy them myself, they just aren't my favorite. I was flamed on another forum for trading two savs for an argus baby. The poor girl blew a gasket when I told her I was breeding savs for albig food. some people just can't take a joke.

Scott