Walking a savannah monitor?

[Bosc08]

Hi. This is Bosc08 and I have a savannah monitor who is about 17 inches and a year in a half which is strange for his size. I wanted to know is ot OK to take monitors for walk in the house or outside? By the way does anyone know why hes growing smallish is it possible he may grow to 3 feet because the typical growth is 3-5 feet? Thanks for the replies.:D

[Aaron_S]

Hmm I'm not a monitor expert, because I've never really kept one myself. Can you tell us the set up? How hot is the basking spot? What is it's diet? Everything you can about it.

Also, I wouldn't recommend walks outside. In the house isn't so bad, aslong as other pets aren't around and as well as no places it can get into that you can't get it out of.

[Bosc08]

Hmm I'm not a monitor expert, because I've never really kept one myself. Can you tell us the set up? How hot is the basking spot? What is it's diet? Everything you can about it.

Also, I wouldn't recommend walks outside. In the house isn't so bad, aslong as other pets aren't around and as well as no places it can get into that you can't get it out of.

Oh Im sorry I forgot the details silly me. Well he is in a 4ft long by 18 inches wides and high. The basking spot is normally at 101 degrees F. I use a Temp, Gun. His diest contains Calcium with VIT.D3 on his crickets Mon.-Friday and Multivitamins on Sat.-Sun. He does get some fuzzies that he loves, but probably every 2-3 weeks. Right now hes on aspen, which was beter then newspapre, and he make tunnels and sleeps in it and under it. He has a half log which is big for him and a water bowl that I see him submerge completly under it. His basking spot is two wood pieces I bought at Petsmart where one is more up to the light where he basks on. I will get a picture of the cage as soon as possible. Thanks For The Reply, It Means A lot To Me!:)

[Aaron_S]

I do believe you should vary the diet a little more. Superworms, waxworms, tomato horned worms are all good for him. I would also switch to something more like dirt instead of the aspen. Aspen doesn't hold humidity well, nor does it hold tunnels as good.

[DaVincisCode]

try using a mixture of soil and peat moss, with coconut husks, hold the moisture and forms a natural bacterial barrier , a healthy one, you still have to remove the feces, but there is a lot less odor. My Sav, was fed outside his enclosure, as well as my Tegu's so as to not consume substrate. or bury un eaten food stuffs. I have never had humidity issues nor health problems with any of them.

[Aaron_S]

A lot of people fear impaction with substrate with their reptiles but I have experienced a LOT of snake and lizard feedings and I have yet to see any animal do it. Even if they got a piece in their mouth, I have not seen one swallow any. If any did get inside the body, I'm fairly certain, aslong as it wasn't mouthful after mouthful, it should pass through the animal. It happens in the real world, so I'm sure they can manage a tiny bit. Plus, adult animals are usually even better hunters and rarely miss.

[Boostedneon04]

This is little old but i would still like to give my .02...check the temps again where he is basking.you can use a higher temp up to 130 i wouldn't go any higher..in certain cases there you can find black throat monitors in that high of heat but rare from what I've seen..also u can use really any substrate it just depends how devoted ur are. i choose the pieces of wood bark for when there smaller and when ready to be housed in large cage i switch to the top soil with pete moss..ur main reason ur savannah is not too large is his diet. you feed him only crickets and a few mice here and there. that right there is your problem. you need to start feeding him ground turkey, mice, superworms,wax worms,roaches,chicken neck and insides, hard boiled eggs etc..get him on a diet like that and youll see how much faster he grows..u have to sort of test out how much u can feed him so u don't make him over weight and lazy. also remember there's up to a 6 month period in the wild during the dry season that the Savannah gets limited if any food..so too dry of temps will cause the monitor to be come sluggish and if kept on a heavy diet with become over weight. anything else u need to know just lemme know..i have much experience keeping monitor lizards..