Over weight savannah monitorS

[Bradyloach]

I was wondering. What makes savs over weightz? Is it the rodents some are on? Or is it because they are fed to frequently? Not enough exercise? There is many ways that a savannah monitor can go into being obesez.

I've decided to make this thread to really see other monitor keepers thoughts.
If my sav gets over weight, what do i do? Do I stopp feeding her as much as she can eat?!


The fact is, no one is an expert keeper and these are not ideal conditions for them. Honestly they deserve all to be in the wild. But this pet trade is killing them all! So why shouldn't we help? We have a better chance than anyone helping the savs.


So In all; what makes an overweight sav? And how can we prevent it

[infernalis]

Brady, It's a combination of things. I will list them in order of importance.

1. Cage temperatures and basking Temperatures are too low, a cold monitor will not metabolize food as quickly as a nice toasty warm Monitor. There is a reason they live in equatorial regions of the world.

2. Over feeding, Monitors love food, people enjoy bribing their monitors with treats, want to see your lizard beg? Want to lure it out of the burrow? Food is often used to "tame" the lizard.

3. Lack of exercise, In the wild Varanids roam great distances, they are highly active and like to keep busy, When we lock them in boxes we take this important activity away from them, they not only grow fat, but become bored and will just sit around all day doing nothing.

On the subject of bored, one of the aspects of Monitors that draws us to them is their superior intelligence over most any other reptile, so you simply cannot just stick them in a cage like a snake and expect it to have any quality of life, to me it's just wrong.

Now when people combine all three of these factors together, you wind up with an obese, lethargic and gravely ill animal that will be lucky to live more than a couple years. The trifecta of failure..

[SpOoKy]

Young monitors can be fed as much as they will eat. They are continuously growing and eating machines. Once they are adults it becomes more of a watching game. you much control their food intake to avoid getting overweight. If your sav is looking plump, reduce the food intake. If he is looking on the skinny side around the tail base and legs, up the food amount.

This is just what I have found doing my research. My sav is not an adult yet so he eats as much as he wants every day. I am sure someone can add much more to my post.

And yes rodents have been found to cause and/or contribute to obese savs, also fatty liver disease.

[SpOoKy]

Wayne beat me too it with a much better post :)

[Bradyloach]

They were both good posts! :) so your saying if I walk my sav on my 13 acre property once a week for 2-3 hours, it will be like exersize? And will keep hip, healthy

[infernalis]

And yes rodents have been found to cause and/or contribute to obese savs, also fatty liver disease.

Wrong on both counts...

Douglas Mader DVM, Veterinarian...

I see fatty liver in savannah monitors commonly. These animals are routinely misfed in captivity-typically they are fed high amounts of dog food, live fatty mice or any other high calorie food. On top of this, they are kept in small cages and not allowed to roam and hunt (which is normal for them in the wild). As a result, they become couch potatoes and get fat.

Somewhere down the road, these fat savannahs develop disease (kidney, liver, etc.) and stop eating. Now this fat lizard is a prime candidate to develop a fatty liver. I can't tell you how many calls I get about fatty liver causing death in savannahs.

Fatty liver can be treated if the underlying cause can be identified and corrected. Force-feeding (often with a stomach tube in place for some species), antibiotics as needed, steroids and vitamins are often required.

Allow me to translate this into easier to understand terms.

The fatty liver disease is brought on by the improper care of the animal, NOT the stored fat.

Read the quote carefully.

I can see where people would jump to the conclusion that mice cause the fatty liver disease, probably because they stopped reading at the word mice.

The fatty liver does not come into play until AFTER the improperly supported animal has already became sick of other reasons, like the renal failure associated with exposure and low level dehydration.

I highlighted (made boldface) where it clearly states that proper support of the animal is paramount in maintaining a healthy animal.

Michael Balsai on the Savannah Monitor Diet (http://www.anapsid.org/balsai.html)

Savannah Monitors (http://www.varanus.us/mice/)

*****************************

[SpOoKy]

Wrong on both counts...

Douglas Mader DVM, Veterinarian...



Allow me to translate this into easier to understand terms.

The fatty liver disease is brought on by the improper care of the animal, NOT the stored fat.

Read the quote carefully.

I can see where people would jump to the conclusion that mice cause the fatty liver disease, probably because they stopped reading at the word mice.

The fatty liver does not come into play until AFTER the improperly supported animal has already became sick of other reasons, like the renal failure associated with exposure and low level dehydration.

I highlighted (made boldface) where it clearly states that proper support of the animal is paramount in maintaining a healthy animal.

Michael Balsai on the Savannah Monitor Diet (http://www.anapsid.org/balsai.html)

Savannah Monitors (http://www.varanus.us/mice/)

*****************************

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

Gonna read that paper over again, it has been a while.

[infernalis]

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

Gonna read that paper over again, it has been a while.

No problem, I copied that post from the other thread, after 250 posts it becomes a blur.

I was thinking about shaving out the good posts "blog style" and using it on my site to help people.

[SpOoKy]

I think that would be a good idea. Especially for someone like me who has always had a hard time retaining the important info in heavy reads.

[infernalis]

I already figured out how to "steal" the forum thread style for my own use.

New Savannah Monitor enclosure - Chomper (http://www.chompersite.com/cage.htm)

[BarelyBreathing]

Combintion of too much food, improper diet, low basking spot, not enough exercise, and people ave theorized depression.

[infernalis]

Combination of too much food, improper diet, low basking spot, not enough exercise, and people have theorized depression.

Without a doubt, with nothing to do, it's inevitable..

[jarich]

Ok I am absolutely not wanting to start any discussion about the frequency of rodent feeding, but I think your post on fatty liver disease needs to be clarified Wayne. It is not true that hepatic lipidosis has nothing to do with stored fat. In all animals where hepatic lipidosis is prevalent, it is almost always shown to correlate with obesity, which is a high amount of stored fat. This is true whether its monitors, cats or humans. And its remiss to use that quote from Dr Mader without pointing out that the first sentence says "these animals are routinely misfed". Again, Im not wanting to get into the specifics of the diet, but overfeeding adult animals is problematic and does have a close tie to fatty liver disease. This is usually a result of a combination of both bad diet and bad environmental conditions, but you can still overfeed a well supported adult monitor in a small box.