Growth of Savannah Monitors

[DiscoPat]

The other day I went to the pet store where I bought Steve and saw that they still had some savs from when I bought him. They have only grown maybe half an inch or so, basically the same size as the first picture posted in this thread, steve is a little bigger than the second picture now, he is about 6 or 8 inches snout to vent. they are about 4 inches snout to vent, same age as Steve.

I also noticed that Littlefoot and Cera were a little larger at Steve's age than he is now, they are maybe a month, if not less, older than he is. and quite a bit larger. Steve was in the pet store for the first 2 months of his life.

The savs in the pet store are kept in a 10 gallon tank or so, about 1.5x1x1 feet in terrible conditions on paper, no humidity and no basking spot. They aren't really growing at all, being 4 inches or so at like 4 months old. Steve is in a 4x2x2 tank in pretty good conditions. and he is about 7 inches or so at 4 months old. And Littlefoot and Cera being raised in what looks like pretty optimal conditions with Wayne's 8x4x4 enclosure were about 10 inches at 4 months or so.

one thing could be diet but I assume the pet store would at least feed them enough but maybe they won't eat.
Steve is growing only a little slower maybe because he wasn't eating enough at the pet store, when I got him they had 5 in the tiny tank.
Littlefoot and Cera have, from what I have seen, been raised from babies in the best conditions I have seen any savs raised in and they grew fast.

I was also thinking it may have something to do with the size of the enclosure, the ones in the pet store are tiny and don't grow in small tank
Steve's growing has been slowing down a little bit compared to before, but maybe it is because he is no longer a little baby.
Littlefoot and Cera have had the 8x4x4 since they were babies.

one other thing I considered could be the conditions and health of the lizards.
the ones in the pet store are in awful conditions, Steve started in that and they got better within the first week I got him and now he is in the best conditions I can provide with a smaller enclosure. and Littlefoot and Cera have had good conditions the whole time.

This is all based on my observations, I haven't searched anything else on the subject. What do you guys think?

here are the pictures I referenced

Steve is a decently larger than the last one it was taken about a week or two ago.

[infernalis]

The pet shop is stunting those lizards with poor conditions and not enough food.

Cage size has little to nothing to do with it.

Except of course, they cannot achieve proper conditions with a small aquarium.

[DiscoPat]

Alright, so it mainly is the poor conditions then?
I was initially planning on getting another from there once I had built the larger enclosure but they will probably still be tiny compared to Steve and it may be a bad idea to introduce them at such a size difference.

[Jay]

Don't suport that pet store.

[DiscoPat]

You can view it as supporting the pet store or saving a savannah monitor from a life in that store. I choose to think of it as the second.

[Jay]

Yes by Saving the said monitor, you will be showing the shop owner that he can infact sell monitors without providing the proper husbandry. Now if monitors keep dying in his store he may stick to selling geckos and corn snakes. So why would you give this store money knowing he will just use it to purchase more monitors and treat them as an object.

[DiscoPat]

The main problem is savannah monitors can live for years under terrible conditions, they have older ones and that one will grow up eventually be put in an old iron swimming pool with a screen top 1 bulb, decent size but wood flakes as substrate being an inch deep at most with 4 other adult savannah monitors.

Also since I will not be purchasing from there because of the size difference maybe you know a place where I can get a young savannah for about $100 or so maybe a little more, that does treat them the way they should be treated.

[Jay]

No idea, as I'm in Canada. I can almost guaranty you can find one in your area in your price range. It would be very irisponsible for you to support that pet store.

[DiscoPat]

Trust me I looked everywhere for them, I didn't order from an online store because I didn't know any and the next day shipping would cost quite a bit. The only other place in my area that sells them keeps them in same conditions but a smaller cage.

[Jay]

Well I guess you have a conundrum.

[infernalis]

Both of my lizards and shipping combined came to under 100 dollars.

[DiscoPat]

What website?

[infernalis]

Talk to this guy......

sSNAKESs : Reptile Forum - View Profile: StudentoReptile (http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/members/studentoreptile.html)

He can hook you right up.