ready made sleeping hides for Savs
I am becoming more attached to the idea of a sealed box of some kind, instead of a large soil burrowing area; currently designing my final savs final enclosure, sav's like dead tree stumps to live in when given the oppertunity in the wild, if the conditions are right inside, so the idea to create a hide, inside a sealed box is quite appealing for a few reasons. a reasonable length tunnel connecting the main outdoor space with the hide, so it feels secure, and protectable, by the Sav. lots of substrate and very careful control of humidity and tempretures, plus the ability for me to get inside the burrow without too much disruption to its enviroment, should the need arise, seems to me like a good idea.
My idea so far:
size - not decided, how big do they like it at full size? perhaps I should build in a way to gradually increase its size, if it prefers something snug fitting
So as a start, a large thick black plastic, possibly water tank of size TBC...
on the bottom 6inches of clay aggregate (balls that hold moisture), filled with water approx 0.5-1inch above the balls, and maintained at the same level via either a gravity pump, or manually. this water may also be heated via an aquarium tank heater to provide the required temps and humidty in the burrow, if required. then covered with a metal grill so he cant dig into aggregate and get to the water heater (its glass, def dont want him chomping on that!).
on top of that, foot of soil, with the bottom 0.5-1inch in the water below, to absorb moisture, emulating water table in wild, and bringing warmth from below into the burrow if the heater is needed, and then another 6 inches of sphagnum moss on top of that for even more humidity and for it to nose around in or move about and make the space more comfortable.
Humidity and Temperature sensors inside so things can be adjusted as needed.
The idea behind a prebuilt hide as apposed to the other options (like a huge soil filled burrow) is about access and cleaning, in the wild a monitors burrow will be kept clean by the crustaceans that live alongside it, aswell as the fact that in the wild although Humdity levels are high, air movement is also high, so things dont stagnate in the same way they can in a tank, producing molds and fungi which might not be good.
so I would like to for eg be able to change the moss every once in a while, and make sure theres no nasty molds growing due to the low air movement and high temp/humidity. Also means i dont have to dig it out if I'm concerned about his health for any reason.
So whats peoples thoughts, besides the removing of natural behaviour of burrowing, which has been covered many times before of course! If I choose this route, I will provide oppertunities for digging, for eg and area to dig up the occasional juice fat beetle grub or the odd snake egg nest (fertilized quail eggs not snake eggs)
will this solution present any other issues anyone can forsee? I certainly dont intend on opening his home up more than once every few months to inspect and clean, if that.
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