amzing thread, thanks to all who have contributed
I am a new Sav owner, admitidly bought on impulse, although I was aware of their basic needs before hand, have kept quite a few reptiles over the years, always loved them, and monitors have been on my list of reptiles i'd love to have for a loooong time!
At the moment, he/she, is just a hatchling, 5 inches long and quite nervous, i've set up a small enclosure for now, because I want to be sure its feeding properly and generally in good health - will be off to the vet in a few weeks for a check up, sexing and parasite checks
Although currently in a small enclosure, i've managed to keep the humidity high, and a nice tempreture gradient and 48C (sorry i'm english, i dont know F, 130ish i think) basking spot, although it seems to like the slightly cooler areas just around it. Theres a big plastic bowl full of water, which is obligingly used as a toilet every morning
currently about 6 inches of tortoise sand-soil mix in the bass of the enclosure, tapering off to an inch nearer to the heat lamp. Two large pieces of aquarium drift wood are its favorite places to sit on and sleep under.
I'm using a 75W hallogen bulb at the moment, the basking area seems ok, but i may try a spot lamp bulb if i have any issues with tempreture. Also have a 15W heatmatt under the 'cool' side of the enclosure, which comes on at night once the main basking lamp is out - personally I prefer to emulate natural heating, and keep it nice and warm at night, but not hot as it is during the day - been to africa a few times, and it can get damn cold at night, so I think this is ok.
Average temps in the enclosure are 30C in the middle, 35C around the heat lamp, 48C under the heat lamp, 25-26C on the cool side, with the soil temp about the same. Humidity in the middle is around 70-80%, 20-30% near the heat lamp, and around 90-100% underneath the drift wood where it likes to sleep most of the time.
It does like to dig, but generally just sleeps under the wood, which is warm and humid so I guess this is ok
Any advice much appriciated, this is my first monitor
I already have much of the wood required for its final enclosure which is set to be 10ft x 5ft x 2 ft, with a large heated aquarium in the base for swimming and catching fish (good idea for Savs? I know they love the swim, and feel if they will catch fish, then why not...but open to more experienced advice!). Also will be provided with 3 feet of soil should it deciede that burrowing is its prefered place to sleep
I only plan on keeping it in the current enclosure (2ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft) until after I've established that its healthy and behaving normally, aswell as becoming used to my presence, then its moving to a 4x2x2 enclosure ( I hve plenty of enclosures for repltiles available so moving from one to another is not an issue from that point of view)
I have one question, is the 4x2x2 going to be big enough for the next 6-7months? i am moving house in 6months time, and i would rather build the enclosure into the house, rather than deconstruct and reconstruct - that said, my sav's health is more important to me than a little extra labour, but if he's not going to grow to much longer than a foot or so i think I can wait till i move? any advice greatefull recieved
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