New Photos of my big guy

[Toothless]

That sucks! I just wrote a whole post but it got deleted!
Lets try again...
He likes to root around in the soil for bugs and such, but prefers to sleep under his water shelf rather than dig a burrow. I even added a man-made burrow under the soil in hopes he would use it, but I guess old habits die hard.
Here's a few pics of him growing up- I've had him since he was about 5-6 inches.

[h3h]

These guys are so cool. I wish I knew someone who had one so I could go over and play with it, but then leave. Lol. I don't know if I want this in my house, but they are way cool!

- h3

[Toothless]

Originally Posted by h3h

These guys are so cool. I wish I knew someone who had one so I could go over and play with it, but then leave. Lol. I don't know if I want this in my house, but they are way cool!

- h3

If you tried playing with mine you'd very quickly have quite a few lacerations and bruises . I know some are able to be handled, but I like my guy just the way he is . I've only touched him a few times in the past year and a half and that was only when he was distracted by food lol.

[formica]

more awsome pics, I think you are right, and I suspect, just as with humans, Savs will choose the most convient place to sleep, why dig 150kg of soil when theres a nice warm and humid hiding spot readly available to sleep in! they are known to sleep in hollow trees, and even high up in the branches in wild (despite protests from some that this is absurd behavior for a Sav!)

I dont see any signs of dehydration or gout in the pics of him as an older Sav either, how old is he now?

[Toothless]

He's only about a year and a half- but I guess that's pretty good considering how many die young .
Since he doesn't burrow, I make sure there is a wide humidity gradient so at least he can still use both a high and moderate humidity if needed. That is one of the reasons I made so many levels in the enclosure (that and for a good temp gradient . The basking area is around 60%, second level is between 80-90%, and the bottom level sits around 85%. I couldn't get a gradient like this until I took a hot glue gun to all the seams- even with caulking and sealant the humidity was still slowely leaking out. Sometimes he rests at the lower humidity area, but most of the time he's on the bottom shelf or exploring.
I'm also planning to add some more climbing areas (cause there's not enough already lol) but I'm not quite sure how I want to go about it yet. He loves to climb so I want to give him as much usable space as possible. I was thinking of adding a small shelf or large branches in the second level area, and another one right up near the top of the enclosure. He seems to prefer scaling the walls rather than using the ladders and to get down he will either use his tail like a grappling (sp?) hook or just do a somersault off the ledge.
He let me pet his tail last night while I was feeding him- for about 5 seconds then he decided the oven mitts looked tasty...

[formica]

Originally Posted by Toothless

He's only about a year and a half- but I guess that's pretty good considering how many die young .
Since he doesn't burrow, I make sure there is a wide humidity gradient so at least he can still use both a high and moderate humidity if needed. That is one of the reasons I made so many levels in the enclosure (that and for a good temp gradient . The basking area is around 60%, second level is between 80-90%, and the bottom level sits around 85%. I couldn't get a gradient like this until I took a hot glue gun to all the seams- even with caulking and sealant the humidity was still slowely leaking out. Sometimes he rests at the lower humidity area, but most of the time he's on the bottom shelf or exploring.
I'm also planning to add some more climbing areas (cause there's not enough already lol) but I'm not quite sure how I want to go about it yet. He loves to climb so I want to give him as much usable space as possible. I was thinking of adding a small shelf or large branches in the second level area, and another one right up near the top of the enclosure. He seems to prefer scaling the walls rather than using the ladders and to get down he will either use his tail like a grappling (sp?) hook or just do a somersault off the ledge.
He let me pet his tail last night while I was feeding him- for about 5 seconds then he decided the oven mitts looked tasty...

intrigued, i've not seen anything about Savs using their tales in that way, i didnt realize they had that kind of control over them, beyond whiping and balancing

I've got a big breeze block (aerated concrete) in my enclosure, which my sav likes to scrabble over, helps to keep his claws a little less sharp too - inspired by many pics of the volcanic rocks that litter their wild habitat, when i build his full enclosure, I'm going to use allot more of them, bolted together because they are quite light

[E-Tech Todd]

Hey formica
I have seen Eco(my sav) using his tail tail that way as well.
Ive also seen him propping himself up on it trying to get over the gate we put up.
Not just "tripoding" but actually completely on his tail while he was trying to climb the smooth wall.

oh...and I like the idea of the "breeze block" and it acting kind of like a nail file.
I might have to use that one ;-)
Savs are awesome. LOL

[Toothless]

I just dumped a few garbage bags full of leaves in the enclosure and Toothless seemed to enjoy rooting through them . The ones from last year were all gone, and he likes to bury himself in them.
He was a tad scared of the big black garbage bags being dumped in the enclosure, but settled own very quickly and never ran away.

[Toothless]

Almost done the modifications on the enclosure . Still need to add in one more ladder, grab another log or two from the parents yard, and change out the basking shelf for a larger board (I've decided it's too s
mall and needs to go- may put in somewhere else in the cage though). Still working on getting the right bulbs in there, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to fix that. I'm debating putting in a blue heat bulb for lighttime heat and shutting off the basking lights at night (they bother us while we're watching tv, and he's acclimatized now so I don't have to worry about him not basking properly).
Let me know if anything looks bad (a second set of eyes always helps).

[E-Tech Todd]

YEAH!
He does look like a big old boy!
Hey... Im having trouble getting my pics to post up like yours
I went through the FAQ and still having problems.
What's the trick?

[formica]

Originally Posted by E-Tech Todd

YEAH!
He does look like a big old boy!
Hey... Im having trouble getting my pics to post up like yours
I went through the FAQ and still having problems.
What's the trick?

use a web host like tinypic.com - it will give you the bbcode to post direct into the forum, uploading direct to the forum results in horrible little versions of the pics

[Toothless]

Yes, he is a big boy. Last I measured he was 3 feet ToL and he's had a few sheds since then. Hasn't shed much in the past month so I think he's almost as big as he's gonna get. I say I'll be lucky if he reaches 3 1/2 feet- I still love him to pieces though! Kinda like having a tiny dinosaur in a cage.
I will say I've learned loads about this species in the past year and a half. Everything I knew starting out was wrong. Thanks to many forums (I think I've read them all ) and lots of research, asking questions, and observing Toothless I think I'm starting to get a hang of everything. I learn something new about him every day (not alot of info out there that I can find about behaviour).
Starting out I kept him in a one level enclosure since I couldn't find any information about whether or not they climbed. One day I decided to add a jungle gym I built to see if he used it, and he was all over it! Since then I've been adding much more climbing opportunities, and with that I've seen some pretty neat things. He easily scales a two foot smooth wall (using his tail as a prop and he pulls his whole weight up using only his front arms), front flips off the ledges (lands right on his feet every-time and keeps running), and wrapping his tail around a fixed object and lowering his whole body down slowely about 2 1/2 feet. He also uses his tail alot to balance in tricky areas.
I think I've become addicted to these guys. Can`t wait until I finally get my house so I can build him a huge 10 x 5 x 6 enclosure. I`ve already started working on the design. Planning to use concrete on the walls to to make it look like rock and make some pretty extravigant (sp?) climbing areas. I look forward to seeing how much more this amazing guy can to!
I keep trying to get shots of him doing some of the cooler things, but of course everytime he does something neat, I never have the camera ready. One day though...lol

[Toothless]

As for photos, I use PhotoBucket (create an account, AWESOME site), then you can just copy the pic link and paste it here. Very simple and easy .

[sweatshirt]

Amazing.... little? Guy!

[infernalis]

Looks like a decent life. well done.