sav stay in burrow all day

[nepoez]

Hi, the cage is the same as last time I showed the photos. Nothing has changed except I coated the plywood with waterproof resin(Bondo Fiberglass Resin). The basking temps(140F+) with 3 x 50Watt flood lights and humidity(80+) and everything remains unchanged.

Today he came out and basked for a while(like 20 minutes) , and then moved away from the basking spot and then he just lies there. I know he's hungry since I decided not to feed him yesterday to see if he'll get hungry enough to decide it's time to go look around for food. My tegu, the hungrier he gets the more active he is and more aggressive so I thought I'd try starving the sav for 1 day to see if he'll do the same, but nope.

Today I threw a small smelt in the cage and he dashed at it and ate it right away with vigor. Seems healthy when he sees food, still fast when chasing food. Then he roamed around the cage for like 1 minute thinking there's more food but then finds nothing and back to doing nothing. He's starting to act like those youtube savs who lay around all day doing nothing.

The basement is heated to 23C all day round, the cage is sitting on a 2 inch foam mats that insulates real well.. Although the winter is here and where I live it gets to -20C... But cage temps didn't change.

I have the cages situated in the basement where no window is exposed. I know it's working well because most tegus would hibernate at this time but my tegu hasn't been affected by the seasons at all and still hunts all day long, the sav cage is right next to the tegu's and the have the exact same setup.

Since the last conversation with murrindindi I only feed like this:
4 days of the week he eats superworms who live in the cage eating buried veggies/fruits, I have to dig them out for the sav to eat, unlike the tegu he wouldn't bother digging for himself unless they are only slightly buried.

3 days of the week I only feed 1 single mouse or 3 small smelts.


He's lost weight with this new feeding but he's still not active like he used to, e.g. roaming around from 10am-4pm. Now he won't even roam, just sits there unless I open the cage, then he'll run to me expecting food.

[mdfmonitor]

Originally Posted by nepoez

Hi, the cage is the same as last time I showed the photos. Nothing has changed except I coated the plywood with waterproof resin(Bondo Fiberglass Resin). The basking temps(140F+) with 3 x 50Watt flood lights and humidity(80+) and everything remains unchanged.

Today he came out and basked for a while(like 20 minutes) , and then moved away from the basking spot and then he just lies there. I know he's hungry since I decided not to feed him yesterday to see if he'll get hungry enough to decide it's time to go look around for food. My tegu, the hungrier he gets the more active he is and more aggressive so I thought I'd try starving the sav for 1 day to see if he'll do the same, but nope.

Today I threw a small smelt in the cage and he dashed at it and ate it right away with vigor. Seems healthy when he sees food, still fast when chasing food. Then he roamed around the cage for like 1 minute thinking there's more food but then finds nothing and back to doing nothing. He's starting to act like those youtube savs who lay around all day doing nothing.

The basement is heated to 23C all day round, the cage is sitting on a 2 inch foam mats that insulates real well.. Although the winter is here and where I live it gets to -20C... But cage temps didn't change.

I have the cages situated in the basement where no window is exposed. I know it's working well because most tegus would hibernate at this time but my tegu hasn't been affected by the seasons at all and still hunts all day long, the sav cage is right next to the tegu's and the have the exact same setup.

Since the last conversation with murrindindi I only feed like this:
4 days of the week he eats superworms who live in the cage eating buried veggies/fruits, I have to dig them out for the sav to eat, unlike the tegu he wouldn't bother digging for himself unless they are only slightly buried.

3 days of the week I only feed 1 single mouse or 3 small smelts.


He's lost weight with this new feeding but he's still not active like he used to, e.g. roaming around from 10am-4pm. Now he won't even roam, just sits there unless I open the cage, then he'll run to me expecting food.

I'm same, my cage temps don't change, but what does change is the amount of appliances you have to use to maintain the temp, this burns off humidity.

The only way you'll ever guarantee a warm room temp cage floor is by having the cage raised off the floor, the cold works it's way up the cage floor & cools the substrate inside, the deeper the substrate the more this takes place(regardless of insulation on the floor).

These changes effect your monitor!! take my soil box why is it that it's sat on top of rooms that are lived in & heated to around 20c & the temps in the viv are around 82f across floor level, but in the bottom of the soil box it can be around 75f. When i had a nest soil box in there in the summertime & back ground temps were about 84f ground level, the substrate still had to be heated on a stat from below to maintain a 86f area.