Savannah monitor care question.

Conner Richter · 09-15-15, 04:21 PM

So I have a question about savannah monitors.I am seriously thinking about getting one fairly soon.however i was wondering if anyone had a good general care guide for them.also I heard that with a good and proper diet they would be ok without uv lighting.I would take it outside often and help it get lots of natural sun.so yah?Also i was wondering if u needed to give them baths.

chairman · 09-15-15, 07:19 PM

Probably the best resource out there: Correct Savannah Monitor Care

The topic of UVB is debatable, if you choose to provide it then you need artificial lighting. You should not handle a sav until it learns to come to you on its own, a process that takes 6-8 months. If you think that UV is important then going without it during the 6 months it takes for a 6" baby to get to 30" is probably a bad idea.

Remember, the only good diet for a sav is a whole prey diet.

If your monitor needs baths for hydration or for bowel movements, it is dying. A big water dish is adequate.

I raised my savannah monitor using the advice provided on that website and he's still doing great ~5 years in. They're a rewarding species to keep but consume a lot of resources... you can fit 16 4'x2' snake cages in the space that one sav consumes. Depending on species, that's a trade of 32 snakes for 1 lizard!

chairman · 09-15-15, 08:07 PM

Couple pics of my monitor... interesting note, they are constantly shedding somewhere.

You

murrindindi · 09-16-15, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chairman

Probably the best resource out there: Correct Savannah Monitor Care

The topic of UVB is debatable, if you choose to provide it then you need artificial lighting. You should not handle a sav until it learns to come to you on its own, a process that takes 6-8 months. If you think that UV is important then going without it during the 6 months it takes for a 6" baby to get to 30" is probably a bad idea.

Remember, the only good diet for a sav is a whole prey diet.

If your monitor needs baths for hydration or for bowel movements, it is dying. A big water dish is adequate.

I raised my savannah monitor using the advice provided on that website and he's still doing great ~5 years in. They're a rewarding species to keep but consume a lot of resources... you can fit 16 4'x2' snake cages in the space that one sav consumes. Depending on species, that's a trade of 32 snakes for 1 lizard!

Hi, I agree with almost everything you`ve said except for one small point; even under supportive conditions they normally grow at around 2 to 3+inches per month during the first couple of years. It`s extremely unlikely that if the animal was 6 inches long when acquired that it would reach 30 inches in 6 months (measured accurately rather than a "guestimate"), which MANY keepers seem to make, and they always err on the side of exaggeration!
If all the reports of them continually growing at 4 inches per month were true they would all be full grown in less than 12 months (it doesn`t happen, especially with the medium to large species)...

You have a very nice and healthy looking Savannah monitor.

murrindindi · 09-16-15, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conner Richter

So I have a question about savannah monitors.I am seriously thinking about getting one fairly soon.however i was wondering if anyone had a good general care guide for them.also I heard that with a good and proper diet they would be ok without uv lighting.I would take it outside often and help it get lots of natural sun.so yah?Also i was wondering if u needed to give them baths.

Hi, if they receive a whole prey diet which includes a good percentage of vertebrate prey, plus the other supportive conditions (temps, humidity, etc, etc) then UVB exposure is not necessary (meaning that they can live live long, healthy and productive lives without it).
Having said all that, if you wish to provide it there`s no evidence to suggest it`s harmful if used according to the manufacturers instructions (for UVB bulbs/tubes).
Natural sunlight is fine providing they can retreat from it at any time.

Conner Richter · 09-16-15, 05:16 PM

Thanks to you all for the quick information on savannah monitors.And that is a very beautiful monitor chairman.

Conner Richter · 09-16-15, 05:26 PM

And chairman what kind of substrate is that your using?

Bellydragger94 · 09-16-15, 07:50 PM

I've feed my little guy. Snails. Eggs. Crickets. Meal worms. Pretty much everything even a fertilized egg he grew like a monster even fish and I dident think he would eat it and he loved it.

chairman · 09-17-15, 05:15 AM

Unfortunately, I didn't do a great job documenting my monitor's growth. My only definitive points of reference are that I got my monitor at 8" and he was at his final length of ~36" within 14 months. I probably did telescope his growth a bit but the moral of the story is that they grow like weeds and you should set up a baby monitor in an adult-sized enclosure almost from day 1. Certainly don't waste your money upgrading tanks every couple months.

For substrate, I use dirt that has a very generous layer of cypress mulch on top. The goal is substrate that is moist at depth and I couldn't pull that off with a sand/soil mix. I always wound up with dry dirt on top, swamp on bottom, only a couple inches of appropriately moist dirt between. But adding the much layer fixed my problem.

murrindindi · 09-17-15, 02:34 PM

[QUOTE=chairman;974243]Unfortunately, I didn't do a great job documenting my monitor's growth. My only definitive points of reference are that I got my monitor at 8" and he was at his final length of ~36" within 14 months. I probably did telescope his growth a bit but the moral of the story is that they grow like weeds and you should set up a baby monitor in an adult-sized enclosure almost from day 1. Certainly don't waste your money upgrading tanks every couple months.
[QUOTE]

If the monitor is now 5 years old and only around 1 metre in length it seems quite small for an adult male, have you ever noticed a fairly sudden weight gain?

chairman · 09-17-15, 03:17 PM

Lol, no, he is a he. Skull/neck structure says male, hemipenal bulges when you lift the tail, and the most obvious, I saw him evert during a bowel movement.

I actually believe that he's on the lower side of normal in terms of size for a sav. I recall reading a paper in which the authors revisited the size estimates for savs. They determined that many larger savs were actually improperly identified white throats. At least some of this was determined by looking at stuffed specimens in museums that were incorrectly labeled as savs. Wish I could remember the authors, article title, or journal...

jarich · 09-21-15, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chairman

For substrate, I use dirt that has a very generous layer of cypress mulch on top. The goal is substrate that is moist at depth and I couldn't pull that off with a sand/soil mix. I always wound up with dry dirt on top, swamp on bottom, only a couple inches of appropriately moist dirt between. But adding the much layer fixed my problem.

Leaf litter is your friend.

chairman · 09-21-15, 01:11 PM

Indeed, but not a one size fits all solution. Variety helps keep the hobby interesting, I suppose.

infernalis · 09-28-15, 01:58 PM

The use of UV has shown to improve immune systems by enhancing white cell count (Verified in the university of Queensland bio lab by Dr. Fry) and has shown (through my own personal experience) to enhance activity. You may not need it, but why would you want your lizards at sub optimal conditions?

chairman · 09-28-15, 05:41 PM

Good to see you infernalis.

Lacking access to the studies, was it a control group with no UVB and an experimental group with UVB? Did they include a third group that received additional dietary D3 to see if that had the same effect as UVB access?