baby savannah monitor advice

[erantheking21]

hi
i got a baby Savannah Monitor ...when i got him he was so thin, buy healthy...
in my country we dont breed them so he came from the the US so when i got him i gave him food..and not he looks better...
but the problem is
when i get him out he is still bitting ( i try to pet him a lot...)
and shitting smelly watery ****..that i cannot bare
what can i do about the watery ****?
i dont think its natural, maybe somthing is not right about the ****

[ClockwerkBonnet]

What do you feed him? If the stuff is that watery, maybe you should take the lizard to the vet.

[erantheking21]

ok
i will try
when i got him he was very thin
he was delivered from aboard..when the pets get to my country they double checked from both countries so i realize he was healty
i give him worms, meat with d3 speard on it, madagascar hissing ****, some chicken and livers..he still didnt ate a mouse so i gave him the 3d on every meal
offcourse i gave him good temp and uvb..

[erantheking21]

the watery poo is when i take him out and he get stress
i put him in a bath with water so he get calm...
i have a lot of work with him to make him calm
to became like my mangrove that he is very calm
but when i take the SM out he became stress and try to make himself light wight probebly but he poo is watery...its normal?

[ClockwerkBonnet]

No, it isn't normal.

I do see one solution to his stress from your picking him up: he may not have grown fully accustomed to his new surroundings, so give him time, and maybe he'll calm down.

Also, I once read that Savannah monitors normally eat worms and rodents, but not roaches and meat. If your lizard is fine with meat and roaches, I'm fine with it, but worms shouldn't be taken off his menu. I'm just saying.

I do hope the waste becomes less runny soon.

[chairman]

Your savannah monitor, varanus exanthematicus, is not a captive bred animal from the US. Your monitor came from Africa. It may have been routed through the US, but it probably wasn't born here (unless an importer bought a gravid female and those eggs were laid and hatched in captivity).

Monitors need to eat whole prey. Crickets, roaches, worms, mice, rabbits, birds. Never feed "meat". Make sure the prey is small enough to be swallowed whole, their teeth are for crushing food, not chewing.

Monitors require a basking area with a surface temperature, measured using a temperature gun, not a thermometer, of at least 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature can be up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. This is not ambient temperature, just surface temperature. You should also provide UVB light.

Keep the cool side of the cage around 75 degrees Fahrenheit, ambient. The warm side can be in the low 90s, degrees Fahrenheit. These temperatures are measured with a standard thermometer.

Monitors require a soil substrate that is at least 2 feet deep. The soil should be sandy and be moist, not wet, at depth.

Humidity in the enclosure needs to be 80% or more on the opposite side of the cage from the basking spot.

The cage needs to be at least 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4 feet tall. The soil in the cage will weigh approximately 1000 lbs if you do it properly. If you can, a cage that is 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, 2 meters tall, is best.

Do not try to hold your monitor. Do not try to interact with your monitor. Spend as little time in the cage as possible. Change water quickly. Spot clean waste quickly. Drop off food quickly. Eventually your monitor will stop fearing you and will start to get curious about you. After 6 months of avoiding contact with your monitor it should slowly start to interact with you. Go slow, do everything on the monitor's terms. Force nothing on the monitor. It will learn to tolerate you and may learn to trust you, just depends on the animal.

Do these things and your monitor will do well. If you do not, your monitor will be dead within 24 months, just like 95% of savannah monitors in captivity. Savannah monitors take up a lot of space, a lot of money, and require very specific care.