"Best trained Savannah monitor"

Corey209 · 03-28-13, 04:22 AM

Do you think this Sav is actually trained?

Pirarucu · 03-28-13, 06:07 AM

Not at all. It associated its owner and noise with food, most monitors do. The guy could say anything else and the Sav would have done exactly the same thing.

It is also dead now.. Surprise surprise.

smy_749 · 03-28-13, 06:19 AM

I had someone use him as proof that you can house different species together, (he had a blackthroat,savannah, and numerous iguanas in a shed system in his yard)...Curious as to how that works considering they are all from different environments. His blackthroat seemed very lethargic, and the only way to prove he responded to his own name would have been to show him NOT coming when you call "come on george" or something, and I'm sure he would have still came running because he doesnt understand the difference, its just an 'alarm' for food, and even if he did understand he would probably have came and stole georges food anyways hahaha

From what I've learned here, this guys husbandry practices are pretty horrible, especially in the vids where he lets his savannahs roam around in 40/50 degree weather/rain and thats actually how it died, because it was out in the cold and he forgot about it or something.

stephanbakir · 03-28-13, 06:55 AM

I have a friend up in Canada with some odd husbandry for his trio of savs, they are about 9 years old though so I guess it works?
He has a 10X10X8 with at least 3 feet of that 8 being soil, heated enclosure in his garage, not what I'd call ideal but the hotspot reads around 160F, ambient ranges from 70 to 90 depending on where you go, he feeds them scraps of meat (hes a butcher) and bone meal + dubias.
The really odd part is that his enclosure is connected to the outside world (yes, we live in canada so we have have 5 feet of snow), the enclosure maintains its temp and during the winter they just dont go outside, but in the summer you see them in his yard all the time...

It's not what I'd call ideal, but some people truly believe their methods work. (his animals are not obese, like the one in this video)

Re-training. I agree with the above statements, I tested it with my sav last year, started singing random songs and included his name in the lyrics, he came running.

Corey209 · 03-28-13, 07:12 AM

This guy claims to be one of the first breeders of blackthroats and green iguanas in the US...

stephanbakir · 03-28-13, 07:31 AM

Weren't iguanas Tom crutchfield? or was that albino iguanas?

smy_749 · 03-28-13, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephanbakir

Weren't iguanas Tom crutchfield? or was that albino iguanas?

Yea I believe crutchfield was the first for albinos, I remember him having his breeding pair of adults up for something like 100 g's a few years ago.

Whats the big deal if you breed iggies though? They do just fine in floridas wilderness, so how hard could it be to breed them, you can just put a screen box around them if you live in miami and that would probably do the job...

Blackthroats I would imagine are a bit more difficult. About the savannahs, I can't explain it but yea, seems hes doing something right.

infernalis · 03-28-13, 08:00 AM

Breeding animals is not "difficult", it's nature.

any bafoon can put a male and female animal in a box, once the female ovulates, nature takes over.

It's what happens next that requires some brains.

smy_749 · 03-28-13, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infernalis

Breeding animals is not "difficult", it's nature.

any bafoon can put a male and female animal in a box, once the female ovulates, nature takes over.

It's what happens next that requires some brains.

Yea when you put it like that it makes the whole word breeder sound funny, nobody is physically breeding the male to the female haha, I guess the proper thing to say is 'Successfully hatched healthy babies from captive animals'

Want to sell some SHHBFCA Ackies

infernalis · 03-28-13, 08:48 AM

I have been on enough boards for some years now. The one that sticks in my mind the most was a young man who captured 2 wild garter snakes, he kept them in a 5 gallon bucket he got at work. The female had babies, and suddenly "bucket man" was posting on the breeder boards.

Didn't last long... a lot of people said exactly what I just did.

jarich · 03-28-13, 09:17 AM

Ugh, I saw these videos awhile back when someone tried using them to 'prove' to me that multiple species of monitors could be kept together also. The videos are so annoying because he keeps repeating the animals names about a thousand times and still doesnt get the fact that they arent responding. I suppose if you keep the animals barely alive then they dont have the energy to kill each other. This is a great video to show people just how resilient reptiles are to terrible conditions.

Stephan, what you are describing seems perfectly logical. That keeper provides them with the gradient and they choose which part of it they use and when. Obviously they have access to much cooler temperatures than they would are adapted to, and the animals are smart enough to know not to use it. Now if he only gave them a single light bulb with a low basking temp like the guy in this video, that wouldnt work. However, your friend provides a high basking temp like they need, and deep humid soil that they need, and then leaves it up to the animal to regulate itself.

infernalis · 03-28-13, 10:58 AM

Sadly, Dave seems to be a "celebrity" on youtube and facebook.

Maybe, I should make a video, I will open the cage and say "toyota" 35 times and see if my monitors come out looking for food.

jarich · 03-28-13, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by infernalis

Sadly, Dave seems to be a "celebrity" on youtube and facebook.

Maybe, I should make a video, I will open the cage and say "toyota" 35 times and see if my monitors come out looking for food.

hahaha, dont forget to put your hand out as if youre holding food. Oh I mean, that has nothing to do with it of course

Squirtle · 03-28-13, 12:51 PM

Although I fully agree that some of Dave's monitors attention is triggered by the food, I still believe that it has some training with going to Dave when it's called. I believe he has some videos of his lizards coming to him without using food.

R.I.P Gale

Gale was not his only lizard today in 2012. I believe that 2 iguanas also died back in December.

smy_749 · 03-28-13, 01:14 PM

They froze to death. Monitors are lizards of habit, whether he had food is irrelevant, they already associated the call with feeding. If they don't get fed once or twice, they won't erase the habit. What would happen if he called him persistently and never fed him. Thats the real question.

Another thing is to watch how slow and sluggish they are, that is anything but the normal. If you don't believe me just watch infernalis's videos and see how much thinner and energetic they are. Also his blackthroat barely moves in ALL of his videos. If he does, its in slow motion.