My Baby Savannah Monitor!

[Marlene]

I have a baby savannah in my little reptile family, her name is Mporomoko Wa Maji, or Maji for short. Her name means "Waterfall" in Swahili, it suits her since she's almost always in her water dish. I bought her at a pet store, she seemed so scared there and I just had to buy her to get her out of such a stressful environment! She has been the most difficult reptile to tame so far! I bought her as a little baby, it looked as though her yolk sack had just fallen off a few days ago when I bought her, so she was very tiny. She's been taking her time to grow too.

She had just defecated right before this picture was taken, and is obviously shedding in this shot. That blank spot of glass in the bottom left corner is where her water bowl was, she left a nasty little turd in there for me to clean up!

Here's a great shot of her not wanting anything to do with me! ^_^ She was fresh from her bath in this picture.

As far as taming her goes, I've tried all the tricks that I can think up of, I've had her for quite a few months, and it seems as though progress is going in reverse. Lately I haven't done anything with her, aside from deworming her, she's got round worms, luckily those are easy enough to get rid of. Aside from deworming her, I've just been resting my hand in the cage for about a half an hour every day to every other day and she has one of my dirty pajama shirts in her hut. I used to just hold her, and once she'd calm down, well, freeze up to the point that she stopped trying to bite and puff up at me, I let her go back into her cage. So if anyone has any crazy tips on taming a sav that doesn't want to be tamed, I'm all ears!

 

[lazyjr52]

I have never had a sav before but I really like the look of that one.

 

[BOOZER]

oh the savys.....seen the tame one's. but own the fussy haha actually my savy IKE just head buts my hand. too much

 

[sclevenger08]

Haha, we got ours when she was about 7months old, and she was pretty nasty. Notched a board with her tail the first day we brought her home and then later broke a thumb when she bit. But we just started ignoring her due to being so busy, we only fed, bathed, and cleaned the cage. And now, she's not crazy tame, but she isn't awfully vicious either. She will come out of the cage when we open the door, then crawl back in when were done cleaning. lol. But your little girl is a beauty.

 

[Marlene]

Lazyjr: Thanks!

Boozer: Headbutting your hand does sound kinda cute, I wish that's all mine would do, lol. Luckily she's still very small so her bites aren't that bad.

sclevenger: I was thinking about just being in her cage to clean it and only messing with her to put her in her feeding tank. I think she may feel a bit better about me once she's a little bigger. I'll basically be doing what you did, only bathing, feeding and cleaning. I may sit there with my hand in the cage, or try to just hold her every once in a while, but she's just so stressed out when I'm just walking by her cage.

 

[rmzsuzuki89]

I heard that with Savannah monitors, you should get them in their enclosure and not mess with them for a few weeks. Of course feeding, cleaning, and changing the water. But just have the tank in a place where you regularly are, and let her see and get used to your presence, and know that you're not a threat.

Again, I'm no expert, that's just something that I read somewhere.

And she is definitely a cutie.

 

[Adam87]

ok i got this tip from a guy whos crazy about Savannahs and know alot about them ok so heres what you do put her in the bath tub fill it with just enough and every so often put ur hand in under her lift her out of the water for a few seconds then set her down thats it and keep doing this until she tames up she eventuly get the idea that ur hand is protection and also never bother them while they are in there hide thats away to lose trust automatic i'll put a youtube link up to jeff so u can check his vids out

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/faitiana#p/u/56/mOMEyHuYJEc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/user/faitiana#p/u/56/mOMEyHuYJEc</a><!-- m -->

 

[Marlene]

Rmz: Yeah, she had a fairly long grace period after I bought her. I only went in there to clean out her water bowl and take her out to feed her for the first few weeks. Her colour is also a lot brighter, she seems to be turning yellow, but not in a liver failure kind of way!

Adam: Thanks! I'll have to try that and check out those videos! Her cage is in our living room/bedroom (I live in a studio).

 

[Adam87]

no problem and good luck once there tame they can be just as much of a sweet heart as a tegu they really do make great pets i miss my larry who was put down cause he was sick when i got him from a expo and there was nothing i could do about it but he was a sweet heart (rip)

 

[Marlene]

I'm sorry to hear that. I've never really known anyone with a savannah before I bought mine. I did get to see some that my friend was watching for a while. They were about one year old and they were of a fairly good size.

 

[cornking4]

Have you taken her to a herp vet yet? You mentioned round worms, but I could almost guarantee with her being from a pet store that she's got flagellates to some degree.

 

[Marlene]

She hasn't been to one yet. I bought her quite a few months ago, about 8 or 9 months ago, so this is a rather new developement. If the fenbendazole doesn't help, then she'll be going in to the vet. So far the dewormer is working though, we got a lot out with the first dose, she'll be getting another soon.

 

[cornking4]

I recommend taking her to one soon... It's kinda like when you have a baby, you take it to the pediatrician straight away. They can also take blood to set a baseline of her health to compare her to if she gets sick, which eliminates the need for a lot of expensive tests. Annual checkups are also a good idea.

 

[Marlene]

I should, I'm just in a tight spot for money at this point in time. I used to work at a vet, so it was so much easier to get this stuff done, and having a couple of herpetologists as friends wasn't too bad either! I gave one of them a call before administering the fenbendazole. Pretty much all of my reptiles got dewormed on a regular basis with whatever we had on hand for the horses (fenbendazole or ivermectin), just because I had quite a few rescues coming and going.

 

[cornking4]

I know what you mean... A vet visit can go from $50 to $200 pretty fast. If you have flagyl (flagizol or metronidazole) and panacur you can preventatively treat him for flagellate and protazoan gastrointestinal infection, which is what's most common in savs.

 

[Marlene]

Yeah, I bought the cheap fenbendazole, the panacure was too expensive, and this stuff is exatly the same, minus the big name.