savannah monitor

[herpgirl2510]

With my savannah I use a dirt/sand mixture and her basking spot is 130 you need to get it up from the 115. How are you getting cuch a deep substrate in a boa master doesn't all the substrate fall out. Personally Lilo my savannah does not dig she usually konks out when she is asking and sleeps there all night. She does have a burrow she dug on her cool side she goes over there if she wants to go to sleep before the lights go out. For my basking area I use 2 45 halogen bulbs and a 100 watt powersun I raise and lower the lights to get the right temp.My girl does eat some mice it would e impossible to have a 3 foot monitor survive on the bugs we have availale. She wiped out 700 large dubias in 10 days. Pick up this book http://www.proexotics.com/store/product.php?productid=16155 it talks about diet alot. How they have acess to these enourmous millipedes etc in the wild that we cannot provide here. Lilo only eats every three days sometimes I can get her to eat more often. She eats at leats 1/2 of what my tegus do at a sitting. If I feed her mice they are small ones and she gets maybe three at a sitting. I give her dubias, horn worms any of the other bugs are a joke at her size.

 

[xocrieox]

I put a piece of board to make the on the inside of the cage and sealed it with silicone just gives it more of a base so the dirt doesnt fall out so i could put more substrate in and i have already raised her basking spot she is at 138 for a temp there now i dont have a temp gun but that is what the probe is reading that is on her basking spot

 

[herpgirl2510]

How high is the boamaster I thought they were 18-24" high. You need a temp gun it can be very dangerous when you need a high basking spot to fool around with probe thermometers. They are very cheap $25.

 

[jdpFL]

Got a temp fun at harbor freight for seven bucks. I agree with what james and herpgirl are saying that spot needs to be hot. And feeding won't be simple like a tegu, who can basically almost eat what you eat. Savs need bugs. And lots of them. A mostly invertebrate diet is what they need to thrive. When we got ours, he was five inches long. At that time he could easily eat 21 crickets at a feeding. That was about two months ago....now he is over eleven inches. Another general rule is, if a sav monitor is calm and quiet, something us usually not right. A healthy one will be feisty. Their personality should generally not be anything like a tegu, unless they are sick. I'm sure there are a few that get tame to an extent, and I'm hoping mine turns out to be one. Lol. Good luck with him, and keep reading and learning. I haven't had one in years and am re learning some things myself.

 

[xocrieox]

Well good luck with yours too i have done alot of reading on him and will do alot more so he will be fine i appreciate all the advice tho

 

[herpgirl2510]

Go for hissing cockroaches they get really big and have alot of meat on them. I wish I could give them to Lilo but she is very afraid of them. They are absolutely gross though.

 

[james.w]

Well good luck with yours too i have done alot of reading on him and will do alot more so he will be fine i appreciate all the advice tho

Why come to a forum for advice and than get defensive when our advice contradicts what you are doing or have read?? Where are you doing your research? If you want good/accurate info, but don't trust us here, check out Savannahmonitor.org which has been said 2 other times in this thread. Another great site is varanus.nl but you have to get permission to join. Just pm the admin if you want to join. Varanus.net and the kingsnake forums have good info, but the members are a bit more ruthless.

 

[xocrieox]

And where did you get all your info and how long have you had monitors?

 

[jerobi2k]

you really should go check out Savannahmonitor.org, you will only get proper info. there really is no debate, most people are going to tell you the same thing. coppied from Savannahmonitor.org "One of the pitfalls of monitor keeping is the belief that monitors require the same basking temperatures as other reptiles, including bearded dragons. While other reptiles may shy away from any basking surface temperature higher than 110F, monitors gravitate toward and make full use of surface temps in excess of 130F-140F without harm." http://savannahmonitor.org/housing/basics/ -best of luck -Cheers.

 

[james.w]

And where did you get all your info and how long have you had monitors?

I have not been keeping monitors long at all. I have learned a lot from the sites I posted and people in the business like Frank Retes, crocdoc, and many extremely experienced varanid keepers.

 

[xocrieox]

So you havent taken care of them long so you shouldnt be telling other people they are wrong when you dont even have care experiance yourself and i bet from what you say all your monitors have all the right care i doubt that....so until you get experiance your advice is not anything ill listen to so go give your advice to someone else id rather get my advice from people that have been taking care of them for longer than a couple months and the care sheets i have read but thank you for your advice though

 

[james.w]

Like I said good luck with your Sav. It's funny though how everyone else has agreed with me in my care advice. I could care less if you listen to me, but you did raise your basking spot temps, so what does that tell you.

 

[xocrieox]

It tells me that i listened to the other post and i see you dont even take your our own advice cause i saw pics of your water monitor ans that isnt even on substrate so you have a good day

 

[james.w]

Which picture did you see??

And for what it is worth I have been keeping monitors this time around about 6 months and had them for about 3 years about 10 years ago.

 

[Strange_Evil]

To be honest that's kind of rude, but like said good luck with your Monitor, i still just want to see some pics .

And btw, just because someone owns something does not make them an expert, it's research and dedication. I've been helping people out with tegu's long before i even had mines, and with all of my beforehand research i know a lot more than people who have owned them for yrs. Just saying. And try not to believe everything you read on the web, especially care sheets, Savannah monitors are not really care sheet reptiles, yeah you have one or two good ones but they do not cover everything. As you can see on http://savannahmonitor.org/ it took a whole website just to cover the basics on sav care.

 

[xocrieox]

So your telling me not to beleave what is on the net but you give me a website link that has a care sheet on it isnt that kinda contradicting on what you just told me and i never asked anyone on here for care advice i just said i was getting a monitor and want peoples opion not how to care for them

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James you said you havent been keeing them long but now its 3 years past experiance

 

[james.w]

What picture of mine did you see without substrate?

What did you want our opinion about??

 

[xocrieox]

Its under your water monitor post

 

[Rhetoric]

Care sheets are more for general care. I never saw much consistent info with savys other than deep substrate but even then there weren't any sites that seemed to agree on what to be using. I looked at a bunch but when it came down to it I had to experiment a bit to see what worked for mine. Savannahmonitor.org was the best one I had found but I still changed a few things I had done. I'm by no means an expert, I was only able to have mine for 6-7 months.

It is your savy, you can care for it however you want. I don't think anyone meant to be rude when giving advice, they just wanted to try and help another keeper out. Its a forum, there are always going to be people you agree with and disagree with.

 

[xocrieox]

And you have a great day i got better things to do with my time then go round and round. With someone that is so experianced to give other people advice