Couple of Savannah Monitor Questions

Discussion in 'Monitors & Tegus' started by tialloydragon, Nov 5, 2009.

  1. tialloydragon

    tialloydragon Embryo

    Messages:
    2
    My sav is named Lucy. She (I haven't sexed her yet, but the previous owner thinks Lucy is female, so I'm fine assuming she is,) is uber tame, almost three years old, 32 inches from her snout to the tip of her tail, and weighs in at about three pounds. I adopted her in late August. She is a total sweetheart.

    I have a couple questions I haven't been successful in finding any worthwhile answers:

    1. What exactly constitutes "exercise" for a savannah monitor, and in what frequency would one estimate it should be implemented? I try to give her time out of her enclosure (which is currently way too small for her, but I am looking to rectify that in the near future) whenever I can to explore the first floor of my house, and when I feed her I make her chase her food around and expend some energy (within reason.) Just looking to see if I should be doing more. She doesn't explore with any seeming sense of urgency, but I wouldn't consider her movement lethargic either.

    2. I'm not sure what a healthy "girth" looks like for an adult savannah monitor. Does anyone have any criteria or pictures that illustrate where she should be? I want to make sure I am not feeding her too much, or exercising her too little.

    3. How long should I expect an adult savannah monitor to take to shed under ideal conditions. Lucy shed her skin on her limbs with no problems or residual buildup. However, it seems the top area of her torso around her backbone and her tail are shedding in little pieces or not at all, unlike her limbs, which came off in a few big pieces. The areas around her shoulders, underside, and ribs seemed to have shed just fine. Just that top part hasn't come off yet.

    Any insight would be greatly appreciated; and if I need to post pics I will when I get a chance. Thanks.
     
  2. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

    Messages:
    5,483
     
  3. anders65

    anders65 Embryo

    Messages:
    9
    Hi
    for examples of excercise and a sav in good shape go on youtube and type in MDFMONITOR (as one word ) and check out his taming(trust building)/excercise videos .If you look through all his videos it shows his savs setups which may answer your question regarding shedding if its temperature or humidity/substrate related . Be wary of other stuff on youtube though as their are tons of videos of people that let their savs free roam most of the time which might look appealing but 99% of those savs will get serious health probs due to exposure to unsuitable temps and humidity.

    From your description it sounds like a fairly normal shed as long as its all come off by the time the next shed starts ,at correct temps/humidity a healthy sav will generally start/finish shedding in maybe 3 to 10 days (thats just a rough guide) and you shouldnt need to soak or bathe them ,and dont pull stuck skin off as it causes inflammation.If you provide hides/soil in your savs enclosure where it as access to humidity it will shed easier but make sure those hides arent too cool (keep them 78 - 80 F and up to prevent respiratory infection).

    Regarding the sex of your sav people on here might be able to tell you if you post pictures of the head from above and your savs full body from the side,
    but generally if you look at lots of sav pictures look for these differences -

    females generally have smaller heads and slightly pointier snouts than males (biggerhead/broad snout).
    the tail on females runs smoother/straighter into the pelvic area whereas males have 2 pronounced bulges under and slightly to either side of the tail base.
    Well i hope thats helpful and dont let anyone talk you into having your sav probed or try and evert its hemipenes to determine its sex as theres no need and its potentially damaging/definately stressful,

    cheers
    Andy
     

Share This Page