I bought this 1 ear old savanah moniter of this guy moving but he never told me how to tame it. Ive read some threads in here about the process but they are mostly talkin about babies. I read in here that you shouldnt put them back until they are calm but every time i pick this guy up he freaks out and swirms the whole time or tryies to bite me. And he never gets calm. When i put him back he hides in his half log and wont come out for 4 or 5 days. Also I have been feeding him small mice - 2 at begining of week and 1 more 3-4 days later as mid week snack. Is this good? Should I moist the mice and sprinkle reptocal vitmian/calcum formula? I also treat him to crickets once in a while that are treated with reptocal. Watching him devor poor little mice is kinda gettin to me is there somethin else i can feed him?? One guy told me whole raw eggs shell and all but the guy at the pet store said not to do this. Someone else said cat and dog food but I read that this is to fatty. I'm lost ?? lol
the process is the same for all ages of monitor. the size is a problem though. i would feed him 2mice every other day. there is no reason to supplement the mice as it is a whole food item and needs no supplementing. at one year old crickets wouldnt be a treat just a snack and it would take a lot of crickets to fill up a monitor of that size. whole raw eggs (shell and all) should only be given as a treat. what you can feed him is raw ground turkey supplemented with calcium and other vitamins. lots of breeders use that as a staple diet. dont use dog or cat food for a sav, they are lazy animals by nature and they will not burn off the fat from the foods
what are your cage temps? many people use fertilezed eggs(they are brown) for tegus and monitors. I have read studies that conflict with feeding only rodents to monitors and tegus. I do not have any expirience with them but I think that a varied diet is a good idea for any animal. Check out some caresheets to get some more info, I like the pro exotics caresheets http://www.proexotics.com/care_sheets.html, but read a few to get some more ideas and go from there. also http://mampam.50megs.com/monitors/ is an excellent monitor resource. For taming, just be consistant, i have tamed iguanas and it can take over a year with them. Just handle your sav every day until they calm down. Increase the time you handle them as you start to see some progress.. eventually they will stop seeing you as a threat and calm down, keep trying.
proexotics doesnt have a caresheet for savs. check out this site for a great sav caresheet http://themonitorspot.com/savannahf2.html . there is no conflict with feeding an all rodent diet and TONS of breeders only use rodents
Thanks guys that was real helpful. I'm not sure what the temps are but I have a creamoc heat emitter (100w) over a half log for him to bask in. And a nice size dog water bowl for him to lay in. Well I guess I will get use to giving him mice lol. So when I take him out and he's still pissed I should just put him back? Cause when I put him back its like a freakin slipknot moshpit in there lol. Its wierd tho cause he will let me reach in and rub his back and head for a while before he starts to huff and puff?
hold him until he settles down. it may take a while for him to settle, but eventually he will. when he settles then you put him back
Klik-pro exotics has a care sheet that can be applied to savs. its on Ionides but they really need the same care so it can be considered a sav caresheet too. -reptilerokie23. you really need to know what the temps are. for basking temps a tempgun is the best tool. they are 25$ at www.proexotics.com also a digital thermometer is a good idea to monitor ambient temps(you want one with a min/max feature. most monitors need the night temp to stay above 75-80.
Mine was the same way. What i did was i put 1 of my shirts in its cage it slowly came around. Give it a try and see what happens
Alright new problem...lol I can only get to my pet store once every 3-4 weeks to get live rodents. I have bought 2 plastic cages for mice and rats (I need rats for my 1.5 yr old pastel rtb) but cant always mantian stock pile big enough to cover sav's hunger. How long can he go with out food and without hurting him? Should I switch to pre killed so I can just freeze a bunch at one time? Or maybe suplement with a couple hard boiled eggs a couple times?
turkey just get some ground turkey, mix in some calcium , roll into balls and toss in the freezer. very convenient and some people use it as a staple. dan
Alright prblem solved now thanks guys for all the help He is still wild but its a working progress....
