Air temperature for a single pet monitor should never be allowed to exceed degrees. The maximum surface temperature of the substrate, provided there is at least 2 feet of substrate, should be degrees. The basking site and its substrate represent the high end of the thermal gradient, so the opposite end of the enclosure must provide lower temperatures.
Daytime lows for savannah monitors should range between 78 and 88 degrees. The terrarium must be large enough to offer this thermal gradient. The heat from the basking site must not permeate the entire enclosure. Provide 12 to 14 hours of daylight. At night, temperatures should range between 72 and 80 degrees.
Some lizardkeepers have kept monitors in nighttime temperatures as low as 44 degrees with no ill effects, but this regimen was provided only one month per year, and daytime temperatures were around 95 to degrees. The terrarium should have a conventional thermometer for checking air temperature, and serious keepers also obtain a laser temperature gun, which projects a thin beam of light onto a surface, such as soil or a rock, and displays the temperature on a screen.
A savannah monitor also requires a variety of hides that conceal its entire body and allow it to turn around when inside. A water dish in which the monitor can fully soak is also essential. Keep it in the cooler portion of the terrarium. All monitors dig, and savannah monitors dig long, deep, often complex tunnel systems. Whether you use potting soil, a clay-based mixture or good old dirt, the substrate needs to be deep and packed tightly so it has maximum firmness.
A depth of 15 to 20 inches is fine for general keeping needs. Keep it moist with periodic sprayings, but avoid making puddles. You can skip the deep soil with young lizards because you want to be able to observe them easily.
They will do fine on a thin layer of soil. Smooth gravel or paper towels are easy to clean, but they are not the best choices. Provide young monitors with small live trees, branches or other objects that offer climbing opportunities.
Wild savannah monitors are highly opportunistic carnivores, a bit like vultures. These lizards eat carrion, but like most monitors, their diet is largely made up of large invertebrates. These include orthopteran insects grasshoppers, crickets and their kin , millipedes, slugs, beetles and scorpions.
In captivity, all young and subadult monitors should be fed gut-loaded live insects daily. Large orthopterans can be locally collected during the warm months, and they can supplement a regular diet of giant roaches and gut-loaded crickets. Gut-loaded insects should be thought of, in part, as vitamin and mineral supplements. Feed the insects leafy vegetables dusted with calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D3 powders. All three of these minerals are essential in the formation, repair and health of lizard bones.
Savannah monitors undergo a considerable dietary shift when they become adults. Captive monitors should be given a primary diet of whole-animal foods, such as mice, small rats and large roaches. The rodents provide natural calcium via their bones and cartilage. First off, having a big and spacious enclosure is vital to make sure to fit the pair. Fill the enclosure with a good mix of sand and soil to mimic the right conditions your Savannah Monitors often encounter in the wild.
Reduce the temperature of the enclosure to about 15 degrees Fahrenheit and make sure that you reduce the photoperiod. You can give them about a maximum of only 7 hours of light to try to induce breeding. You will notice that the male will be relentless to breed and will often follow the female while scratching his way.
While Savannah Monitors are reptiles that tend to be healthier than most other lizards and have a reasonably long lifespan, it is not uncommon for them to have health problems that not only come from poor handling and nutrition but also from environments that are not suitable for them to thrive in.
As such, it is important for you to know such health problems so that you can give them a diet and an environment that will allow them to avoid serious health complications. Savannah Monitor lizards tend to be docile and lazy creatures that do not like moving around or doing many activities other than sleeping or trying to escape their enclosure. What that means is that these reptiles are very susceptible to weight gain.
That is why most Savannah Monitor lizards tend to be plump creatures that are heavier than most lizards of the same length. In that sense, make sure to give your Savannah Monitor a reason to move around and be active. Also, one thing you should take note of is to keep their diet low in fat.
Try to avoid feeding them rodents because of how mice are rich in fat but poor in other essential nutrients needed by Savannah Monitors. Another problem that Savannah Monitors commonly face is a high risk of getting parasitic infections. Internal parasites get into their system through the food they eat. The most glaring symptoms of such are usually sluggishness and the lack of appetite. Vomiting is not rare as well when your Savannah Monitors are suffering from illnesses afflicted by internal parasites.
External parasites can also cause problems as well. Tics and mites can very well suck the blood out of the skin of Savannah Monitors kept in captivity. Such can cause serious health problems that can threaten the life of your reptile if you are not quick to act on it.
Respiratory infections are actually quite common in the lizard world. Whether the cause is bacterial or viral, symptoms include decreased appetite, bloating, open mouth breathing, or even wheezing when breathing.
In Savannah Monitors, respiratory infections can cause serious complications and may, in fact, become life-threatening especially when it already concerns massive weight loss due to decreased appetite and difficulty in breathing. The moment you notice anything wrong with your Savannah Monitor lizards, the best thing to do is to bring them to a veterinarian right away.
Make sure to choose your vet carefully because not all of them know how to handle monitor lizards or even reptiles. If you do not do so, improper treatment might cause more complications or even death. In that case, it is vital that you already have a list of vets that know how to treat reptiles. Aside from that, one other thing you should do to make sure that your Savannah Monitors do not get ill is to change any environmental conditions.
Correct the environment they live in and the food they eat to try to prevent them from getting ill. Most of the time, infections and parasites can simply arise from poor living conditions on the part of your Savannah Monitors. As such, make sure that their enclosure is as clean and as parasite-free as possible while also placing them in climate conditions that are suitable enough for Savannah Monitor lizards. Savannah Monitor lizards tend to be quite docile and lazy reptiles that do not do a lot of activities and are quite submissive to a much more dominant creature.
However, these lizards tend to be the most active during the day when they are trying to burrow their way through the soil or the substrate or when they are trying to escape the enclosure.
Other than that, most Savannah Monitors spend a lot of time doing nothing. Here are some of the more common things that Savannah Monitor lizards have been observed to do quite a lot:. While Savannah Monitors may be native to the hot and dry climates of Africa, most breeders have found that they are more receptive when kept in a humid environment that allows them to burrow to find a means of shelter because these are quite secretive and shy reptiles that do not like being exposed.
As such, it will not be uncommon for them to be spending so much time hiding underneath the substrate where they feel safer. Savannah Monitors usually hiss louder when they feel agitated or when they feel any sort of aggression coming from another party. Hissing is their way of showing dominance and as a means of warning, you to stay away from them. However, as docile as they are, Savannah Monitors do not usually follow up their hissing with aggression. Some owners are able to safely touch or carry their monitors after a loud hissing.
But for safety purposes, it might be best to leave the lizards alone when they feel agitated. Similar to hissing, tail whipping is a means for Savannah Monitors to show dominance over another species. These lizards have thick and long tails they can easily use as weapons against a potential threat or attacker.
That means that any sort of aggression can lead a Savannah Monitor to try to tail whip you especially if it feels threatened by your presence. A reason why it is important to keep your Savannah Monitor in a substrate that is quite humid is that these reptiles are prone to sneezing.
As mentioned, these lizards love digging through the substrate. And if you place them in a substrate that is too try, this can easily irritate their nose when they are digging. As such, sneezing will not be an uncommon behavior for most Savannah Monitors.
Savannah Monitor lizards do not always go through a stage of hibernation because they are not used to living in areas that have cold falls and winters that will force them to hibernate. As such, one could say that hibernation in Savannah Monitors is seasonal in the sense that they will only do so as a response to a change in the season.
Those who live in regions where the fall and the winter seasons tend to get too cold will notice that their Savannah Monitors go through a seasonal hibernation. During that time, the reptiles will seem lazier than they already are in an attempt to save energy.
Some might mistake this for a sort of illness but it really is just them going through a seasonal hibernation. However, it is not advised that Savannah Monitors go through seasonal hibernation induced by cold falls or winters. Try to keep the temperatures in the enclosure at a consistent and suitable level to avoid seasonal hibernation. However, if it happens despite that, then it happens. Shedding is a common trait that reptiles share.
In that regard, it is expected that Savannah Monitor lizards go through periods of shedding. Like most other reptiles, Savannah Monitors shed the most during their hatchling and juvenile stages when they are still in the middle of rapid growth. It is vital for them to shed their old skin that no longer fits their growing bodies. Another reason why it is important to give your Savannah Monitor a good substrate that allows them to burrow is because of their shedding.
In the wild, these reptiles often burrow through moist soil to make sure they stay hydrated as well as to make sure that they are shedding their skin healthily. The more hydrated they are, the more healthily they shed their skin. The habitat or the enclosure of your Savannah Monitor is arguably the most important part of taking care of this kind of a reptile because everything it needs aside from food stems from its habitat.
So, if you want a happy, healthy, and thriving Savannah Monitor, make sure to give it the best habitat you can possibly give and one that fits the conditions needed for it to live a long and prosperous life.
Choosing a type of habitat or enclosure for your Savannah Monitor largely depends on your choice. A lot of people use large fish tanks or aquarium. Meanwhile, there are those who use terrariums as enclosures. You can even build your own terrarium if you want. If not, you can easily make a quick search to find establishments that sell enclosures that are fit for the type of habitat a Savanna Monitor needs. Savannah Monitors are quite strong and are prone to escaping their enclosures.
That means that it is important for your habitat to have a strong lid that could prevent these escape artists from climbing up.
Also, when choosing a lid, it is also important to take note of airflow. Avoid using glass or other solid types of the lid to make sure that your lizard gets the much-needed air it needs for breathing and to feel cool. After choosing a suitable enclosure to serve as a habitat for your Savannah Monitor, another thing that you need to consider are the different fixtures and equipment you need to make sure that it becomes an ideal place for your reptile to live in.
Like any other lizard, the Savannah Monitor requires a lot of ultraviolet B or UVB light to help it metabolize calcium. Other lizard species grow much slower and take about 4 to 5 years on average to be fully grown. Savannah monitors can reach full maturity in as little as 2 years, though it is more common for them to take 3 to 4 years to grow to full size.
Savannah monitors can get pretty big, but nowhere near as big as their Kodomo cousin. A Bosc monitor when full grown, can range in size from 2. In these occasions, a full grown savannah monitor can grow as long as 5 feet. Even though that is not often the case, when owning a Bosc monitor, you need to be prepared for even when they grow that big.
This preparation is especially important when it comes to the tank size. The biggest a female savannah monitor can get is about 4 feet. If you want a smaller size savannah lizards for sure, opting for a female is a safer bet. Some lizard owners want small, colorful lizards, and some want bigger ones.
A savannah lizard can be big, but to be honest, they are not that big and pretty reasonably size. So if you are one of those that actually prefer cool, gigantic looking lizards but do not want to go too far over the top, a Savannah monitor is a good choice for you. With proper care, a savannah monitor can live up to 10 years. So choose carefully since it is a long and meaningful commitment you are about to make.
I am Pierre. I own bearded dragons and many other reptiles for a very long time. I know from experience that it can be very hard to find the right information about a specific reptile, since there is so much misinformation out there.
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