Sav stopped eating

For the first time since I've had him, Thursday night my savannah monitor turned down a mouse. I've had him for a little over 3 years now and this is the first time he hasn't eaten. Eaten a mouse at least. Yesterday I offered him a hard boiled egg and he ate that with little problem aside from a mess. Tonight he refused the mouse again.

I normally feed him f/t mice and also superworms when the local store has them.

Cage humidity is ~60%, ambient temp is mid 80's and a basking spot of about 115. I haven't changed a thing with the cage in nearly 2 years.

The only notable thing that has happened recently is that he managed to get out of the cage last Tuesday while I was cleaning his water tub out. He was sitting in front of a window and ate the mouse that I had thawing for him (It wasn't frozen or anything, probably room temp by then)

Could this be a stress related problem, or something I should be concerned about? Should I maybe try a live mouse or some superworms?

Any insight is appreciated, thanks

I wouldn't worry about it at all. At times with all living things, there's times their just not hungry.

I would how ever bump up his hot side to about 120-125 and see if that increases appetite.

Ok, thanks I will do that and give it a couple days. I don't get concerned when my BPs go a month without eating but when my sav doesn't eat I immediately get concerned lol

Everywhere you look for monitor information someone will tell you they will readily eat anything and everything, which he has until recently which is why I thought I should ask ^^

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Originally Posted by cjb_001

For the first time since I've had him, Thursday night my savannah monitor turned down a mouse. I've had him for a little over 3 years now and this is the first time he hasn't eaten. Eaten a mouse at least. Yesterday I offered him a hard boiled egg and he ate that with little problem aside from a mess. Tonight he refused the mouse again.

I normally feed him f/t mice and also superworms when the local store has them.

Cage humidity is ~60%, ambient temp is mid 80's and a basking spot of about 115. I haven't changed a thing with the cage in nearly 2 years.

The only notable thing that has happened recently is that he managed to get out of the cage last Tuesday while I was cleaning his water tub out. He was sitting in front of a window and ate the mouse that I had thawing for him (It wasn't frozen or anything, probably room temp by then)

Could this be a stress related problem, or something I should be concerned about? Should I maybe try a live mouse or some superworms?

Any insight is appreciated, thanks

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I'd bump it even higher that 125. I'd try for 140. What is the size of the cage he is in?

I'd also discontinue feeding him rodents. It's not really an appropriate diet and can lead to health problems down the road.

Instead I'd try offering him some crickets, roaches or better yet, some crayfish. See if some whole crayfish or whole shrimp will stimulate his diet.

The enclosure is 7'x5'. I tend to avoid feeding crickets though because of how the cage is setup most of the crickets are never eaten. The substrate is dirt on the bottom half, and the top half is that coconut husk stuff for cutting down on the total weight of the cage. My experience with crickets is that they tend to hide under the chips and many die before they are found to be eaten. With superworms he will eat them out of a bowl.

As for the crayfish/shrimp idea, this is my first time hearing that suggestion. What would I be looking for with something like that? Don't really even know what to ask.... Are there special frozen crayfish/shrimp I can buy somewhere online, or are you talking like grocery store shrimp? lol might be a dumb question...

I believe you can buy steam cooked crayfish and be sure their properly thawed and offer it.

Theres videos on youtube of monitors eating them.

a Sav NOT wanting to eat?!?! WOW i guess it is possible! lol my friend nicknamed his the "Garbage Disposal" because its a bottomless pit! lol :rofl:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cjb_001

The enclosure is 7'x5'. I tend to avoid feeding crickets though because of how the cage is setup most of the crickets are never eaten. The substrate is dirt on the bottom half, and the top half is that coconut husk stuff for cutting down on the total weight of the cage. My experience with crickets is that they tend to hide under the chips and many die before they are found to be eaten. With superworms he will eat them out of a bowl.

As for the crayfish/shrimp idea, this is my first time hearing that suggestion. What would I be looking for with something like that? Don't really even know what to ask.... Are there special frozen crayfish/shrimp I can buy somewhere online, or are you talking like grocery store shrimp? lol might be a dumb question...

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Asian markets have them and whole shrimp, as do bait shops. You can buy live whole prawns and crayfish - same with mussels. Or you can buy frozen.

The key is to get raw items and whole items.

Savs are not really rodent eaters in the wild. They are specialized invertebrate feeders.

Is it ok to feed him uncooked headless shrimp, or is the head the best part for him? I live in Michigan so there's not really a whole lot of options for getting live or even raw crayfish.

Also, has anyone used the ground turkey recipe listed here: http://savannahmonitor.org/feeding/sdz/ ?

If anyone has tried that and can comment on whether or not it works that would be great. That's obviously the most cost effective idea if the uncooked headless shrimp aren't a good idea. I guess I can always look into keeping my own superworms or roaches as well. Buying them a couple dozen at a time gets to be expensive and buying in bulk always leads to the worms turning into those little black beetles if they aren't used fast enough lol

I know the sdz diet has been used with great success with albigularis, a close relative of exanthematicus. I believe however that the mixture must be done perfectly to do any good.

And I'm with Skiploder, bump the basking temp up to 140 - 150. A lot of dietary/digestive problems occur from too low a basking temp.

As a side note, my ornatus preys a lot on baby crocs in the wild, and I am yet to offer him one. The point is, we will NEVER be able to replicate wild conditions, and if maintained properly, there is nothing wrong with a portion of your savs diet consisting of some rodents.

Chris

All right, his basking spot is now 138 and has been since Sunday night. I didn't feed him at all over the weekend and I tried again a little bit ago. I tried superworms, live mouse, f/t mouse, a headless raw shrimp, hard boiled egg, and I even found a live crayfish (apparently people keep them as pets? 8 bucks is a little steep for them to be sold as feeders :P).

The only thing he ate was the egg, which he ate right away. Everything else he showed no interest in aside from smelling once or twice, then turned his head and shut his eyes.

Is it time I get him checked out, or should I give it more time?

Well he finally started eating a little bit on Wednesday. Finished 2 dozen super worms, a live mouse yesterday, and another 2 dozen super worms today.

However, I have come across another problem. On one of his feet he has what looks to be a cut/scab (it's firm to the touch), and on another foot he has a pink spot which looks like a burn. I don't know that it is, its just the only way I can describe it.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...1/IMG_0019.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...IMG_0018-1.jpg

In the picture hes sitting on a piece of tile screwed onto some wood. The only thing I can think of is possibly he slipped and the corner of the tile cut his foot? The screw in the picture isn't sticking out or anything and it's edges are rounded so I doubt that caused it. Even if the tile isn't to blame, I was looking into one of those Retes Stacks. Does anyone have experience with those or are they good for savs?

Is there anything I should be doing for his foot like putting something on it maybe? Or do I just let it heal on its own?

The sores on the feet looks to me like excessive digging/scrapping on something

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cjb_001

Well he finally started eating a little bit on Wednesday. Finished 2 dozen super worms, a live mouse yesterday, and another 2 dozen super worms today.

However, I have come across another problem. On one of his feet he has what looks to be a cut/scab (it's firm to the touch), and on another foot he has a pink spot which looks like a burn. I don't know that it is, its just the only way I can describe it.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...1/IMG_0019.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...IMG_0018-1.jpg

In the picture hes sitting on a piece of tile screwed onto some wood. The only thing I can think of is possibly he slipped and the corner of the tile cut his foot? The screw in the picture isn't sticking out or anything and it's edges are rounded so I doubt that caused it. Even if the tile isn't to blame, I was looking into one of those Retes Stacks. Does anyone have experience with those or are they good for savs?

Is there anything I should be doing for his foot like putting something on it maybe? Or do I just let it heal on its own?

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If you know a decent reptile vet, get him some silver sulfa antibiotic. Neo/Polysporin works, but silver sulfadiazine is the bomb. Mix some hibiclens in a spray bottle with some water and use that to disinfect and clean the wound a couple times a day. If you can't keep dirt our of it and it doesn't look likes it's healing, you may want to put him in a recovery enclosure with no substrate until it begins to heal up.

I use rete stacks. Some sav owners use them, some don't. For a full grown sav I would buy 1/8" thick plywood and cut it into squares as large as his body and most of his tail. Figure out how thick he is and cut off 1" lumber x Y (Y=his thickness + 1/2") pieces for the edge on two sides of each piece.

You want to use the thinnest wood you can by for the layers. You can google "rete's stack" - a how-to is bound to come up.

All right, thanks a lot guys