Taming Your Sav: The Savannah Monitor as a Household Pet

Has anyone read this book? It seems 100% wrong in that she forgot about the monitors basic heath needs(humidity,heat,digging).

is this an older book that tells you to let them bite your thumbnail and it shows pics of puppy dog tame niles?

This is the link http://www.amazon.com/Taming-Your-Sa...DateDescending

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Originally Posted by rebeccabecca

This is the link http://www.amazon.com/Taming-Your-Sa...DateDescending

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I would not recommend it.

Research the author on different monitor forums. She has very shady practices, that borderlines on abuse. Her videos look cute and sweet, but most people on monitor forums consider her to be a bit..."batty". I think she used to post as "Danceswithsavs" or some such.

Anyway, I remember something about her almost drowning them to "win their trust" or something. It's been a while since I heard about her though.

Also, if I remember correctly, her beloved monitors died within a few years of being under her care.

what is the average captive monitors lifespan? I assume it's 10 years+ as many care sheets had that.

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Originally Posted by rebeccabecca

what is the average captive monitors lifespan? I assume it's 10 years+ as many care sheets had that.

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Their lifespan is 15-20 years, I believe. Some have shorter lifespans, but most generally live 10 plus.

Is it mostly diet issues that causes them to die faster? heating and husbandry issues? just want to have my little guy as long as possible:)

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Originally Posted by rebeccabecca

Is it mostly diet issues that causes them to die faster? heating and husbandry issues? just want to have my little guy as long as possible:)

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Just like with any creature, they all play an important part on lifespan.

A proper diet is indeed critical (feeding dog food is not acceptable), but they also need a proper temperatures to digest that food. A Savannah Monitor is incapable of proper digestion at low temperatures (under 100, I think I read somewhere). So, husbandry and diet play a vital part of lifespan.

Also having an obese Savannah will cut their lifespan dramatically. It is important to feed them a well balanced diet, and assure they are getting the proper exercise as well. A fat monitor is cute, but very unhealthy.

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Originally Posted by rebeccabecca

Is it mostly diet issues that causes them to die faster? heating and husbandry issues? just want to have my little guy as long as possible:)

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Yes.
People tend to overfeed, or feed the wrong things.
The most popular... Dog food

Regarding "danceswithsavs": absolute rubbish.

Regarding lifespan: I had a Nile monitor pass on at 16 yrs. old.

Regarding husbandry: Research, research, research. There are a lot of junk caresheets regarding varanids out there. I'll give you some basics:

1. Huge enclosures. For a sav I would say a minimum of 8x4 floorspace, more being better.

2. Heat, heat. Basking spots of 130 - 145F. Absolutely required.

3. Food. Variety is good. No dog food. Whole prey items (lots of insects if possible). Vitamin supplementation when a primarily insectivorous diet is given. Feed daily for the first couple of years. If proper housing/heat/humidity is provided, rodents are a good staple.

Taming: Patience. Trust. Know How.

Chris

The authors of that book used drowning/"rescuing" as a technique to "train" their monitors, and killed one or more monitors in the process. The authors have since been banned from every forum out there, due to extreme harassment of other members, and have at least two to three dozen aliases.

The culmination of this saga is here:
http://www.captivebredreptileforums....-gabb13-5.html

You can basically feel free to read that book and do the complete opposite of everything that's said.

I really don't think it is a good book based on the title. Say what every you want about sav's being easy to tame but for first timers they can be hell on earth. Taming to "household pet" status is not easy and many monitors never get to that level even with experianced handlers. The book is implying like many iguana books that savs are easy to care for and just about anyone can have them.
When it comes to sources for care and the animal in gerneral I research for aleast a month and then evaluate the cost of keeping the animal. I also look at more than one source and see how old the information is. Books about iguana keeping 20 years ago are not going to provide the information needed to keep iguanas as pets that books written 3 years ago will provide. The same is for every species. I also check out other forums and ask a lot of questions to people who keep that species.
I don't get an animal until I have everything completly ready, understand the care and the species from start to finish, and know I can afford to keep it. Taming with reptiles and any animal is like gaining trust and learning a different language at once. You have to learn the body signals in order to fully understand your animal regardless if it is a leopard gecko or a retic. The animal must trust you and you have to trust it when it comes to letting it be a "household pet" and to trust it around other people.

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Originally Posted by shimmer

I really don't think it is a good book based on the title. Say what every you want about sav's being easy to tame but for first timers they can be hell on earth. Taming to "household pet" status is not easy and many monitors never get to that level even with experianced handlers. The book is implying like many iguana books that savs are easy to care for and just about anyone can have them.
When it comes to sources for care and the animal in gerneral I research for aleast a month and then evaluate the cost of keeping the animal. I also look at more than one source and see how old the information is. Books about iguana keeping 20 years ago are not going to provide the information needed to keep iguanas as pets that books written 3 years ago will provide. The same is for every species. I also check out other forums and ask a lot of questions to people who keep that species.
I don't get an animal until I have everything completly ready, understand the care and the species from start to finish, and know I can afford to keep it. Taming with reptiles and any animal is like gaining trust and learning a different language at once. You have to learn the body signals in order to fully understand your animal regardless if it is a leopard gecko or a retic. The animal must trust you and you have to trust it when it comes to letting it be a "household pet" and to trust it around other people.

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Well put.

Chris

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Originally Posted by shimmer

Taming to "household pet" status is not easy and many monitors never get to that level even with experianced handlers. The book is implying like many iguana books that savs are easy to care for and just about anyone can have them.

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The answer is more cut and dry. First off, without discussing taming at all, the humidity and heat requirements needed to maintain survival cannot safely exist in a human household. This excludes them from free-roaming successfully, and from becoming "household pets".

It's no coincidence that the book authors' own Savannah Monitors are some of the most fat and dehydrated animals I've seen on the Internet.

Secondly, here's a quick glance at the Wikipedia page for "Domestication":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication

One of the main characteristics of domestication (which Wikipedia coincidentally calls "taming") is that the animal is bred under human control. Since over 99% of Savannah Monitors are wild caught, wild impregnated and bred, and imported, this completely excludes the Savannah Monitor from qualifying as a domesticated animal.

Monitors are wild animals. Though we sometimes take them into our homes, and sometimes have success in getting them to not bite our faces off, they are still wild animals. They will never be dogs.

Anybody wanting a tame animal should buy a dog or a cat.

Some monitors may seem tame as adults, but get them in a stressful situation or near food and you quickly realize that this notion of "tame" is wishful thinking.

Getting a monitor lizard to the point where it's a tolerable captive takes time and patience. People looking for a cold-blooded replacement for a dog are going to get frustrated with the time and effort required to gain a modicum of "trust" from a varanid.

This whole idea of "taming" varanids bothers me. People should keep them because they are fascinating animals, not as an exotic alternative to a poodle.

Yes, getting a varanid to the point where it is a calm, tractable and trustworty animal does require patience and time. I've got both.

My captive bred V. ornatus is now 14 months old. I have only ever picked him up once to move him from an old enclosure to his new one. He still doesn't like me picking him up, so I don't. Other than that, he is calm in my presence, knows my hands/arms/face are not food and tolerates stroking and petting. By the time he's 3 yrs. old I predict a wonderful animal, way cooler than a poodle.

Chris

Here's a pic...

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...1/haephus2.jpg

Chris