Do you feed your Sav rodents?

[Big Dave]

I have had a little Sav for 3 months now. I have been following the recomendations from savannahmonitor.org, that is, not to feed any rodents. The site states that rodents only make up 0.2% of their diet in the wild. Insects and mollusks are the preferred food source. All I have fed for the last 3 months is clams, crickets, super worms, scallops, shrimp, horn worms, and turkey/beef heart mixed together with centrum vitamin crushed in. I also add Reptical calcium supplement. The reason I am asking is that my little Sav looks like he is drunk the last few days. He wobbles back and forth and looks off balance. Is this a vitamin or calcium defficiency? Any suggestion mumps?

[MMReptiles]

What are your temps/humidity at? It could be a myriad of problems.

[Big Dave]

He is in a 4ft grow up enclosure with a wood top. He is only 8 inches. Has a foot of black dirt for a substrate. Basking temp 120-125 degrees. His hide is on the cool side which is at about 75-80 degrees. humidity is 60-70%. Mist couple times a day. Has a large water dish for drinking and pooping in,haha. I use a 125 watt solarglo mercury vapour bulb. He looks fantastic, really nice colour and he eats like a pig.

[MMReptiles]

For one, raise his temps up, 140 basking surface temp minimum is huge with these guys. The rest of it seems about right for now with him being young. I can say I've had rescued savs with the same problem- however they where fed on a rodent diet. Perhaps mumps or slayer might have some better insight into the exact problem. Mine seemed to be a wait loss thing in all reality. lol

[Anatopism]

Is there any chance it could be from thiamine deficiency syndrome, also mentioned on sav.org? This can cause uncoordinated movement, and I don't know how common it actually is with Savs, but it's the only thing that pops into mind that is specifically relevent to Savs. Maybe double check the proportions of the different types of food you're feeding and the levels of thiamine?

[Big Dave]

You may have a real good point there. Just read a few articles and the clams my guy loves so much are high in thiaminase. D'oh
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume...thiaminase.htm
The link has a good right up of what critters have a high amount of the stuff. Here I was thinking I was doing such a good job feeding and I wasn't.

[purplemuffin]

The good thing is you spotted the problem and are making progress. Many keepers wouldn't notice/care! Hopefully he'll do better with a diet change+bump in basking temp! Good luck!

[Anatopism]

I hope he gets well and stays healthy for you =)

[gbassett]

Short answer no,long answer yes.If that makes any seance.In the wild they rarely eat rodents,birds,Amphibians,or other reptiles.They feed primarily on insects,and snails.Now in captivty we have only two options crickets and roaches.To help meet some of their dietary needs it is OK to feed them a mouse one a week to once every other week.I see you are feeding the sdz.The sdz was designed to meet the same nutritional value of a mouse,but there is way to much room for error,that way not just feed him a mouse.I have seen way to many problems and similar situations like yours to recommend feeding it.You have to get it just right.To much and you will get calcium poisoning,to little calcium deficiency.Now on paper your set up and what you are feeding sound perfect.But I happened to catch this little bit

His hide is on the cool side which is at about 75-80 degrees.

One of the causes of calcium deficiency,is the lack of the ability to process calcium with proper temperatures.Your basking temps and all your temp ranges seem fine.The problem is it only works if your monitor is using them.

Baby monitors need security,as in they need the ability to hide though out the temperature gradient.Which means they need to be able to hide on the cool end as well as the hot end.You need to give them the option to hide at the temperature they feel they need to process there food and to achieve daily events.Offering one hide at the cool end means he will hide there and he might not be able to process what he needs.

Now here is what I recommend.Post some pictures of your cage and maybe we can help get you going in the right direction.You seem to be on the right track.The problem is the system are all most all the same for calcium deficiency to much calcium,and that thiaminase

Good luck

Greg

[Big Dave]

Thank you so much for the info guys. The turkey/beefheart/liver mix is almost the SDZ. This is what I feed my Red Tegu as well. This is what Varnyard Tegus feeds his critters. I put in one Centrum tablet for every 5lbs of mix as per the savannahmonitor.org site.

You have another great point with the hide being on the cool side. For the first 6 weeks I was feeding an empty enclosure as the little guy would be in his hide most of the time. He has now started to trust me I think and sticks his head out of the hide when I walk in. He also doesn't run to his hide any more when I enter the room if he is basking. If I am reading you correctly I will place another hide on the warm side of the enclosure as well. I'll try and get some pics up soon but my daughter took the camera on a vacation.

I forgot to mention in the original post that I also feed him snails. I get these from a Chinese supermarket. I crush the shell with a nutcracker as he is still too little to handle that and feed him the meat. It's kinda gross but he seems to enjoy them lol.