Feeding new baby monitor

[ironpython]

My son picked up a savannah monitor saturday, and today he is feeding it super worms I told him to let it settle in but he can't hardly do it. So he has eat a couple superworms how often should he eat and we have meal worms and super worms.

1.1 pastels, 1.0 lesser, 0.1 het blurry, 0.1 spider, 1.1 norm. 0.1 dinker,

[OsirisRa32]

You do realize the care, food and housing requirements needed for a lizard like this, right?

[AdamL8]

This lizard will get up right around 4 feet and eat like a horse. It will need an enclosure 8x4x4 as a minimum. At this early stage it should be being fed daily as much as it wants. Crickets are the usual food source at this age but roaches such as B. Dubia are even better and you can start up a breeder colony to help feed him. Make sure to dust these with Calcium + D3. He needs a basking spot of 130-145 surface temperature measured with a temperature gun, not a thermometer. The best way to achieve this is with low wattage (45-60 Watt) halogen flood lights (Not spot lights). A bank of 3 should be enough for an adult but as few as 1 will work for a baby. You should also get a digital thermometer / hygrometer combo to keep tabs on the air temperature and the humidity level (which should be at around 60%). The substrate should be a deep sandy soil mix that holds a burrow. When these guys are full size they need around 2 feet of burrow-able substrate for humidity and nesting purposes regardless of if there is a male present should it turn out to be a female. This is still necessary for a male however. When your monitor is large enough you can start adding rodents to the diet slowly and not in high quantities. For the average keeper too many rodents in the diet is a bad idea although in the proper setup there isn't a problem with them. Another note is that you shouldn't be handling him at all right now. Savs freak easy and if you hold it all the time it's going to associate you with being a threat and will hide constantly. Buy a pair of feeder tongs and use them at every feeding once he is willing to take food from them. If he doesn't go for this right away don't worry and just keep some live crickets in the enclosure.

These guys are a specialized animal that will die slowly if you don't take care of it right and won't show any signs until it's almost too late. This animal is going to be a huge responsibility and is not for a beginner. I know they look cute this small but they get huge and a bite from an adult will most likely require stitches. They can become a great pet but they just aren't for everybody.

[ironpython]

Thanks for the info. We are prepared. As for handling my son has the lizard eating from his hands.

1.1 pastels, 1.0 lesser, 0.1 het blurry, 0.1 spider, 1.1 norm. 0.1 dinker,

[Darkbird]

Just my 0.02 here, but I hope when you said eating out of your sons hand you really meant off tongs or something. Ignoring the fact that it should get some settle in time, having one of these things mistaking a finger for food will be merely annoying now. Later it could be a big problem. Savs, and all monitors really, are much smarter than the average bp, and bad habits learned now could be carried a long time. Heck, I have an ackie that has drawn blood because she got too excited and couldn't wait for me to lower the tongs to her. Thankfully her little pinholes aren,t a big deal.

[MrLang]

Definitely don't feed it by hand.

Good luck

[ironpython]

That would teach it to associate food with your hand and get you bit right.

1.1 pastels, 1.0 lesser, 0.1 het blurry, 0.1 spider, 1.1 norm. 0.1 dinker,

[Darkbird]

Yep, and a healthy sav is very aggressive towards its food. I've seen video of them jumping completly off the ground to grab food when they get excited. Tong feeding keeps it less likely they will mistake your pinkie for a rat pinkie, for example.

[ironpython]

He has tongs for feeding and a small bowl in the enclosure, but he has been carrying this monitor on his shirt and has it eating already. It seems to be doing fine and it ate a piece of chicken from my sons fingers. My son has a way with creatures and it seems the little lizard is comfortable with him already. He is the same way with our snakes and we have no feeding issues with them either.

1.1 pastels, 1.0 lesser, 0.1 het blurry, 0.1 spider, 1.1 norm. 0.1 dinker,

[OsirisRa32]

Check out the Cera and Littlefoot thread by Infernalis...hes one of the go to guys for Sav Monitor care and knowledge