The Adventures of THING: *DU Warning

[Jeanne]

We had Thing out to visit yesterday, snapped some pics, I did include a few older pics though as I had not gotten them posted until now:





Yesterdays pics: Hide and Seek




Where did Thing go?


OHHH! There he is!


And more for fun!

[Nate]

very nice. probably one of the many reptiles i intend on investing in one day...i'll do my homework ....nice pics!!!

[daniel1983]

Great looking Sav! Great color and nice pattern.

....I thought about getting one.....but instead I got a few of something else.....they should be here tomorrow too

[JLC]

He's very cool looking!!! How big will he get?

[recycling goddess]

i thought they were... NOT friendly?

[Jeanne]

He's very cool looking!!! How big will he get?

Everything I have read is all over the place in how big he will actually get, 3.5 foot to 5 foot is what I have read... although 3.5 feet is supposedly about average.... ehhh, we will see though.....

[Jeanne]

i thought they were... NOT friendly?

I dont think it is neccessarily all savs.... I think it also depends on how much time you spend with them....

Thing is a sweetie as you can see, he will spend hours laying on my chest if I let him, he loves riding on my shoulder around the house... when he does get on the floor, it is usually not long before he is looking for me to climb back up my leg, up my body, and back onto my shoulder...

Thing is hand fed EVERY morning, has been since the day I brought him home (I spend at least a minimum of 2 hours a day with him)... he is very gentle when he takes his meals from hand, and has never even acted like he considered biting.... in fact, I am amazed at how gentle Thing can actually be, you would think because of his species he would have a knock out killer type feeding response, so far though, the only time I have seen that type of feeding response is feeding him live rat pinks or small mice, however, I dont feed those by hand just because he gets pretty aggressive when being fed live rodent... but anything else, he eats right out of your hand and as gentle as can be.

[Jeanne]

Great looking Sav! Great color and nice pattern.

....I thought about getting one.....but instead I got a few of something else.....they should be here tomorrow too

Alright Daniel...what goodies are coming your way?????

[recycling goddess]

wow 2 hours a day... that's a huge commitment!

[Jeanne]

For those of you curious:

Honestly, I did alot of homework before purchasing this guy... but let me tell you, no where in all my homework did it ever talk about how much this species consumes in one sitting on a daily basis... all I did find was 10% of thier body weight.... I have been weighing him empty at the beginning of the week and measuring him, plus I keep records of how much he is actually eating because I was curious to find out actual weight amounts.... believe me, he can easily consume 10% or more at a feeding... he so far is gaining an average of 2-3 ounces every two weeks in weight alone, and gaining an average of 2.5 inches in the same amount of time. It dont seem like alot, but it is...

I personally love this species, and am enjoying the experience of having Thing in our household, however, they do eat alot, more than I think most ppl realize before they buy savs... thier feeding is what makes them a bit expensive, not so much anything else.

From what I can tell, it is very very hard to get captive born savs, and the healthy ones are few and far between in the imports I have personally seen.. as far as thier temperments, I think it is probably 50/50 on if it is gonna be friendly like Thing or not... plus, spending time with them alot helps build trust and probably goes a long way in making them more friendly.