Conflicting advice!

[irishlizardlover]

Hi all, im a Sav owner from Ireland, Sav's are not well known here so am hoping someone can give good advice!
I have read so much differing advice on feeding that im quite confused..
Some experts recommend feeding once a week, others 2/3 times a week, then some say every day or whenever the animal wants to feed.
Our female is a juvenile of almost 3ft long, and is virtually inactive through the damp cold winter months here, and now its summer has been having lots of excercise in the garden.
If I am honest I would say she is a little on the stout side, as she was feeding daily on lean beef, chicken, fish and liver etc, with the odd rodent, but I am going to be giving more rodents in the diet as she doent like her food dusted with the vits at all.
As for crickets and super mealworms, she's scared of them..
Does anyone have any advice or is playing it by ear and keeping an eye on her size alright..

[irishlizardlover]

ps..this is her doing very noisy 'gular pumping' outside.. didnt know what it was til someone messaged me and said thats what it was..

YouTube - Savannah Monitor making WEIRD noise!

[wolfy-hound]

Very clean lizard. I think she does look a bit obese, you may want to cut back on the food.
I have blackthroats, a larger version of monitor, but this is what works for me.
I try to feed mainly whole prey, as it's just a easily balanced diet. For young ones, I fed nearly every day in small meals, but as adults, I changed to feeding two to three times a week. I feed smaller or larger amounts, according to their currant weight gain.

The old tried and true rule is "Keep them hot, and feed them lots" to grow monitors, but you do have to limit their food when they get nearly full size, as they will become obese quite easily.
Hope this helps.

[irishlizardlover]

Thas great, but we dont know how old she is.. when we bought her the petstore had no idea, she wasnt even a foot long..Should we measure her every day or two and see if there are consistent growth patterns to indicate that she's not reached adulthood yet.

[shimmer]

A lot of species are having advice problems because the Wild Caught info gets mixed and combined with the new Captive Bred info. The best thing to tell if a monitor needs to eat is to wait a day after it poops. Also start feeding less organ meats and more rodents. Savs have a slow metabolism compared to other monitor species and it is easy for them to become obese. The amount you feed her also determines how often she needs to be fed. A large meal means she can go longer between feedings.
Even though chicken and other lean meats are lean for a lot of monitor and tegu species, for African monitors they tend to be to fatty especially Black throats, white throats, and savs. Since your monitor is looking a bit obese cut back on the amount your feeding her and a day more in between feedings until she is back to normal weight for her size.
Insects are better for savs over all but few people can afford 100 crickets each feeding. Go to several other forums and ask the sav owners what they feed adults and how often. The best way to get her to eat insects it to cut the mouse or small rat open and kill the bugs and stuff them in the rodent's body. Its bloody, gross, and a monitor can make a huge mess but since she seems scared of bugs that is the best way to get her to eat them. Aviod a large amount of superworms their really fatty. Mealworms and crickets are the best. To cut cost on the bugs look for local breeders, internet orders, or buy extras and grow your own.
To get her to start eating bugs you can also offer them and if she refuses that feeding offer them again the next day. This method works well since she'll be hungry but stop if she starts looking to thin.

[Creeptastic]

Wow, shes gorgeous!! I love her!! Whats her temperment like? And i love your accent too lol!