A little Savannah& Tegu help if you would~

[KTheBPlover]

Hello everyone,

So my spouse and I recently acquired a Savannah & a Tegu from a military man who was leaving the area. We're known for owning a large number of snakes (mainly pythons) and this guy comes up to us one day while we're out doing our pretty much weekly visits around the local animal places and says he's got two reptiles he absolutely has to get rid of today or he's got to release them into the wild. Well of course we're not going to say go away, so we go to his car and this dude has a fairly good size Savannah in a freakin' box along with a second box with a Tegu in it. These two aren't close to what we're use to, (we typically get lots of snakes from military folks out here) but we weren't going to let them get released out here either.

I'm not even close to a expert on these guys, so I'd like some suggestions. First off, the Savannah. He's about 3 ft and it looks like someone burned the hell out of his back. We got a very brief background on this guy but here's what we "know"; He's been fed a diet of large rats (he was recently fed one 2-3 days ago), the owner told me he was dropped off to him by a guy that found him in the wild near a restaurant (no idea if that's true - I doubt it), he's got no idea where this critter's injuries came from. The Tegu's history is extremely brief, he was a "rescue" this guy took in and has had a diet of raw eggs and ground turkey.

Hubby and I are working on building them both large 8 x 4 x 4 or bigger enclosures but for now we had to take the spare 4 x 2 x 2s we've acquired over the years and place them in there (probably better than what they had, but still not even close to what they need). I'll say this, we normally don't do this, especially with reptiles like these two, but the condition they're in...they'd die in the wild.

The Tegu is in fairly decent shape. It's easily 2 1/2 - 3 ft in length, no burns or injuries externally that we can see. No parasites on either (again - that are visible). They're both very mild mannered and though the Tegu is a little flighty the Savannah just doesn't seem to give a rats a** and neither have been feisty yet enough to bite.

We are busting our butts to finish the enclosures which should be done today or tomorrow (like we're working in the night to get these done), but anyone have suggestions on anything - especially diet for these two?

Oh, before I forget to write it down. The Savannah appears to have a rough skin problem going on too, like a bad shed.

[MrLang]

Thanks for not allowing the guy to release them into the wild. That's how reptiles get banned as pets.

I think if the monitor is 'tame' you should view that as a sign of poor health. When they're healthy they're quite feisty, I've read. Good thing you've got some pros on the forums here who will definitely help guide you.

Good luck!

[KTheBPlover]

Yeah, so I've read. I'm pretty sure the guy pretty much destroyed this poor Savannah's health, he hasn't really moved nearly as much as what I've read he should be. The Tegu on the other hand, moves pretty darn quick. We've got them a herp-vet appointment on monday.

[lmtrej]

I have no experience with either but I think this may be of some help http://www.savannahmonitor.co/

You could also try sending a pm to infernalis.

Good luck

[satomi325]

For the Tegu, I suggest heading over to TeguTalk forums.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[infernalis]

since you have a vet visit scheduled, ask for a uric acid test. Always suspect gout in mistreated lizards.

The two biggest contributing factors, bad basking (the burns) and poor humidity. and if it was hot enough to burn the lizard, then I doubt the humidity was even close to correct.