Newspaper

I would like to hear your opinions on using newspaper as a substrate. Thanks

Depends entirely on what species you are keeping - newspaper would be acceptable for your savannah, but wouldn't work well for the mangrove. The mangrove is too active & the claws are too sharp...the paper would be shredded and pushed aside, leaving bare glass. You think it is spastic now, wait til you see it when it can't get any traction, lol. You would fare better with indented Kraft paper, but would eventually run into the same problem once the mangrove gets some size to it.

Ok, what substrate would you recommend, as of now i am using forest bed(the one u put in a bucket and add water) but i dont like it too much

Substrate is largely a personal choice - you may try newspaper & think it is ideal. I have never used the product you mentioned, so I cannot say anything about it. Many people swear by dirt, or dirt mix, substrate for their monitors...but I could never be bothered. I used newpapers for small specimens, and from there it varied (depending on the species and what I was favoring at any given time). For mangroves and the like, I think bark mulch works pretty well. You can get the ground stuff that has some small pieces or the bark nuggets, which is big chunks (I prefer those for LARGE cages).

As a side note, I would gravitate more towards a drier substrate for the savannah - paper, aspen, etc. Depending on your heating methods, you can get away with mulches and other moisture retaining substrates; but if it doesn't dry out quickly, I would try to "pre-dry" it before putting it in the cage

monitors arent snakes, keep them on what they know. For example whitethroats, savs, niles etc keep them on a loamy soil. Or mangroves, peachies, keep them on oak leaf compost, something that holds moisture well. Sure i guess you can keep some monitors alive for a few years on paper, but good luck on seeing any natural behaviour out of them sitting on top of some paper and a heat pad.

I'm with Varanidfan on this one. Sure paper's easier than messing about with soil mix - but the soil mix is better for the monitor and it will thank you for it. It will be healthier and exhibit natural monitor behavior - digging, burrowing, flinging it around the viv And monitors shouldn't be kept dry - proper humidity can't be achieved with paper.

I use cypress mulch for my ornate Nile,Asian water,and my Sulawesi water monitor,tegu and my mangroves but you have to be careful as some of the mulch that you find is a "mulch blend". cypress mulch hold moisture well and my monitors love to dig in it. I tried newspaper one time and it's a bigger mess than it's worth when they shred it and get it all moved around.