Concerned for my Savannah monitor.

I have had My Savannah monitor for very nearly two years now. To say I care for this animal is an understatement. She is housed in a large cage with meticulously dialed in humidity and heat. Fed predominantly on various dusted insects,I try to provide her the best captive care I can. Recently I gave her and my other male Sav some chicken, chicken thighs specifically. I de-boned the chicken then smashed into small pieces the bone. They both ate and enjoyed the rare treat. Since then my female seems to have issue with defecation. While she does still produce a very small amount everyday she has not had her usual colossal craps I've come to expect. I've bathed her multiple times and even tried to massage her abdomen to help with the process. Before we visit a vet I really was just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience and what was done to remedy the problem. Shweetums really is my baby and I just want her to be ok. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks, Mike.

Are you familiar with the site: http://savannahmonitor.co/ ?

In order to figure out what might be wrong, what are the dimensions of your large cage? How many feet of dirt do you have in it? What is the temperature of the dirt at the bottom of the cage? How hot is the surface temperature of your basking spot?

Not knowing the answers, my advice would be to increase the surface temp of your basking spot to 150 F. I'd also make sure she's got 3 feet of dirt in which to lay any eggs that she may by carrying.

She is currently housed in a 4' long 4' wide 4' high custom inclosure. She is provided 2' of dirt that at least in the winter time she chooses not to burrow in. Instead opting to stay top side in a hide near her heat sources. Her hot spot is easily 145 degrees and spends a lot of her day in and around it. She is still very active and constantly asks to come out of her cage. She spends nearly every evening out and about exploring our house and interacting with the family. While exercise and exanthematicus don't often go hand in hand in captivity both of our Savs get lots of it. As far as egg laying goes I had read in "The Savannah Monitor Lizard." By Daniel Bennett and Ravi Thakoordyal that, "Nest we have found have all been in sandy soil in sunny locations and no more than 12 inches deep." My hope is that 2' of dirt will be acceptable to her when the time comes. While I realize her cage is likely not as big as some would say she needs we have plans in the near future to double it's current foot print. She is meticulously cared for in what ever manner we possibly can. We also never feed in the cage as to prevent any possible impaction. Short of taking her to the vet I really was just reaching out to keepers with more experience in this area than me in hopes of hearing a similar story with a happy ending. I really want someone to tell me I'm over reacting and as long as she continues to defecate at all she's probably going to be alright.

Thanks,Mike.

Most savannah monitors with health problems are being kept too cold, too dry, with too little dirt, and in too small of enclosures. I had to make the assumption that one of those husbandry issues was to blame as chicken parts/bones should not have caused a problem.

Are you sure that you have a female? I heard from an experienced monitor keeper that if a savannah monitor is 36"+, hasn't laid eggs, and isn't dead, it is a male. Perhaps you could post pictures for second opinions?

On the burrowing/nesting aspect, my monitor was living in a similarly sized enclosure when he was little. When he hit 18" he stopped digging as well. I got him into his 4x8 quickly and he started again. Turns out that 4 feet wasn't enough distance for an 18"+ savannah monitor to feel comfortable digging in.

Though your cage's temps may be good, how about the floor of your house? If your monitor spends as much time outside of its cage as you indicate, it is spending, what, 20% of its life too cold and too dry?

I hope you can understand that I'm not trying to be a jerk here. My monitor is 2 years old as well and as much as I tried to avoid it, there's been a learning curve.

While some might get offended when questions arise surrounding husbandry I do not. I wouldn't have posted if I did. As far as it being male or female I can only assume female because of what I've seen from my male. My male was immediately showing off his gender. He is much younger than my female but he clearly looks different. He's growing faster than she did he's got an extremely bulbous snout which from what I gather out side of eversion is one of the only other ways to visually determine gender. From what I've read an adult female without a mate to fertilize her eggs can simply reabsorb them before the shelling process begins. The reality is we as a community still have so much to learn and an open forum is a great way to do so. As far as our house being to cold or too dry for our monitor I'd have to reply no. I live with my wife and kids and they simply do not suffer the cold. Our ambient humidity due to number of fish tanks in our home generally sits at about fifty percent. Inside her cage being much higher. When it comes to this lizard I may just be a worry wart. She is after all my Shweetums. If no one with any similar stories pops up I think I'll have to call our local reptile rescue lady and see if she has any suggestions.


Thanks.Mike

From your first post I was thinking she could be gravid or having problems with infertile ova. Consider an X-ray maybe.

Feed whole animals not parts. Use rodents feeding insects once they get two feet or more is not adequate for them. The bones and the organs are what gives them the bulk of their nutrients not the flesh. As an example fish fillets not so much, whole fish (not goldfish) are okay. If you feed whole prey items of sufficient size you will achieve far greater results. Mice without dusting will get you far more than crickets that are dusted.

Pretty sure diets high in goldfish can lead to a deficiency in the thyroid.

You are correct. That is why I put whole fish (not goldfish) in there. I thank you for emphasizing the importance of that

Digby Rigby,

You have voiced you opinion on the feeding of rodents to two foot long Savs. What are your feelings then on the current information becoming available to owners that states in the wild Exanthematicus are nearly one hundred percent insectivore. One study of a group of one thousand animals provided only one specimen with mammalian prey in it's gi trac. While occasional Rodent feedings might prove beneficial the real goal of keeping any animal in captivity should be to mirror nutritionally as close as possible the dietary needs of that animal. The truth of the matter being we have so much to learn from these animals still if we plan to provide the very long lifetime that they are truly capable of.