Need help with first pet savannah monitor

well i just purchased a savannah monitor as a pet. i understand the dedication and understand the size it gets. i have many snakes so im not totally clueless. at this time it is a baby monitor. i got it in a 20 gal. i read a few care sheets but im seeking some real time advise from people here. A-Z. substrate, hides, lighting and wattage, set up, feeding protocols, humidity, vitamins anything you can share. any info is greatly appreciated. do i need under tank heater. this tank already has one so would it be harmful or helpful....etc. tell me how you take care of yours. give me any tip. thanks guys

The best sav site that I am aware of: http://savannahmonitor.co/

The most important thing to know is that your monitor needs at least 12" of burrowable soil now and 24" as an adult.

Second most important thing to know is that you need to provide a humidty range from 90% to 40%. 90% would be equivalent to a humid hide, and the monitor should build this hide itself by burrowing. 40% will be at the basking site, which should have a surface temperature measured with a contact thermometer of at least 130* and as high as 150*.

It is currently popular to suggest that since savs eat nothing but insects in the wild that they should eat nothing but insects in captivity. Invertebrate prey is ideal for young savs, but do your own research to create your own opinions about feeding thereafter. The most important thing about food is to always feed whole prey and watch your monitors weight to prevent it from becoming obese.

Thanks Mike. I am having trouble holding humidity on both sides. I am spraying the tank twice a day. I got atleast 4 inches of jungle dirt mixed with sand. I do have a basking spot with halogen light on one end reaching 110-120. Cool end reaching 80. basking area also has a under tank heat pad. Got a real nice peice of Mopar wood for his basking area. Bowl of water on the cool end. An idea i got is ground turkey and boiled eggs with the shell is good for him. I am trying to stay away from insects with the occasional dubais once a while.

You don't need to hold humidity in the whole cage, just a couple micro-climates. Make a couple standard humid hides and place one on the warm side, one on the cool. If you are unaware, a standard humid hide would be a rubbermaid tote (lid still on) with a hole just large enough for the lizard cut in its side and a couple inches of dampened substrate, like moss, added in there. Ideally you should put enough substrate in the whole enclosure to allow the monitor to dig its own humid hide.

If you are going to feed turkey, you must follow the SDZ diet exactly. Eggs do not belong in SDZ diet, even with the shells. Beef liver does not belong in SDZ diet. Reptivite does not belong in SDZ diet. Savannahs aren't tegus, blackthroats, niles, etc... they are insectivores and to my knowledge, only SDZ, in its original formulation, has been successfully used to raise and breed successive generations of insectivorous monitors.

The recipe is 2.5 lbs lean ground turkey, 22.5 grams of bone meal, .5 crushed centrum tablet (regular, not mens, not womens, not silver, etc). You may need to order the bone meal from the internet, only 1 store in my area sells it and none of the major chains seem to.

To put it together you will need a pill cutter, mortar and pestle, gram scale, mixing bowl, and stout wooden mixing spoon. Ground turkey is typically sold in 1.25 lb increments, so it is easy to get the 2.5 lbs measured out (2 packages). Add the turkey to a mixing bowl. Cut the centrum pill in half, grind half into a powder. Place a small dish on your gram scale and tare it out. Add bone meal (make sure to get the supplement intended for human consumption) to the dish until the scale reads 22.5 g. Mix the vitamin powder in with the bone meal, then mix this in with the turkey with the wooden spoon.

From there place the mixture in ice cube trays and freeze it. I recommend trays that have their own lids to avoid freezer burn. Trial and error will dictate how much you need to thaw every day to feed the monitor while keeping it at a healthy weight.

Skanakis,you say you trying to stay away from insects.Is there any any particular reason? I tend to feed predominantly insects with rare if ever meat supplementation.The general consensus on the web it seems is you'll have a healthier longer lived monitor if you closely mirror it's natural diet.Not to mention monetary savings you stand to gain by having a constantly reproducing food supply.Having said that I suppose to each his own and if it works for you then it is what it is.

wow mike d...thanks dude. that is great info. Mike L....i HATE insects. like....make me queezy. now as far as crickets...if one got away.....and made its home in my condo chirping...id kill myself. im gonna get his insects but im gonna steer towards that menu mike d put together. Thank you guys

Wild savs do eat mostly insects even though other prey is available. If I remember correctly a study that looked at stomach contents found mostly locusts and centipedes. If at all possible I'd try to find some bugs that you don't mind feeding. It is easier to maintain a healthy weight with bugs vs SDZ diet because you can pretty much feed your sav as many insects as he can hunt down during his waking hours and he won't get fat, but you feed him turkey till he's full and you're going to end up with a monitor with serious health issues. If you're going to go the SDZ route, you need to keep an eye on his weight, especially when he hits that 'magic' size when he stops growing like a weed and his caloric needs drop significantly. Also keep an eye on the basking temp and make sure it stays 130+, he'll need all that heat to run everything through his system.

The past week ive been trying to leave him alone to aclimate. There isnt much activity from him and he isnt making himself very social or hitting his basking spot. I got a nice piece of Mopar wood for his backing spot and the heat gun hit 110. Which im told is perfect. Ambient temps in the room is 80. Cool spot is 85. He is kinda just hanging out under the mopar wood. Im gonna get insects. Maybe just start a little dubai colony. I cant STAND crickets. I know if i get them and they start chirping the are going right out the door.

I can totally relate to your disdain for crickets,with me it was never the noise as much as the maintenance that come with them.You will constantly be cleaning up corpse after corpse of crickets that seem to have kicked off for no apparent reason,and the smell,oh the smell.I keep super worms,silk worms,dubia,and hissers.What ever you do do it while your Sav is small,bulk up on roaches by the thousand and get them breeding.You'll be glad you did.

Mike...can you pm me? Discuss some of that breeding roach and worm things?