Okay, I recently got a young Savannah Monitor(Was told he's about 8 months old, about 1.5-2' long), and have some questions I want clarification on. I've been doing my own research for over a week(On top of everything I've been looking up on them over the past half year).
Before I start on anything, if ANY of my info is wrong or off, please correct me. I care more about the animals well-being than I do my own or being correct. I've been trying to look this stuff up, but can never seem to find the same answer, nevermind one that seems correct. So I figured I could just post one big post with everything I am wondering in it, and get all my questions out of the way.
1)Diet:
Basically, I want to provide him a good diet, but am unsure of how much/what to feed him. I've been reading all different things online, so I'm pretty confused, especially because I keep reading that these are prone to obesity. I breed Dubia cockroaches for my bearded dragons, and have been feeding him these. How many adult roaches a day should he be eating? How often should he be receiving hardboiled/scrambled eggs, and how many? I plan on giving him 1 pinkie a week, since that seems to be one answer I can consistently find. Also, is there anything else that I can start feeding him to liven up his diet? I see people feed them raw chicken. Anything else like that would be perfect, since my parents are already not a fan of the cockroaches and pinkies being in the house. Basically I'm looking for a proper feeding schedule for a monitor his size.
2)Enclosure:
Right now he is in a 75 gallon tank. I know this isn't good for him, and I'm trying to get him out of it ASAP. I'm looking to build the ideal enclosure for him, at about 8x4x4. I've been researching these enclosures nonstop for the past week, but can't seem to find a good tutorial specifically for sav's. I'm not very good with building things, as electronics are more my specialty, but I have friends who are, but aren't reptile smart. I've already decided I want to build it out of Melamine, since that seems to be the easiest material to work with. I've worked it out that the doors are going to be glass(or plexiglass) drop down, that are about 2' off the base, so the substrate doesn't affect it. But my problem is, I know I'm moving in about 5 months, so this thing has to be able to be broken down, and transported, without losing it's integrity. Also, heating. I see some people using heat tape, heat panels, or heat lamps. I'm trying to keep this cage under $250, so what route would be best? I see some people wire in their own light fixtures, and that seems to be the best idea for me. Any tutorials or threads that go this in depth on building a enclosure?
3)Temperament:
What are some ways I can get him to warm up to me? He hasn't hissed or attempted to scratch/bite me, but doesn't seem to enjoy me going near him. He seems to fill his stomach with air whenever I go to pet him, and for the first few days closed his eyes whenever I touched him, but now keeps them open. His tongue is constantly flicking whenever I do this. Not sure what/if these are signs of something. I know that not all of sav's become exactly people friendly, but I would like to take the steps to make him more friendly.
Pictures(I know the tiles aren't the best substrate, and the screen top isn't good. This is being changed Monday on my day off, as soon as I can get to a hardware store. He's only been like this for less than a week).
His first escape attempt(Less than 12 hours of being "home")
Does he look healthy? I'm not sure of the exact living conditions the lady had him in, she brought him to me outside when I got there, so I didn't get a chance to see.
Like I said, I'm just trying to do 100% right by this monitor, so feel free to correct me in every way shape possible. Also, sorry for the long post, might be hard to understand. ADD doesn't help any when writing long posts like this hahah.
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