PLEASE HELP!! Savannah monitor SPASMING!!

Hello, I'm so worried for my female savannah!! Recently I have noticed her limbs "spasming". Her muscles constantly twitch in her arms and legs. She's eating monitor diet and mice. And her appetite is fine, but it really worries me, I've never see anything like this before. PLEASE HELP.
Thank you for reading and any input you may have.

Hello, Nikki.
I'm sure other monitor folks will chime in, but I wanted to share our experience with you. We had two young male savannahs display this same behavior. You'll need to take her to the vet, and what happened with ours is their calcium/phosphate levels were completely backwards. One male also became very tired and the other lost his sense of balance. They had to be given medication and stayed overnight. The good news is, though, it should be fixable.
According to our vet, it seems to happen when the animal is given a carnivore diet without additional calcium suppliment and insufficient UV. It totally throws everything off. Talk with your vet to find out the best diet for her.
Best of luck. Please keep us posted!

I agree that it sounds like low protein /calcium intake. But what is her full feeding schedule? What's given when and how much??
What's her setup also?

Contrary to popular belief Savannah monitors do not require UVA/UVB. Like at all. Just light on a proper schedule with the right amount of heat. The best is 12 hours on 12 off. There are only 3 species of varanid that require UVA/UVB if not less and none of them are from Africa.

I wonder if the vet recommended the UV due to the calcium problems, then. Kind of as a way to help get the levels back on track? (with an adjusted diet, of course)

Our vet was a bit "old school" I guess you could say and had the philosophy "Diurnal=UV."
So, if you don't use any UV with a Savannah, would you want to use Calcium with D3, then? Or would it really matter with them?

Thanks for the information.

I feed her a monitor diet of ground chicken, turkey, cooked egg, and occasionally tuna every mid afternoon.
She then gets one mouse a week.
I have a basking lamp on her precisely 12-13 hrs a day, off for 10-13 hours. The temp in her basking spot stays approx. 90-100 degrees, the cooler areas in her set-up are 70-80 degrees. She has clean water every day, and it's big enough for her to get in to.
She's living in a 4x2x2 custom environment with repti-carpet.
I talked to a vet and he suggested I put reptile calcium on her meals and watch her for a week then if it does not get better or gets worse to bring her in.
She is still very engergetic and has not lost her appetite..just quivers.
I attached pics of her.

Thanks again, I hope she gets better

Yes it's an old school thought but most varanids do not absorb vitamins like calcium , D3 etc through their skin like other lizard species. Believe it or not they don't even absorb water through their skin. Another contrary to popular believe thing. Everything is ingested orally. So all their vitamins are taken in by diet.
Even supplementing with powders can still cause them to be vitamin deficient because the amount of powder needed can be by the weight of the animal if not more. Or even less. The issue is most keepers do not know the internal condition of the animal. There is definitely a such thing as to much being harmful.

Deficiency is another reason why it's so important to feed a whole prey diet properly. Plus a monitors digestive system is extremely advanced compared to any mammals so feeding processed foods actually can do them more harm then good. Their system is designed to digest bone!! Thick bone no less. They get the nutrients from the WHOLE animal. So denying them that would be like someone giving you 1/4 of the salad you ordered and instead of a good prime steak they give you the fat and cheap parts of meat turned into a pate or milkshake. How do you think your body would do eating that regularly? How would you feel?? And to think how poorly designed a human's system is to process that! Canned foods for a monitor is essentially the same thing. Not to mention when it comes out the other end. Ugh. So gross. Guaranteed when a monitors eaten canned diet or processed foods they get either extremely soft stools or it's full blown diarrhea. And it's smells BAD!!! I have a VERY strong stomach but that makes me gag when I've had to smell it. So the animal processes what little nutrients is there if any and the end result is the by product.

So really whole prey items are best.

Originally Posted by Elepheguttata007

Thanks for the information.

I feed her a monitor diet of ground chicken, turkey, cooked egg, and occasionally tuna every mid afternoon.
She then gets one mouse a week.
I have a basking lamp on her precisely 12-13 hrs a day, off for 10-13 hours. The temp in her basking spot stays approx. 90-100 degrees, the cooler areas in her set-up are 70-80 degrees. She has clean water every day, and it's big enough for her to get in to.
She's living in a 4x2x2 custom environment with repti-carpet.
I talked to a vet and he suggested I put reptile calcium on her meals and watch her for a week then if it does not get better or gets worse to bring her in.
She is still very engergetic and has not lost her appetite..just quivers.
I attached pics of her.

Thanks again, I hope she gets better

See above post about diet. But I will go into more detail since you provided photos, setup etc. Thanks for that by the way. Huge help.

I see a couple things wrong and now I'm almost 100% sure that's why your child twitches.

Malnourished and under heated. Possibly mild dehydration (which can cause tremors). She's a tad underweight but not of concern. All this is tied into two things diet and heat.

We'll attack heat first. Basking spot should be 135-140o!!! Ambient 85-90, cool 75-85 but about 77-80 appears ideal. Humidity about 65-70%. So what you have her at is too cold on a consistent basis.

Next diet. Whole prey items only! As mentioned above in my previous posting and why. At her size she could be eating mice, rats, chicks, giant roaches, bunny kits, shelfish (whole uncooked) and healthy fishes (whole uncooked). At her age, I'm suspecting she's about a year old, and being underweight she can have small meals daily then in a month or two maybe three she can go to every other day feedings. With her cage size that's enough room but when she gets to full health it probably wont be.

If possible ditch the carpet. Doesn't help or provide ANY humidity nor does if give mental stimulation. Does she pace and scratch sometimes or all the time? This is a sign of boredom! If you can provide some dirt for her to burrow around in. By nature Savannah are serious diggers, burrowers and climbers. Active species they are.

I think that's about it.

Originally Posted by TailsWithScales

See above post about diet. But I will go into more detail since you provided photos, setup etc. Thanks for that by the way. Huge help.

I see a couple things wrong and now I'm almost 100% sure that's why your child twitches.

Malnourished and under heated. Possibly mild dehydration (which can cause tremors). She's a tad underweight but not of concern. All this is tied into two things diet and heat.

We'll attack heat first. Basking spot should be 135-140o!!! Ambient 85-90, cool 75-85 but about 77-80 appears ideal. Humidity about 65-70%. So what you have her at is too cold on a consistent basis.

Next diet. Whole prey items only! As mentioned above in my previous posting and why. At her size she could be eating mice, rats, chicks, giant roaches, bunny kits, shelfish (whole uncooked) and healthy fishes (whole uncooked). At her age, I'm suspecting she's about a year old, and being underweight she can have small meals daily then in a month or two maybe three she can go to every other day feedings. With her cage size that's enough room but when she gets to full health it probably wont be.

If possible ditch the carpet. Doesn't help or provide ANY humidity nor does if give mental stimulation. Does she pace and scratch sometimes or all the time? This is a sign of boredom! If you can provide some dirt for her to burrow around in. By nature Savannah are serious diggers, burrowers and climbers. Active species they are.

I think that's about it.

Wow..I feel like a bad parent! I felt like I was doing everything right by my knowledge.. I'm surprised cause how I've been taught to care for my savs is actually from a friend who has a colony of them and many other monitors and snakes..I thought he'd know best but I suppose not! I will immediately fix things..that whole prey diet might hurt the bank though..as much as she needs to eat..that worries me cause I really can't afford a whole lot right now..and I would hate to have to sell her :'(
And that's why I posted pics to see if you could see something I couldn't..I'm not good at pointing that stuff out..
Would an under tank heater be a good idea to keep the tank warmer? And some eco-earth bedding to dig and hold moisture? Just trying to see what I'll need for her..

Thanks again.

[quote=Elepheguttata007;1115881]Wow..I feel like a bad parent! I felt like I was doing everything right by my knowledge.. I'm surprised cause how I've been taught to care for my savs is actually from a friend who has a colony of them and many other monitors and snakes..I thought he'd know best but I suppose not! I will immediately fix things..that whole prey diet might hurt the bank though..as much as she needs to eat..that worries me cause I really can't afford a whole lot right now..and I would hate to have to sell her :'(
And that's why I posted pics to see if you could see something I couldn't..I'm not good at pointing that stuff out..
Would an under tank heater be a good idea to keep the tank warmer? And some eco-earth bedding to dig and hold moisture? Just trying to see what I'll need for her..

Thanks again.[/QUOTE

dnt feel like a bad parent!! its a learning expierence, ive been there ive learned alot from keeping savs.. the eco earth isnt a good idea it doesnt hold moisture for nothing, dries out really qwik.. the best option to do is use a topsoil/sand mix holds moisture really good and lets them dig and burrow, as soon as i changed my eco earth to this mixture he was a digging machine!! as for an alternate/night heat source a ceramic heat emitter is yer best bet, thats wut i use.. check this sight out its the best site for everything pertaining to savannahs..
http://savannahmonitor.org/

Try not to feel bad, Nikki. By no means are you a bad savannah parent.
Your girl is still with you and with a few adjustments, she'll be good to go. Theres been quite a few post in this area that I've seen that have some wonderful diet plans and schedules for savannahs.
My boys are given only one or two rats a month, but also are given eggs, roaches, shellfish and ground turkey (SDZ Diet).
There seems to be alot of different schools of thought when it comes down to it, but all in all, we strive to have healthy, happy savs.
Now heat that beautiful baby girl up and keep us updated!