Medical Problem?!

my baby savannah monitor, is a very healthy, "thick" strong looking savannah monitor. she eats amazingly, and looks great. but lately her nails and tips of toes have been droping off. they uncurl slowely, then go straight and eventually turn brown and fall off. is there somethiing seriously wrong with her?!

Your Savannah may be healthy, but probably just appears healthy. The nails and toes are falling off probably due to the poor substrate you are using and low humidity of your enclosure. If a monitor is kept properly, it will rarely lose digits, but when kept on a dry substrate or when it's environment is enclosed by a screen top, you can expect these problems. Basically, your young Savannah is not properly shedding, and animals can lose toes, nails, and portions of their tails if kept in poor conditions. If kept in the proper environment, the skin on the these extremities will shed properly instead of remaining on the toe or tail as the animal grows. When it remains behind, it will constrict that portion of the organism until the blood flow ceases or slows and the dead portion falls off, which is what you are seeing. Make sure you have a solid top to that enclosure so you have decent heat and humidity levels. Make sure you are using a deep enough substrate in which the animal can dig. Make sure that substrate has some level of moisture for the hydration and proper shedding. Get some good dirt so the animal can dig and if you monitor the moisture levels, you should get a good idea rather quickly what is acceptable for digging and what may be too much. You could soak your monitor once a week in a tub for some time, but that is really dodging the issue of the poor enclosure. It is far easier for you and the monitor to get the conditions somewhat right. The nails and toes point to the problem, but you have others. If kept like this, your monitor will probably die of dehydration or organ failure. What is your setup like?

the tank setup is about three feet long, one foot and a bit wide, and one and a half feet tall. there is a forest bark for substate. and a mesh screen top. i do mist the tank about every day, or every two days. i have a mesh screen, so it does dry quickly.
i would have something covering the top of the tank, but im worried of poor surculation, and the tank getting to hot. the tank is allready the appropiate heat throughout the tank. so if the tempurate goes up to high, im worried i would cook him. the basking end is about 110-150, the middle end is around 90 and the cool end is 80s. his subsrate isnt very deep though. also he has a dish that is big enough for him to soak in. ive never seen her drink though. shes a non stop eater but i have never seen her drink. though she has two dishes that are constantly filled with water.

Thanks for the information regarding your setup. Kept like that for very much longer, your monitor will most likely not survive. You gave temperature measurements as ranging from 110-150 on the warm end, you need a more exact measurement. Purchase a temp gun from Pro Exotics(www.proexotics.com) or you can check with hobby stores. I purchased one from a hobby store that sells temp guns for measuring engine temps on some of the hobby vehicles they sell. You need to get one so you have a better idea of the temps you have. If you don't have one, you don't have a proper idea of what the temperatures are. Your thermometer is not an acceptable alternative, it can't measure surface temperatures. Switch from the forest bark you have to plain dirt from your backyard, from the woods, from a creek bed, wherever you can get a suitable mixture from. Soil is also a more digestable substrate than those bark chips. You need not worry about circulation, that is a poor reason for retaining the screen top. Warm air holds humidity better than cooler air and warm air rises so as the warm air leaves the aquarium, it brings much of the moisture with it. You are dehydrating your monitor in the long run. Your monitor will continue to lose toes if kept in these conditions. You can easily construct a solid top by cutting a piece of plywood slightly larger than the dimensions of the cage, mount a light on the underside of it, and you have a more acceptable enclosure. You can use hinges two pieces of wood together where one side houses the light and the other lifts up for feeding access, you have many acceptable options. If the substrate is deep enough and you construct a Retes stack, you can easily give the animal a nice temperature range. It will burrow in the deep substrate to get away from basking site, like it would in the wild. It will come out to bask when it needs to as well. If your monitor survives under the current conditions, it will not be healthy and will likely die prematurely. Change the current conditions. If you need more help, check out the forum on kingsnake.com. There is alot of helpful information for new monitor keepers.

Sorry to interupt here but I've never been able to find in any book the proper humidty % for a Savvy? I assume that it is "Moderate to Moderate/High" as that is what is required for a BP and they live in the same area. Please do inform me, is 50-75% good? Is that too high? Will it cause respritory issues? Thanks for your advice.

well ive made some changes to the tank. i put a slab of wood over the top of the tank. the bark that i have, i mixed with some dirt. but the grounds forzen so its hard to get at. also the bark/dirt is about 7 inches deep. the moisture is holding, and he loves to be misted. he was digging holes after i made the bark deeper. the holes though were randomly made, and really tiny. he seems to like it more. i'm only fifteen and my parents wont let me buy anything off of the web. so im not sure where else to get one of the themometer guages or whatever there called. im not able to make a lid out of wood though. because we have a very persistant cat. who is able to get under any type of lid except for the ones which clip on. the one we have.

Make sure you dont put a slab of wood over the ENTIRE thing or there will not be air circulating at all. Just cover 1/2 or so to keep in the humidity and heat. Talk to your parents about ordering online, show them the thread. It shows responsibility and they'll like that !

If they are still not willing tell them you'll refund their money and you need the use of their CC only. If that fails there are "Pre-Paid" Visa cards at most grocery stores. Get one for 25 bucks and register it online and pay for it with that.

You can cover the entire enclosure with a solid top without any problems, in fact if you don't cover it, you probably you will have more problems. Call the hobby shops around town that sell RC cars, you'll be able to find a temperature gun. You can build an easy enclosure out of plywood that your cat will not be able to get into. You can even make a hinged top that secures with barrel bolts and no cat will be able to get in there. If it does, get rid of the cat, reptiles are far superior. You need to just ditch the bark, don't mix it with anything, ditch it. I'm sure someone could help you construct a decent temporary cage for this Savannah. Are you prepared for this animal to potentially get 4 feet long? You'll need a four foot cage by eight foot cage for an adult. As to the other question asked about humidity levels, I just ensure that the substrate is moist enough to dig in and hold a burrow. There is no hard number for it, I just look at it through the course of the week and add when I think it needs some water, I add it.

i am very aware of the fact that it will become 4 feet long. the tank that it has now it a perfect sise for it, and making a cage now out of plywood, would be not only a waste of money, but pointless. i agree with boybronco. i have wood covering the higher temperature end of the cage, so the humidity stayes in the end where it dries quicker. ive read in a few places now, that too much humidity with a lack of air circulation is not only bad for their lungs and can result in respatory illness, that its not great for their enitial health ether. as for the cat. it can and will go though plywood for a savannah its sise. also i would never get rid of my cat. in my house it works on a basis of whichever animal is their first stays. that is why im not making a custon cage untill my savannah is bigger. my cat wont bother with it then. i really dont feel that a precise mesurement of heat is really needed. all care sheets only give out a recomended tempurature varying in degres. she seems to be shedding much better now, though some of the things that you are recomending i truly dont think will help. i have also been consulting denis mckay, who owns 2 savannah monitors herself.

thank you for your opinions though.

I am not simply dispensing opinions based on vague impressions or information I've collected from care sheets. I'm telling you to do what has worked for me and other keepers. You won't find good advice in a care sheet, you'll find far better information on the kingsnake forum and others like it from keepers who have experience. As long as you have proper ambient temperatures and proper basking temperatures, you should not have a problem with respiratory infections. At this point, you are unable to properly know those temperatures, so you do not have the tools to keep the animal properly. I have never encountered respiratory infections because my animals are kept correctly. A partial top is not the same as a solid top, you need to have a solid top or you will have a compromised animal on your hands. The things I am recommending are essential to basic monitor husbandry. Anyone who knows what they are doing with these animals will agree on the substrate and solid top recommendations. Your care sheets are about as valuable as my Biology degree in helping me understand these animals and how to care for them in captivity. I'm telling you all these things so that your animals will thrive like mine have and go on to produce more like mine have. I'm telling you these things because someone told them to me very early on. I'm telling you these things because keeping them any other way has proved to be fatal.
You have not seen the results of an animal kept in your conditions long term and for a person with their first Savannah monitor to suggest that not knowing proper basking and ambient temperatures is not necessary is sheer youthful foolishness. Do yourself a favor and get on kingsnake or varanus.net and poke around. You'll find the same information given out that I am trying to supply with. By the way, this thread is also in the wrong section and will hopefully be moved shortly. Good luck with digging up the right information, you won't find it on Petco care sheets.