• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Sav Newbie - questions of course

L

leonardsKeeper

New member
Joined
May 22, 2007
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Indiana
First I would like to say hello to everyone - First post here and what a great resource so far.

I purchased a baby Sav (Leonard if you could not guess from the nic) and am currently using Zoo Med Eco-earth for substrate and am wondering if that is good bad or otherwise? He does not seem to mind it other then he ends up with little strings from his mouth when he eats.

Second question is the little guy (6 1/2") is eating about 10 small crickets a day. I have read in a few places that says when they are young and growing to let them eat as much as they want. I do not want to starve him so I keep feeding as much as he wants (I know when they get full length you need to cut back and be careful of obesity).

A little history for me; I have owned a few Iguana's in the past so I am accustomed to large reptiles. I have not owned a Monitor before but read about all I could find on them. Now I just need some insight from fellow owners with experience.

Thanks all
 
leonardsKeeper said:
First I would like to say hello to everyone - First post here and what a great resource so far.

I purchased a baby Sav (Leonard if you could not guess from the nic) and am currently using Zoo Med Eco-earth for substrate and am wondering if that is good bad or otherwise? He does not seem to mind it other then he ends up with little strings from his mouth when he eats.

Second question is the little guy (6 1/2") is eating about 10 small crickets a day. I have read in a few places that says when they are young and growing to let them eat as much as they want. I do not want to starve him so I keep feeding as much as he wants (I know when they get full length you need to cut back and be careful of obesity).

A little history for me; I have owned a few Iguana's in the past so I am accustomed to large reptiles. I have not owned a Monitor before but read about all I could find on them. Now I just need some insight from fellow owners with experience.

Thanks all
Click to expand...
Hey Ed,

Firstly, welcome to Fauna. On to the business. First thing is to probably forget everything you've heard. A lot of information about keeping monitors is really awful so I dont know what books you've read but if you dont already own this book: (http://www.proexotics.com/store/product.php?productid=16155&cat=250&page=1) get it. It's a must-have for any monitor keeper. I dont know if PE has the best price so feel free to shop around, I just knew I could find a photo of it there. While you're at their website (hate to seem like a PE pusher but they really know thier monitors) check out this care sheet for BT's. It all applies to savvys as well and is probably the best "online care sheet" that I know of. http://www.proexotics.com/care_ionides.html

You might find many of the answers to your questions in that care sheet, specifically about substrates proexotics has a ton of information regarding what has and hasn't worked for them in the past. The main gist of it is that your monitor needs burrowing depth and a substrate that will hold a burrow. There are a variety of inexpensive mixes that you can use that will work really well. http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ2.html#19 (Scroll down about 1/4 the page and read "What can I use for a substrate for my monitors/lizards? How do you mix your soil?")

Your monitor may be 7 inches now but in a few months he's going to be 18 inches and using a prepackaged substrate like "eco-earth" is just not going to be practical. By year 2 you'll probably be needing a 8'x4'x4' enclosure with a solid 18-24" of substrate for your savvy to burrow in, that's a lot of expandable bricks :p

You might also want to start up a roach colony as feeding that monster you've got is going to get expensive feeding crickets on a daily basis. Given he will eventually probably outgrow most of the roaches you'll feed him now they'll save you money. Here's a good resource for information & a source of roaches. http://www.nyworms.com/roaches.htm also another good source http://www.bugchick.com/

Lastly, enjoy your savvy and get a vet visit. Many people dont go to the vet with savs because they're inexpensive. In the long run it's worth it. Have fun, and again, welcome to the forums!

Bill
 
I really wish they had an edit feature.

Let me say that everything I've told you is to the best of my knowledge but I'm not the last word on anything and I'm certainly not an expert. Ask around, check out the archives on this forum, also there's a ton of info on the kingsnake monitor forums and even www.reptilerooms.com has more sav owners than any other forums I've seen.
 
Thank you for the info Bill. I have seen that book and will pick it up soon. I also have been reading the kingsnake website for weeks trying to get all the information I can. I will check out the other links as well and hopefully save a few bucks and have a good Monitor for years to come.

Thanks again

Ed
 
Update - Well the book is no where to be found locally so I ended up ordering it through amazon.com (it was cheaper by $1.00 and shipping was about $4.00 cheaper so that is why I chose amazon). I should have it by end of this week hopefully.
 
Back
Top