# Savannah Monitor



## Rain_Flower (Aug 10, 2007)

I have one, just got him not to long ago, he's just a little guy. I named him Erwin (after Steve Erwin  ).
I used to have a huge one as a kid too, so I'm used to taking care of them, I just wanted to hear you guys' opinions.

So, what substrate do you recommend, or how to set up the enclosure? Right now he has a little cave and some rocks and sticks to climb on. I found this substrate, it's called like wheat something or other I think, I don't remember.


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## GailC (Aug 10, 2007)

He needs deep, damp substrate. I kept mine on either eco earth or peat moss. A nice sized cave on the warm & cool side, a water dish big enough to soak in, and some thing to bask on. Don't forget the really big cage.


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## Rain_Flower (Aug 11, 2007)

Awesome, thank you. I dooo need to get him a bigger water dish, but thats about it.


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## Mushroom Spore (Aug 11, 2007)

Rain_Flower said:


> I named him Erwin (after Steve Erwin  )


You mean Irwin? 

Pics!


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## Rain_Flower (Aug 11, 2007)

Ok, I didn't know if it was an "I" or an "E" heh. Thanks for correcting me.


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## monitormonster (Aug 16, 2007)

Personally, I used a mixture of sand and sphagum peat moss for my Savannah's substrate. Also, I built some boxes that I stacked up so that he could climb closer to the heat if he wanted to. A digital thermometer is a good buy because you have to have pretty specific temps for monitors. Good luck; I am going to get another one in November because my Sav died in April.


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## LeilaNami (Aug 17, 2007)

I had success just keeping them on  fine grain sand with a nice big water dish.  I kept mine in a habitat similar to what you'd keep a leopard gecko or bearded dragon.


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## Nivek (Aug 17, 2007)

I've heard that keeping them on pure sand can be dangerous. Something about impacting their cloaca. I can't remember the technical terms, so forgive me, but when they defecate, if I remember correctly, they can get sand stuck in their cloaca. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in. I miss my Argus monitors so much, lol.


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## LeilaNami (Aug 17, 2007)

I never had a problem with impactions on the fine grain sand.  Calci sand is another matter entirely.  That stuff is evil unless they're hermit crabs and your simulating coastal soil.  He liked to poo on top of his log hide anyway


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## Rain_Flower (Aug 17, 2007)

I just changed his substrate yesterday. I put in this stuff, it almost looks like seed, but really small. He kept eating his substrate so I wanted something that would be safe if he ate it. It looks pretty nice too


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## Meaningless End (Aug 18, 2007)

there is a good chance that what you are talking about is walnut shells.. it defianlty isnt the best choise of substraite due to the fact that it holds pour humidity and it dosent allow the animal to realy dig at all.  Idealy for savanna monitors you want to give them about a foot and a half or more of substraite to dig and burrow in.  not everyone can do that so if you at least give about 6in deep and allot of stuff to dig underneeth of (i use fire wood) then it will be fine.  my faovrit mixture i have found so far is a mix of peet moss and cypress multch. its something that seems to work out fine for them and as long as theyre basking temps are correct (surface basking temp of at least 115 but 125-130 is better) at the same time it is equaly importaint to give acess to a place for cooling and that should be between75-82...

Disclamer.. if you have your savanna in anything less then a 40 gallon then CAREFULLY watch the temps of the cage because it can be easy to cook your animal in that small of a enviorment.. in this case a basking temp of 95-100 is sufecient untill you have bigger houseing

sorry about the spelling...


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## Rain_Flower (Aug 19, 2007)

No it's not walnut shell...I can't remember what it's called but I know it isn't walnut.


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## markface (Aug 19, 2007)

zilla has a fairly new bedding out that is millet which are seeds . it could be that .


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## Mushroom Spore (Aug 20, 2007)

Nivek said:


> I've heard that keeping them on pure sand can be dangerous. Something about impacting their cloaca. I can't remember the technical terms, so forgive me, but when they defecate, if I remember correctly, they can get sand stuck in their cloaca.


Nope. Impaction happens from the other end--when substrate accidentally (or purposely) gets eaten, clogging up the animal's insides and resulting in a painful death.


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## Meaningless End (Aug 20, 2007)

Mushroom Spore said:


> Nope. Impaction happens from the other end--when substrate accidentally (or purposely) gets eaten, clogging up the animal's insides and resulting in a painful death.


also something wo worry about with sand or any other substraite whitch dosent allow hummidity is that monitors have a tendancy to lose theyre toes when kept in that sort of enviorment...

and that just sucks... no one wants to loose theyre toes.


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## monitormonster (Aug 20, 2007)

Yeah, you DO NOT want your lizard to become impacted....It is very expensive to remove substrate from their stomachs. I lost a Savannah earlier this year due to impactation....it really sucked. Good advice would be to feed your monitor outside of his/her cage so that they dont accidentally eat any substrate, and only buy the kind that says it's safe for lizards and non-toxic.


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## Rain_Flower (Aug 28, 2007)

This was before I re-did his cage:






He's so little!


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## zimbu (Aug 28, 2007)

monitormonster said:


> Yeah, you DO NOT want your lizard to become impacted....It is very expensive to remove substrate from their stomachs. I lost a Savannah earlier this year due to impactation....it really sucked. Good advice would be to feed your monitor outside of his/her cage so that they dont accidentally eat any substrate, and only buy the kind that says it's safe for lizards and non-toxic.


Even be careful with that, some products (ex: calci-sand, repti-bark) claim to be safe for reptiles even when they can easily cause impaction.


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