Savannah Monitor, Living Situation

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Greetings! I have quite a predicament, and I figure at least one person can help me. See, I have a couple of savannah monitors: Lili Ann and Pax. They are both still quite little, but well...they will get larger very soon. My dilemma is that I have them in a 75-gallon tank. I will not be able to get a 400-gallon tank, let me say, and that is what a full-grown savannah monitor needs. Is it alright if I walk them around the neighborhood and park (grass and dirt, no cement) every single day for an hour or more (each at different times) and keep them in, say, a 120-gallon tank? Let me know. Thanks so much! If you are worried about their situation, don't worry. If this proposal won't work, I will then simply try to get a larger tank, or let them walk around a room designated for them or something along the lines of that.
 

CooperDragon

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Do you have a yard that you could allow them to roam in? Do you live in a place that will allow them to be outside year round?
 

SavannahDragons

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Yes, I do have a large yard, and 2-3 acre grass park behind my house. I could also bring them to a park a few blocks away that is even bigger. I couldn't take them out all year, but I have a sizable basement I could walk them around. The time I couldn't walk them around is for maybe 2 months per year.
 

williamk34

Hatchling Member
well I have a few questions but I will go ahead and let you know a few things when it comes to Savannah monitors but is this your first monitor species to start out with and were you able to get them to be confirmed male and female can you put photos of them. Anyways I know this is going to sound pretty negative but I will say Savannah monitors they are nice as a starter monitor but they are not a first monitora male has easily the capabilities of getting up to four feet long in a female will reach anywhere from two and a half to three and a half feet long. Anyways I will say it is mentioned that a 400-gallon tank is good for them but it's really too small. They are both going to need a basking spot that's not only hot and I assumed that you would already know the temperature for them at least I hope you do but the bigger issue is that they need to have a large area so they can bask their whole body a lot of times you will see online Savannah monitors with burn marks on their back and that is how they give them they bask too long under a single spot trying to heat up their whole body I recommend getting pay their blocks two of them side-by-side and covering the whole area of the blocks as a suitable basking spot and if you have a male that gets too full size you'll need a four of them to make a nice decent square. When it comes to walking your savvyany large monitor it will always be the same way you can leash train them that you have to do it Wyatt they are young unless you have a fenced off yard where they can't escape through the sides of it and then you can just let them run around. remember they need substrate to dig and bury themselves and something that is good at holding and releasing humidity monitor lizards need different levels of humidity to help their shed and help them breathe properly. they will make a den when they find a nice moist area but for the rest of their time it is an arid Savannah meaning it is hot and and mostly dry. So they are going to need enough substrate to dig they are the largest insectivore species so keep that also in mine I don't know if you already know what all they should be eating or how that goes but I will go ahead and mention just in case but they should be purely on a insect diet don't feed them chicken and turkey meat it's not something that they would eat in the normal environment they mostly eat insects you can offer them hard boiled eggs and raw eggs when they get adults the adults you can give shell and all but it should only be a treat. When they are young crickets mealworms and the occasional waxworm to keep their weight moving upwards doused with calcium there's a pretty big debate when it comes to monitors if they need D3 or not personally I give my monitors calcium with D3 and calcium without D3 I just rotated out I recommend getting some repti vitamin as well it helps monitors also if you have a glass enclosure clothes off all but one of the sides it's not an issue with the reflection when they are small they are one of the main prey items for several different species and they get very stressed very easily they can stress themselves to death. You can easily keep Savannah monitors together as long as they are male and female they will produce eggs if it is right it's a pretty difficult process with them personally I do not recommend keeping them together unless you can keep them in a 12 to 14 foot enclosure to keep two of them together I would honestly recommend a 16 by 12 x 12 if you want to keep them together. I know I started to say but when it comes to adults 6 foot enclosures and eight foot enclosures are really needed for them so it would be a 6 foot long 4 foot tall 3 foot in with Ford 8 foot enclosure it would just be the same measurements but instead of a 6-foot it would be an 8-foot. Since you said they are both quite smallif they are both males you probably don't have to worry about them yet but they will start getting annoyed with one another after 5 months after 6 months they will start fighting with one another. If you have a male and a female you will see the male do some territorial dominance the male will use his size to show that he is the boss he will bite her on the back of the neck sometimes on the legs but usually it's never anything to draw blood it's just a territorial thing just showing who is on top of the pecking order so unless you see them starting to get into a shoving match for the female turn around and start biting him back don't separate them if they do that or it will lead to an actual fight. If they get into a shoving match I recommend welding gloves I have had a black throat monitor bite a good pair of welding gloves and not pierce it but I could feel those teeth and they are just basically a big savannah monitor I know they're not but for intensive purposes. Also when it comes to walk in your Savannah's always keep in mind you can leash train them but just like any other monitor lizard it's really they're going to walk you you can train them to tolerate a leash but they're still going to go where they want also unless you have other pets like a dog and a cat if they want to go and be friends with your monitor don't let him do that unless your monster has been exposed to dogs and cats for a while in particularly dogs mine has tail with the neighbors dog multiple times. Sorry I know it was pretty lengthy butI've been dealing with monitor lizard since I was pretty young.
 

SavannahDragons

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Thank you for your input! I don't have a male and female...I named Pax wrong, so she is a female. Lili Ann is also a female. This is my first monitor species, but not my first lizards/reptile; I have bearded dragons that I bred (once). Yes, I know they need a large basking spot. In their cage right now, they have a big tile to stretch out on, as well as rocks. They both will walk on a leash, relatively well. I let them run around, their leash is rather long and light, but I keep them on it in case they run into a bush or onto a tree or something. Yes, I know about the substrate and the humidity. Right now, I simply mist/spray their enclosure in the "digging spot" which is what I call the deepest part of their enclosure. Their water bowl is shifted closer to that side. The other side has their basking spot, a couple of rocks, and "exploring space." This section is relatively dry. I feed them raw eggs sometimes, rarely, and feed them raw chicken twice a month. I do this because of a feeding triangle I use. I give them super worms and crickets as a usual food. I also very minimally give them frozen mice (right now I would give them fuzzies). The staple foods I give them are nightcrawlers, super worms, and crickets. I use Reptivite and dust it on their crickets because super worms are hard to dust, in my opinion. I have no dogs or cats, so that won't be a problem until 2 months later, when I will get a labrador puppy. I have no plans to socialize them, however.
 

SavannahDragons

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Original Poster
Also, I will be able to get a larger enclosure, 450-gallons, or something along the lines of that. Is that alright? I know you said 558 gallons (I put the measurements in a tank gallon calculator) but that might be a bit big.
 

williamk34

Hatchling Member
You can get away with that just don't put them together females are a little easier to keep sometimes personally I prefer males even if they get a little bigger a gravid female can sometimes have a pretty bad temper just keep in mind that they have a higher chance of being temper medic with one another if you have them in a small area but if you get smaller females that should be okay but if you get some of the larger ones especially if they push beyond 3 foot and you'll have to get larger. Also melamine cages are pretty decent for themif you have somebody that deals with melamine and can make a decent one or if you have access to the material itself. If you don't have access space-wise to give them a larger enclosure just give them more out and about timeI don't know how old they are but I assume that there are anywhere from a few weeks to maybe a month or twoyou're feeding them pretty decently when they are young it's okay to give them a little bit of it it helps keep their weight up once or twice a month will not hurt just make sure that it's super covered in calcium I take a syringe and put liquid calcium in it. an egg is always good for them when they get into roughly half full size basically when the egg is close to the size of their head you can just give it to him whole don't even have to bust a egg open unless it's a particularly large egg. With black throat monitorssince they demand such a huge cage some keepers who have them in a smaller house and actually afford to feed them the correct but it's not really the correct way of doing it but if they are healthy then it's more just a sleeping and basking boxlet them outside big that sort of stuff luckily it sounds like you already have enough for an enclosure at least a decent size 1 I know I sounded really negative when it comes to it they're good for starting into the monitors but they're not good for your very first one to have do you have them to the point where they will come to you willingly without food I mean. Addition something I found from personal experience if you do house them together just it's usually add a foot or two to the overall length.
 

SavannahDragons

Member
Original Poster
My Pax and Lili Ann do really well together. Occasionally, Lili Ann, the feistier of the two, will hiss at Pax, but that's it. No biting, or whipping their tails or anything. I'll take that into consideration about adding a foot or two on, because I will house them together, no doubt about it. Pax is really sweet, so he does sometimes come to me without food, licking me, but Lili Ann positively hates me. How can I get her to like me? Also, yes, I have lots of room to the point they could have a whole room if I weren't a child who can't do things like that. I give them chicken eggs, is that okay? I was planning on using this when they were older: https://clearlylovedpets.com/product/large-lucidium-dog-pen-48-x-72-2/ I would make a screen top for it because I know they are tricky little things. I would also have the dirt-packed to a foot tall for them.
 

williamk34

Hatchling Member
If one is coming to you willingly than that is definitely good with the other one just be patient just put your hand in the enclosure in the substrate bring it near the animal but just let it give it a few tongue flicks rewarded with a little treat and then do it a few more times throughout the day without the treat don't want to associate your hands or fingers with food eventually when they don't run away from your hands move to just stroking them after that point gets tolerable you can try handling make sure you do it in the enclosure I would not use a dog pen for it if you have a local Home Depot for Ace hardware see if they sell melamine and just have them cut it to the measurement that you like the Bible Master is a pretty good cage provider I just don't like his shipping options the most expensive is just getting the wood itself and treating it. but when it comes to taming down your monitor just keep in mind each one of them have a different personality will take them longer some of them warm up to you almost immediately but definitely keep an eye on their behavior because when they get older they can cause some serious damage and not even intentionallysomething I wish I would have done early on was get them used to getting their claws trimmed also when it comes to the egg since they are a larger monitor 2 will not really hurt them I usually give it to them three times a month when they are adults but when they are infants just kind of limited down to once monitor lizards are addicted to eggs it's something universal that they all like.
 
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