Baby Sav questions

[SnowFoxx]

More Qs not covered in the care sheets:

My babe seems to be sleeping an awful lot. She'll be up and around in little bursts, then go back to sleep again. I'm assuming this is normal for her age (she's just about three inches long, not including the tail) because all babies sleep a lot, right?

Also, when I fed her last night, it took her a few tries to latch onto her wildly wiggling prey (which I had firmly held in clamps by the head so it couldn't bite her) and then when she caught it, she shook it around like a dog with a rope toy and beat it against the floor. Then she wiped her face on the floor after eating. Then she fell asleep. Normal? (these were wax worms...she ate four small ones. I wanted to give her something a little fatty because she probably hadn't eaten for a while before/at the expo)

One other thing...I know next to nothing about crickets except that I find them terrifying and horrible. Is she in any danger of being bitten if I leave a couple of them in her tank? Should I stay with her until she has eaten them all, just in case?

Thanks for your patience everyone!

- Victoria :w

[Jeff_Favelle]

My babe seems to be sleeping an awful lot. She'll be up and around in little bursts, then go back to sleep again. I'm assuming this is normal for her age (she's just about three inches long, not including the tail) because all babies sleep a lot, right?

That's a monitor.

Crickets won't hard a monitor unless its freshly-hatched, the crickets are huge, and they are hungry.

[norman]

I suggest feeding in a seperate tank....espesially for crickets as they will burrow into the dirt and you will lose track of them...then they will come out later and stress the monitor out while its getting its "beauty sleep" (which they seem to do a lot of) and most likely stress you out because you try and find a cricket in your house creating a racket and it ends up being in the sav cage....(done this before)
Also if i try and feed my lil' guy in his enclosure then he will usually injest a good mouthful of dirt as they like to squish the food item into the dirt or against the wall.
Oh...one more thing....keep track of those crickets....one comes out....one gets eaten...5 come out....5 get eaten...I think i infested the last couple of places i lived in with crickets pretty well, so Im taking some extra measures now that i live in a new place.(im sure my last neigbours are all very pleased with me.)
Good luck and hope i helped at least a little bit....
-pete-

[SnowFoxx]

Thanks guys I'm a snake girl, this lizard stuff is a whole new ball game for me...

- Victoria :w

[Ravi]

Hi Victoria

I read your post and had a few thoughts for you.

Baby savs are pretty rambunctious and fiesty. Thats a good sign. As far as them sleeping a lot....they do laze around if there is nothing for them to do. Try changing up the tank every now and then and I'm sure he'll explore it.

I wouldn't worry so much about the crickets or wax worms either. Savannahs are tough and built to hunt. They'll often take on prey that we would think is too large for them....but what do we know

It sounds like your guy is around 6 inches TL from your description so he's more than big enough to handle crickets and mealworms.

No need to feed him outside of the enclosure either. If your husbandry is decent, a little ingested dirt means nothing.

If you want to read more about them there is a book available from me thats got all this info in it.

Hope this helps and good luck
--Ravi--

[NewLineReptile]

i agree with Ravi all the way good luck with you sav