• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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Savannah Monitor - Deficiency?

N

NocturnalPulse

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Hello. I have two Savannah Monitors. Not sure on the gender's but assuming they must be opposite, because they are kept in the same terrarium with no social problems. (I've heard two males will fight while two females will avoid each other) They are both roughly 20" in length. The smaller of the two hasn't been as active as of late. It sleeps alot and is not nearly active as it once was. Also when it walks, it shows signs of a possible balance problem. It leans to one side and occasionally will lose its balance and fall over. When I try to feed it an adult mouse, it shows no signs of being interested in it anymore. All of its limbs seem to be fine, no broken bones. I was wondering if this is a deficiency or something else. The larger of the two seems to have no problems and is quite active, if not overly active. Thanks for your time.

Mark
 
Deficiencies

Monitors can get along regardless of sex. That has more to do with individuals than sex dofferences. Also you say one is active and the other not so active. That is indicitive of stress. I do not know the conditions you keep them in. They should have a basking spot of at least 135 degrees
warm end in the upper eighties, cool end in the high sixties. Lots of dark tight hides in all parts of the cage. You probably have an insufficiently sized cage for them. Remove the less active one to its own cage if the alterations I recommend dont do the job. Also the cage needs to conserve humidity and moisture. Provide more info I can provide more solutions.

Digby Rigby [email protected]
 
The savannah's are housed in a terrarium somewhere along the lines of 90 gal. They have a warm end and a cool end, although the terrarium does not retain humidity very well. Reason being, the top of the tank is mostly screen. I'll try putting some towels over the top. They also don't currently have many hiding places. (two half logs) Along with the basking lamp I have an undertank coil heater running the length of the tank. I suspect this may be part of the problem. I have been away from my monitors for two months and my friend has been feeding them. Somehow the undertank coil got unplugged (probably the friend) and being that it is winter in iowa, it gets fairly cold at night. So I now have that plugged back in and just to be on the safe side I started dusting the food with calcium and vitamin D. Thanks for your input.
 
What are you feeding them...

What are you feeding them? Monitors should be fed whole foods only. At 20 inches they should be able to eat small mice. With proper diet and lighting and heat supplementation becomes unnecessary. It has been a long time since I keot fish so size based on gallons is lost to me :shrug01: Feet and inches hower I understand ;) Some good whole foods are mice or rat pinks, fertilized eggs, baby button quail, various cockroaches, nightcrawlers, whole fish such as mollies, platties and swordtails NOT GOLDFISH, silkworms and hornworms not fed tobacco or tomato plants. Some good UV lighting and proper thermal gradients as well as increased humidity, NOT misting remeber humidity is moisture in the air not wetness, more hides in all areas so the monitors dont have to choose between security and health. Even after this you may still ee to seperate them as one being active and the other hiding and not eating as much are classic symptoms of stress.

Digby Rigby is profanity on Kingsnake.com clearly I must be doing something right!

Digby Rigby [email protected]
 
Not sure of the dimensions of the tank but I will find out for you when I can. All I know off the top of my head is it is at least 5 feet long. Best guess would be approx. 5' long by 2' wide by 3' in height, I could be wrong though. Either way, it seems to be good space for them currently, as they can comfortably move from one end of the tank to the other and easily turn around. They also have a large water dish to lay in, but that is a the cooler end of the tank. Should this be moved to the warmer end to encourage more humidity? Also they have been eating adult mice for quite some time now. Sometimes live and sometimes frozen (thawed of course). I throw in the occasional crickets and super worms from time to time. Also I was just curious as to why you said goldfish should not be fed. Thanks again.
 
Five by two by three would be around two hundred gallons, depending on the internal measurements...

A standard ninety gallon glass fishtank is four feet long, eighteen inches wide and then 20-24 inches tall, depending on the molding used and the manufacturer (since fish tank sizes are only "close" to the actual volume).
 
Seamus Haley said:
20-24 inches tall
Click to expand...

That should be... somewhere between twenty and twenty four inches, which may even be a little conservative, some of the molding used on certain brands may push that as high as twenty six, although the external measurements doesn't automatically turn into internal volume... basically the same amount of worthwhile space as a seventy five gallon fishtank, just a few inches taller.
 
Humidity and space

Moving the water bowl to the heated side is better. No one likes a cold bath and it will increase humidity. You must also close off most of the top to help retain humidity. Also you need a substrate they can use to dig and burrow. They must also recognize the substrate as something they can use. If they are not digging and burrowing then the substrate isnt sufficient for them. Monitors housed sufficiently are active animals and need room to move. Tey also need to be able to move completely into either the cool or warm ends of the cage. Enclosures should be at least 2.5 x 1.5 total length of the animals in them. There should also be multiple hides throughout the enclosure so they have options on where they want to be and not have to compete with each other for favorite spots. look at the enclosure like a bucket and heat and humidity like water. You want the bucket to hold water. Now then since heat and humidity rise to hold it in think of the cage as an upside down bucket. You cant hold moisture in a bucket with a screen bottom :rolleyes:
In my enclosures I generally use a vent lower down on the warm side and higher up on the cool side this helps control humidity as hot air rises. So the heat has to travel over to the cool side to escape. As I said in an earlier post based on what you said the one animal is exhibiting signs of stress. That means the cage is not sufficiently large for them or you need to seperate them. Now you have these conditions that need to be fixed I give you examples of good food to use and yet you ask why goldfish are not good. Concentrate on what is good or useful not why something isnt. Make the changes I have outlined. You need to concentrate on what works and fixing the problems. As for me I find it a waste of time to ask why things are not appropriate I just care about what is appropriate or if not how I can make it so.

Good day and Vootie to you

Digby Rigby [email protected]
 
Digby Rigby said:
Now you have these conditions that need to be fixed I give you examples of good food to use and yet you ask why goldfish are not good. Concentrate on what is good or useful not why something isnt. Make the changes I have outlined. You need to concentrate on what works and fixing the problems. As for me I find it a waste of time to ask why things are not appropriate I just care about what is appropriate or if not how I can make it so.
Click to expand...

Thyamine levels and a high number of parasites. There's a lot of value in understanding why something is wrong or doesn't work- helps avoid similar pitfalls and allows someone to gain a more complete understanding of the species in question. If YOU didn't know the answer and were merely parroting back something you had heard from another source, as I think is likely, and don't have a legitimate understanding of the subject you probably shouldn't be handing out advice.

Incidentally... the short answer would be to immediately seperate the two animals, double check the conditions of both enclosures and to have a fecal done. Seperate them since stress and dominant behavior from the larger one can lead to long term problems even if there's no overt agression. Double check the environments to make sure it's not a small husbandry slip that's manifesting in one animal first. Fecal testing because the majority of savs are wild caught and parasite loads are a fairly common problem; some take longer to manifest than others and some parasites can remain dormant or at least have a minimal impact for extended periods of time until something triggers population growth.

For husbandry details... I'd grab "The Savannah Monitor Lizard: The Truth About Varanus Exanthematicus " by Bennett and Thakooroyal and I'd immediately throw out everything that was said by Digby there. Anyone who tells you not to question the reasons for something they have told you simply isn't worth listening to.
 
I knew that

I do not regurgitate information but speak from my own experience and those of others I know. My reasoning for not getting into why goldfish are bad is because they need to understand what works or to fix existing problems. I have been kept by green tree monitors for many years now. Also I am not on company time when I am here so I would rather spend time on what does or can work not on what doesnt work.

Digby Rigby [email protected]
 
I'm curious michael, er digby, just how many years have you been "kept" by green tree monitors? How many of them were there? What was the death rate if any?

I know you've NEVER bred anything as I finally got you to actually answer a question in chat last week, but my understanding from wading through your ambiguous posts is that you've not been keeping animals either, just brokering them.

Was that incorrect? Have you actually kept anything for long periods, greater than 10 months at a single stretch, of time?
 
Over 20 years

is how long I have been kept. I let the animals breed themselves. Humans can only breed other humans. We merely give them the tools to do what they do. If humans bred animals think of the hybrids that would create :ack2: :rofl: Our oldest male died a few months back at the age of 17 he was from a breeding of our original wild caught. Now before this thread gets farther off topic. If you have anything to ask me personally you can send an email or a private message rather than to clutter a thread with something not directly related to it. In fact if you include your phone number you will even get a call. If its about monitors or reptiles or care of said then ask on the forums in an appropriate thread or create a new one. As far as me Willomn you still dont get it do you? ;) I am happy to respond to reptile related questions here as time and whims permit but that is all

Digby Rigby [email protected]
 
Only reason why I asked was because I was curious as to if there was a reason behind it. I am only seeking knowledge to better myself and my lizards, not challenging anyones knowledge on the matter. As for the tank specs, I am real crappy with estimating measurements and i'm not even sure of how many gals it is. All I know is that it is the length of my dresser which is 5' exactly and it is way bigger than my old 55 gal tank. The tank I have now is an older tank with steel framing, very nice i might add :D
 
Also I recently read somewhere that some animals can develop an "inner ear disease" (balance organ) could this be contributing to balance problems?
 
I use UVB lighting and a basking bulb, they need lots of heat and UVB. I don't use substrate, I use astroturf, a hot rock, (the only reptile I will use a hot rock for, I don't recommend them at all for anything else) wrapped in an old sock to prevent it getting to hot, they need this for digestion. A hide box for comfort. A large pan for soaking, I have a happy healthy 2 1/2 loving lap lizard!!

Dozer (his name) also injoys long soaks in the bath tub and supervised exploring!

These things work for Dozer, I have heard many care tips on these monitors, and this is what works for us.

I hope it helps.

Pam AKA Lady Viper
http://www.houstonreptile.com
 
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