Jane the Savannah Monitor

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chairman

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I picked up Jane back in April when he was about 8". I've meant to post about him sooner but just haven't gotten around to it. Back then he was rather hissy, whippy, and generally unpleasant. In other words, he was a healthy young monitor. :)

I started him off in a 4' x 3' enclosure capable of holding 1' of burrowable substrate. As he got bigger (he's now almost 3'), I expanded the overall enclosure to be 4' x 8'. The expansion included another 4' x 3' section that could hold 2' of burrowable substrate and a 4' x 2' section that contains an inset kitchen sink for a water dish. His original portion of the enclosure is now the cool, dry side and the new portion is the hot, humid side. The basking temp at the top of his retes stack is a little over 130*.

Jane is now much more manageable than when he was little. He's very curious, especially if he thinks that food may be involved. He gets quite excited when he hears/sees his feeding tongs. He still hates to be picked up, but will crawl all over me when I'm rummaging around his enclosure to spot clean, rearrange things, etc. I do have to keep my eye on him to make sure that he doesn't attempt to taste a finger or my arm but it has been months since he was actually managed to grab me.

Now, some pics:

Enclosure cold, middle, hot, then full length.
left.jpg

middle.jpg

right.jpg

whole.jpg


Interior of cold, middle, hot.
coolside.jpg

water.jpg

hotside.jpg


Some pics of Jane.
tongue.jpg

favspot.jpg

basking.jpg

sprawling.jpg

curiousjane1.jpg


That's about it... though anyone wondering about why the name Jane might be appropriate for a monitor lizard, you should look into some sci-fi by the titles of Firefly and Serenity.
 

The Adjustor

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Great looking monitor! It's always nice to see one that's actually set up properly. She looks very healthy and inquisitive :)
 

Faery

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he's adorable! I love that last picture with his tongue out!
 

Tom

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Jane looks very healthy. That is quite a creative enclosure.
 

stephiiberrybean

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That 2nd to last picture looks like she's smiling for the camera.

Can I ask a question?
How do you sleep at night not worrying she might escape and go eat you?!

Maybe it's just an irrational fear of mine but the thought of something like Jane or a snake... or worst a spider, joining me in bed really gives me the heebie jeebies.

It's nothing against Jane, she's lovely. It's just a genuine thing I worry about if I stay at a house where there are lizards, snakes, trantulas etc.
 

chairman

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Thanks for all the comments. Jane is my first monitor and I'm trying to do right by him. Eventually he'll have an outdoor enclosure as well, I hope to have it finished before it gets warm enough for him to go out in it next spring.

The current enclosure is what it is, I suppose. I've built enclosures for colubrids, geckos, and tortoises, but this is my first monitor enclosure and I did a LOT of experimenting with it. I built the first piece with a sliding acrylic door and wasn't thrilled with the way it was working out. The other large piece has a door that comes off completely and is held in place with a couple latches. The middle piece has a hinge at the bottom of the door because I don't like side-hinged doors and top-hinged doors are darned inconvenient to keep open when you're trying to accomplish something deep inside an enclosure. Of the three I like the completely removable door best and will probably replicate it when I need to replace my current enclosure. Also, on the middle section, I originally had that sink plumbed up so it drained into a sump and was returned after going through mechanical and biological filtration. It worked well but it turned out that emptying the sock filter daily, adding water to the system, and generally tinkering with it was about as much work as draining and refilling the sink is, so I decided to save electricity and remove the sump from the equation. I can't say that I'm completely happy with the enclosure, but I believe that it meets all Jane's needs, and I was able to put it together completely out of leftover materials I had laying around. At least I've got a good idea of what I do and don't want to do next time.

@stephiiberrybean, I'm not at all concerned about Jane escaping. If Jane manages to find a way out of the enclosure, he's got to make his way through the double-locked door to my reptile room. If he manages to get through that, he's got to navigate my basement, climb up the stairs, and make it through that door. If he manages that, I'm dealing with a super-evolved lizard and I hope that my treatment of him thus far will warrant mercy. :) Okay, but more seriously, Jane is absolutely not an aggressive animal. He is a very strong proponent of defending himself, but his primary responses are hissing, tail-whipping, and pooping. He bit me once in defense when he was little, but now that he recognizes me as a food source rather than a physical threat I really just have to make sure that he doesn't try to taste some part of me to see if I'm edible this time. If he does happen to hiss at me I just leave him alone; when he's interested in interacting he'll come over to see me, and at that time I can do whatever I need to do and check what I need to check to make sure he's healthy. The only other times he bit me he either grabbed a "prey sized" finger that I stupidly made available to him or he attempted to grab my arm because I didn't know what it meant when he started to rub his face up against it (turns out he was checking to see if I was plyable enough to attempt to rip a chunk out of). Any time he's grabbed flesh the wound has been minor. I know Jane has the equipment necessary to do damage, but he's also very smart and I think the reason I've gotten off light is because he recognizes fairly quickly that he can't eat me. In my limited experience Jane isn't a good pet, but he is an interesting and fairly harmless captive as long as I pay attention to what he has to say.
 

stephiiberrybean

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Thank you Mike :)
I still don't think i'll ever go near one but it gives me a bit of confidence to know that they aren't really going to try and eat us.

I shall just enjoy pictures you and other people with these lizards show us :)
 

chairman

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I put together a new enclosure for Jane a little while ago and thought I'd post some updated pictures of it. It is a 300 gallon stock tank with a 4' x 8' x 2' topper placed on it. The tank is full of soil and has a couple plants growing in there. I've got all sorts of bugs living in there, but no way to tell which or how many of them Jane might be eating. Bugs include centipedes, roaches, earthworms, and pill bugs. The actual internal layout has changed a little bit since I took pictures, I now have a large rubbermaid tub full of water sitting directly on the dirt opposite from the basking area. Jane has a burrow down there, and another under the retes stack.

newenc2.jpg

encint5.jpg
 

Laura

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very cool.
I had a call one day for a dragon on someone porch.. it was one of these guys that had climbed up and was in the eves.. thank goodness its was a cool day.. and he hadnt warmed up too much yet.. someone lost it.. i dont recall if it was claimed or sent to rescue..
 

chairman

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He's got two established burrows at the moment, one with an opening on the cool side under his water tub and the other on the hot side with the opening under the retes stack. Not sure where either of them lead, and I suppose they could connect. I usually find him coming out of the hot side burrow in the morning and hanging out in the cool side burrow during the day (when he's not hanging in or on the retes). It did take him about a month before he decided to dig a burrow after putting him in the new home, though.
 

Infernalis

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My babies have a network of tunnels dug, I know it's best for them, but I do wish sometimes I could see them more often.

They come out, hunt, bask, retreat.
 
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