Savannah Monitors
Diet
In the wild savannah monitors are primarily insectivores. Their diets includes roaches, crickets, night crawlers, mice, rats, snails, garden slugs, superworms and locusts. In captivity I feed the savannah monitors rats and boiled eggs. They are fed rats about twice a week and eggs any other time they are hungry. The savannah monitor does not eat often and usually get bigger in captivity than in the wild because there is a more available food supply. They tend to get overweight easily. The lizard should not be over fed and should be exercised to avoid becoming obese. Generally their head should be about the same size of the fattest part of their belly, and no smaller.
Habitat
Savannah monitors are native to Africa. Their habitat is very hot and dry. Their food and water supply is generally scarce. They are medium sized lizards and will grow to about five feet long. This means their enclosure has to be pretty large. The enclosure my savannah monitors are in is about six feet long and three feet wide. They were originally in a hand-made cage made out of screen doors. They are now in a more enclosed cage because a larger monitor, the argus monitor, was more suitable for the savannah monitors' cage. Their basking area should be about 100 degrees and the surrounding air should be 85-90 degrees. My savannah monitors are provided heating rocks because they heat to hotter temperatures than the heating pads. They have a log hut for shade when they get hot. The bedding is not very important. You can buy special reptile sand enriched with calcium or jungle mix. The lights are very important to savannah monitors. They need UVA and UVB lights as well as a basking lamp for heat. The UVA and UVB lamps provide necessary nutrients to the lizards that the sun would usually provide. Without the light the lizard will develop metabolic bone disease. MBD makes the lizards' bones soft or spongy including their jaw. The may cause the lizard pain while eating or even walking. You will notice their jaw bending while eating or them resting with their feet backwards. The lights are very important to the lizards' health.