Baby Savannah Monitor: Mort Gets Angry
Like 2 Dislike 0 Published on 18 May 2014
In the attached video, an over-confident, previously frozen recently thawed, pinky sized mouse is unaware that lounging, even if dead, in a recycled Yankee Candle top giving off rotting flesh carrion odors is not acceptable behavior and will not be tolerated. How dare he??!! While the rules are arguably not clearly posted, Mort, an innocent Savannah Monitor hatchling, is old enough to know that he does not have to allow such conduct in his habitat.
Today, Mort is only about 5 inches long from his nose to the tip of his tail. He's eating about 3 pinky mice per week and will eat ALL of his crickets at once. His habitat is finally to his liking and he's built a little (much appreciated) trust for me. So, he's out and active like a comfortable monitor should be.
These are difficult pets to steward and are not for the average reptile keeper. Advice on YouYube is well meant, but sometimes it can be very wrong and can result in an early demise while the animal suffers - nobody wants to watch a much-adored and costly pet pass. Instead, read a book by an expert and know your animals needs, history, and behaviors first. Fully understanding what to expect before you listen to a flea-market pet salesman tell you how this animal or that one's sh!t does not stink is the responsible and economical thing to do. Mark K. Bayless (RIP Mark) gave a lifetime's worth of information, including a fantasticly concise book on Savannah Monitors and Tegus, that I highly-recommend. Below are some brief pointers (warnings), but, don't trust me, or anyone else on YouTube!
Monitors are suprisingly fast, "dog"-smart burrowers and are curious explorers. Once they've gained adult size, they are extremely strong and have talon-like nails that get nearly 2 inches long. They have small but very sharp teeth and can apply bone-crushing jaw strength. They are also slightly venemous with toxins injested by their teeth that cause high blood pressure and lost ability to coagulate the wounds made to smaller animals. Once bitten, victims respond by simply laying there and bleeding out. Typically, but depending on the monitor, respondants are not offered magazines, television, or free wi-fi while awaiting eminent death. Monitors can also flare their sharp triangular scales while fiercely whipping their hefty tail with great accuracy. This is said to be their most formidible weapon in their unfairly out-of-proportion arsenal.
Monitors are highly-rewarding to keep and have none of the drawbacks associated with other, more traditional, pets - no yowling or howling in the night, shedding in your food and on your favorite relaxation spot, or begging under-foot in the kitchen. Additionally, most monitor lizards don't suddenly wake you up in the middle of the night by kneading imaginary biscuit dough found atop your bed's comforter while druling about with heavy purring until choked by their own spittle only to start uncontrollably sneezing four inches from your sleeping face.
However, monitors require ample keeper attention, expenses, and the utmost in safety precautions for the continued health of you, your lizard, and ALL other nearby housepets. If allowed to or roam, whether with intention or through negligence, problems ranging from a soiled sofa to something much, much more unappealing can occur. It only takes one time for a 4-foot long, highly-weaponized, escaped lizard to bite the head clean-off and consume whole a neighboring soccer-Mom's cat during the kids' Easter-egg hunt to give these reptiles a bad name! Additionally, only the most select Easter-attired participants will appreciate the alarmingly potent tail-whipping that their family dog receives as it heroically attempts to save poor Clairese DESPITE that there is currently no effective surgical procedure devised for the successful reattachment of a feline cranium in today's modern veterinary medicine. So, when on local mall visits with your fully-grown monitor, responsibly use a blue baby-bonnet with a heavy enough leash harness attached to a super-sturdy baby stroller whenever you. . . no, don't do that. It's best for these guys to never leave the house unless for vet trips and for regular pedicures. -- ApacheOEM
TAGS:Reptile, Savannah Monitor (Organism Classification), Lizard,Eating, Feeding, Mouse (Organism Classification), Apache (Ethnicity) ,Herpetology (Field Of Study), Soccer-mom, Pedicure, Toxin (Taxonomy Subject), Whole Cat, Easter-Egg Hunt, Consume Whole, Cranial Replacement Techniques in Modern Veterinary Practice, Senegal (country) and Ghana (country), Trixie (the family dog with a slightly, no, make that severely dislocated jaw), Mort, Angry, Pinky, No Posted Rules, Yet - You Know What? Don't Come 'Round Here Smellin' Like That, Clairese (the cat), Varanus Acanthurus