Savannah Monitor doesn't shed properly?

Q. My Savannah Monitor was bought by me from a pet store who obviously did not care for him right (It is kind of what I call rescuing). I have had him for a little while now, about three months, and he is only about 5-7 inches long. He is still a baby. Right now I have him in a custom built cage, and he seems healthy. For a little while when I had him, he seemed unhealthy and very inactive. I got him back up on his feet and he seems like he got a lot healthier. But one problem still wont go away. He has not shed properly sense I got him. Time kept passing and he never shed and I have recently been noticing that. It seems like he simply just wont shed. When I give him a bath, almost every other day because of his shed problem, shed always comes off. It is in like very small pieces, in very small amounts every time. It looks like he is perfectly normal by just looking at him (except for a random spot on his head where it is obvious there was retained shed, but I fixed that with shed aid spray I bought from the pet store), but when I gently rub him all around his body, it kind of flakes off in very small amounts. (Mostly on his tail) The shed aid kind of helped getting a little bit more shed off, not really not too much. I have also noticed under his neck, like on his throat, there is a lighter color skin the rest of the underside. Little parts of it did come off with the spray, but it is still not really helping. Also, the very tip of his tail is a much darker color then the rest of his body, is this part "dead"? (I hope not!) He looks perfectly normal just by looking at him. But when he gets a bath, the shed problem becomes relatively apparent. Also, I do remember seeing a little piece of shed sticking out on his tail the first day I brought him home, really too small to notice but I did. I didn't really think much of it at the time. The humidity in the cage is like in the sixties, but it become hard to control because the heat lamps bake the topsoil substrate dry. So honestly I have to admit it is usually 54%, and returns there after a little while of just misting the cage down.

P.S. Although he is still a bit too small, in like a month or two I am going to build a 8x2 cage for him. It will have a lot deeper substrate (for burrowing) and a fogger to help with the humidity. So no drastic changes can be made to this temporary cage, because he will be moving out soon. His cage right now is made out of wood. I just really need advice on what to do for his shed problem (at least I think it is one anyways?)

If I cannot get any decent answers I will have to join a monitor forum to ask, so please help me out.

Answer
You should join a monitor forum anyways. They are great sources of info from experienced handlers. But, in the mean time I might be able to shed some light on your problem. Savannahs grow so fast that they are constantly shedding. Shedding problems arise from a number of things either low humidity, improper diet, or wrong temps. Sounds to me like your humidity should be fine. Around 60-70% is ideal. So you should look at diet and temps. There is a lot of info on these 2 subjects. So visit this link for more info. http://savannahmonitor.org/ This is the most complete guide to savannahs I have found, many experienced handlers swear by it. You should also get started on a large cage now. My sav grew to 24 inches in the first year. You will eventually need a 4x8x4 cage. But, bigger is always better. Mine is 4x6x6 with 18 inches of substrate. I should have gone 8 feet long. But, I decided to go taller and give my sav more climbing room. Good luck.

How soon can you hear the babies heartbeat with a prenatal listening system?

Nay nay

I was thinking about buying one of those prenatal listening systems from target I was just wondering when's the soonest I would be able to hear the heartbeat on one of those.. I already heard it at the Dr.'s office with the doppler...

Answer
They are super-sensitive, but unfortunately pretty much all we could hear was our hands guiding the speaker over my stomach.

The instruction manual says you can hear the heartbeat around the start of your third trimester (for the Bebe sounds monitor, anyway). We could hear gurgling and swooshing before then, but how knows if it was the baby moving or just air bubbles.

It is nice to think it's the baby moving, though... even if it really isn't.

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