Posts
Jennifer S
I have a baby savannah monitor, and I do not know what gender it is. Its name is Ghidra and I think its about 2-3 months old maybe. I measured him in at 10 inches long yesterday. I feed him about 2-3 times a day large adult crickets. Its not interested in waxworms or mealworms, but it sure eats like a porker. About 5-6 crickets are consumed per feeding, and I feed him everyday. It lets me pick it up and pet it rather easily with no biting or violent behavior. Its been almost a week since I got it, I dont think it was that big when I bought it. I dont handfeed it but I allow it to "see" me drop its food into its tank. Its currently in a 55 gal tank with paper towel bedding, large branches to climb on, and kept at 90-95 degrees during the day 80 at night. This is the first monitor I have ever had and I want to make sure I am taking good care of it. Seems to be thriving, havent had any problems or signs of stress or illness. I have experience in reptiles for about 10 years caring for tropical and desert species. This is my first monitor and I want to make sure I am on the right track.
Please do not respond with a link as an answer, I am looking for an answer from an experienced monitor reptile owner not some person looking for some points. Thank you.
Answer
You're asking for a lot of info with out a link. I could give it a try. But, where to start? Aquarium? Loose it your Savannah monitor will out grow that in one year. Aquariums are almost impossible to keep humidity and temps correct. You would be better off to keep it in a 2ftx4ftx2ft plywood enclosure. You might wan to think about starting on your finished enclosure. Your full grown Savannah monitor will require an enclosure 4ftx8ftx4ft. With at least 19-24 inches of diggable substrate. Savannah monitors are deep burrowers and will use it all. If you insist on keeping him in the aquarium til you build an adequate enclosure. Here are a few tips. cover the top of your aquarium with plywood. Cut a hole in it for your basking light. Keep your aquarium at least 3 feet off the ground. This should help keep humidity up. Loose the paper towel "substrate". Keeping your monitor on paper towel or newspaper will cause serious health problems. Put a 50/50 mix of sand and soil in there. Something that holds moisture and creates a good dig able substrate. Moist not wet. When you compress the soil and release it, it should hold its shape. As far as temps. It will be hard to keep a hot and cool side. Make sure your monitor has plenty of hides. something it can wedge itself underneath and feel safe. Basking temp should be between 120f-140f. Hot side 90f-99f. cool side 80f-90f. One other note. Quit handling it. You're only going to stress it out. Force handling and "taming" will cause one of two outcomes. An overly aggressive monitor or a lethargic one that has given up. Monitors don't like to be handled. "Taming" will only break their spirit. When picked up, a healthy monitor should thrash, tail whip and scratch, to try and escape. Human interaction should only be on their terms. Allow them to come to you. Given time and proper trust building. You can achieve a state of tolerance. Make no assumption s they will never be "tame". And, if you want something you can pet and hold you should get rid of it and buy a puppy. I might also suggest you join a monitor forum. There is a lot of bogus info out there on keeping monitors. A forum can provide you with some experienced handlers that can give you good advice. If you want to do some more research. Or cross reference any of the info I provided. I will supply a link. http://savannahmonitor.org/ Read it or not. Many experienced handlers recommend it.
You're asking for a lot of info with out a link. I could give it a try. But, where to start? Aquarium? Loose it your Savannah monitor will out grow that in one year. Aquariums are almost impossible to keep humidity and temps correct. You would be better off to keep it in a 2ftx4ftx2ft plywood enclosure. You might wan to think about starting on your finished enclosure. Your full grown Savannah monitor will require an enclosure 4ftx8ftx4ft. With at least 19-24 inches of diggable substrate. Savannah monitors are deep burrowers and will use it all. If you insist on keeping him in the aquarium til you build an adequate enclosure. Here are a few tips. cover the top of your aquarium with plywood. Cut a hole in it for your basking light. Keep your aquarium at least 3 feet off the ground. This should help keep humidity up. Loose the paper towel "substrate". Keeping your monitor on paper towel or newspaper will cause serious health problems. Put a 50/50 mix of sand and soil in there. Something that holds moisture and creates a good dig able substrate. Moist not wet. When you compress the soil and release it, it should hold its shape. As far as temps. It will be hard to keep a hot and cool side. Make sure your monitor has plenty of hides. something it can wedge itself underneath and feel safe. Basking temp should be between 120f-140f. Hot side 90f-99f. cool side 80f-90f. One other note. Quit handling it. You're only going to stress it out. Force handling and "taming" will cause one of two outcomes. An overly aggressive monitor or a lethargic one that has given up. Monitors don't like to be handled. "Taming" will only break their spirit. When picked up, a healthy monitor should thrash, tail whip and scratch, to try and escape. Human interaction should only be on their terms. Allow them to come to you. Given time and proper trust building. You can achieve a state of tolerance. Make no assumption s they will never be "tame". And, if you want something you can pet and hold you should get rid of it and buy a puppy. I might also suggest you join a monitor forum. There is a lot of bogus info out there on keeping monitors. A forum can provide you with some experienced handlers that can give you good advice. If you want to do some more research. Or cross reference any of the info I provided. I will supply a link. http://savannahmonitor.org/ Read it or not. Many experienced handlers recommend it.
baby sleeping with mothers shirt?
Q. If I were to put my shirt that I had been wearing (to smell like me) next to my baby when she's sleeping, would she sleep more sound like when she does when she's on my chest? Any other tips would be great!
Ps. I did hear this on Grey's Anatomy. and yes I know about SIDS (what questioning parent doesn't?) I know loose things are dangerous, I'm not stupid. I was just wondering if it actually helped or not.
Ps. I did hear this on Grey's Anatomy. and yes I know about SIDS (what questioning parent doesn't?) I know loose things are dangerous, I'm not stupid. I was just wondering if it actually helped or not.
Answer
I would lay baby on top of it, don't drape it around her in case she bunches it all up around her nose. Also if you don't have one of those teddy bears that has a heart beat sound or a music/crib activity center with that sound, get a cheap clock that ticks, I tried, after a few nights of listening to the one in my boys room tick in the monitor all night, to remove it and he didn't sleep nearly as well. Also the Fisher Price Aquarium has a wave noise that sounds a lot like the shushing you do to the baby when it's crying and I find that really helps my boy when fussy. Now that I have put a heater in his room (winter is coming boo hoo) the white noise it generates when running puts him right to sleep. It's great! I wish I had put this in his room at 5 weeks old when he started sleeping in there LOL.
One tip I will give you is don't let baby get too used to falling asleep in your arms. As soon as the eyes start drooping, place baby down where you want her to sleep. This way she knows where she is so if she should only half wake, she won't necessarily wake up all the way because she is scared and doesn't know where she is. Be consistent on where baby sleeps, make day and night two different places for now to help baby keep days and nights straight. Daytime sleeping should be someplace with bright lights, noise, lots of activity around so she doesn't sleep too soundly, night time should be quiet and dark to encourage deep sleep for long periods of time. Don't worry, if baby needs sleep during the day it's amazing what they can sleep through! Once baby gets a solid routine (don't think schedule as it will never happen at the same time but there will be a definite pattern to your day) then you can slowly start getting her to nap in her night time place.
This is just what has been working relatively ok for me. A solid bedtime routine helps as well. Where you feed her just before bedtime and during her nighttime feedings should be different than the daytime feedings. Get her used to having a bath (if it makes her relaxed and sleepy, that didn't work for me, it just energizes my guy), changing into her pj's, having her bedtime bottle (I have a green bottle I try to use every night so that when he sees the different bottle he knows it's the bedtime bottle), place her into the crib and keep her calm by standing there, hand on chest, shushing her if she fusses. Once calm, walk away even if not asleep. Let the baby fuss, if she starts to cry go in and try to soothe her without picking her up. If she goes hysterical then pick her up (that's a given), calm her and put her back. It took about 2-3 nights of real fussing until he realized that this was where he was sleeping from now on, after that it just got easier. Now at 12 weeks, most nights (not all), I can lay him down with eyes wide open and with no suckie or music he will have himself asleep in 10 minutes or less, no crying (he does talk to himself though sometimes, it's so cute!!). Then again there is the odd night where he just doesn't want to go to bed (slept too much during day or routine just completely out of whack) and then I just bring him back down, let him play until he is tired and try again when he is ready. Or I'll let him sleep with me the odd time if he really doesn't want to settle and I need to sleep. Something about seeing me with my eyes closed seems to give him the hint that he should go to sleep too.
Hope this helps! I have a 12 week old boy who is normally asleep by 9pm, wakes around 2 for a feeding, wakes at 5 for a feeding and we start our day between 7-8am. That's a routine I can live with! Hope your little girl is a good sleeper as well!
I would lay baby on top of it, don't drape it around her in case she bunches it all up around her nose. Also if you don't have one of those teddy bears that has a heart beat sound or a music/crib activity center with that sound, get a cheap clock that ticks, I tried, after a few nights of listening to the one in my boys room tick in the monitor all night, to remove it and he didn't sleep nearly as well. Also the Fisher Price Aquarium has a wave noise that sounds a lot like the shushing you do to the baby when it's crying and I find that really helps my boy when fussy. Now that I have put a heater in his room (winter is coming boo hoo) the white noise it generates when running puts him right to sleep. It's great! I wish I had put this in his room at 5 weeks old when he started sleeping in there LOL.
One tip I will give you is don't let baby get too used to falling asleep in your arms. As soon as the eyes start drooping, place baby down where you want her to sleep. This way she knows where she is so if she should only half wake, she won't necessarily wake up all the way because she is scared and doesn't know where she is. Be consistent on where baby sleeps, make day and night two different places for now to help baby keep days and nights straight. Daytime sleeping should be someplace with bright lights, noise, lots of activity around so she doesn't sleep too soundly, night time should be quiet and dark to encourage deep sleep for long periods of time. Don't worry, if baby needs sleep during the day it's amazing what they can sleep through! Once baby gets a solid routine (don't think schedule as it will never happen at the same time but there will be a definite pattern to your day) then you can slowly start getting her to nap in her night time place.
This is just what has been working relatively ok for me. A solid bedtime routine helps as well. Where you feed her just before bedtime and during her nighttime feedings should be different than the daytime feedings. Get her used to having a bath (if it makes her relaxed and sleepy, that didn't work for me, it just energizes my guy), changing into her pj's, having her bedtime bottle (I have a green bottle I try to use every night so that when he sees the different bottle he knows it's the bedtime bottle), place her into the crib and keep her calm by standing there, hand on chest, shushing her if she fusses. Once calm, walk away even if not asleep. Let the baby fuss, if she starts to cry go in and try to soothe her without picking her up. If she goes hysterical then pick her up (that's a given), calm her and put her back. It took about 2-3 nights of real fussing until he realized that this was where he was sleeping from now on, after that it just got easier. Now at 12 weeks, most nights (not all), I can lay him down with eyes wide open and with no suckie or music he will have himself asleep in 10 minutes or less, no crying (he does talk to himself though sometimes, it's so cute!!). Then again there is the odd night where he just doesn't want to go to bed (slept too much during day or routine just completely out of whack) and then I just bring him back down, let him play until he is tired and try again when he is ready. Or I'll let him sleep with me the odd time if he really doesn't want to settle and I need to sleep. Something about seeing me with my eyes closed seems to give him the hint that he should go to sleep too.
Hope this helps! I have a 12 week old boy who is normally asleep by 9pm, wakes around 2 for a feeding, wakes at 5 for a feeding and we start our day between 7-8am. That's a routine I can live with! Hope your little girl is a good sleeper as well!
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
No comments:
Post a Comment