A few cool pictures / stories attached.

[infernalis]

See long story short, Dorothy had a Savvy for 5 years once before.

This April I got Chomper for her as a birthday present, she cried when she opened the present up

I also snuck Limon in with the same order

So Dorothy's birthday was great for both of us

[GartersRock]

Don't encourage me!!! I hope to leave soon and then NO ONE will be there to stop me. lol!! Don't worry though. I would never become one of those "cat ladies" who takes on more then they can care for....

An outdoor setup huh? Hmmmm.....

[Loren]

As a former savannah monitor owner, all I know is that getting a sav is nothing to rush into. It takes quite a large cage and some cash in order to take care of an adult sav properly, and they go from that cute 8" baby to a 3.5 foot long adult(average) in about 18 months.
One of the better savannah books I have read (The Savannah Monitor lizard, by Daniel Bennett) recommends a minimum cage size of 8 foot x 4 foot x 4 foot, with the ability to dig his own burrows, and after having one for almost 5 years, I have to agree- I would never keep one again unless I could provide something similar to that. In a 2' x 2' x 6" cage, he had just enough room to "exist', and not enough to "be a monitor".
The kingsnake.com monitor forums can teach you a lot about them, the guy from arizona is "FR" on the forum. I wouldnt actually post though, as they tend to really rip into new prospective monitor owners, telling practically everyone that they are nowhere near ready for the huge responsibilty. They tend to be jerks, but their intentions are based on the good of the animals, and they do know a lot.

By the way, that is a very nice looking sav, Wayne. I do miss my Rosco.

[GartersRock]

Awesome!! Thanks for the tips. A monitor would be one of those I would plan and wait for for sure!

[Loren]

I believe monitors are a "pet" for only a small percentage of keepers, but for those who are willing to take them on properly, they can be very rewarding captives. I provided mine a home that was better than most, but not good enough. I would love to see them stop being a "petstore" animal though. Too easy for inexperienced people to impulse buy them with no research. Atleast with an impulse buy of a cornsnake or something, people still have an honest chance of figuring it out in time, but with large lizards, most people just wont be able to do it. The average lifespan of captive monitors is probably under 1 year.

[infernalis]

Rosco looked good!

Chomper is already kept to a far higher standard than most.

We have obtained a tempered glass panel that is nearly the 4 foot by 8 foot and 1 inch square steel powder coated framing. His permanent adult enclosure will be along nearly 2/3 of a wall.

We began (minimal) handling at a very young age, and his diet consists of roaches, crickets and live hopper mice.

Occasionally he gets some turkey cubes, it's easier to get him to dance with the turkey cubes

Yes Frank Retes is the monitor god, and he knows it, I look past that and listen to what the guy has to say. He has tons of useful information, even though he makes you feel 2 inches tall telling it to you.

We also have the luxury of all this acreage, something unfortunately many cannot enjoy, so this monitor gets exercise and lots of it.

They are absolutely not for the faint of heart, nor the inexperienced keeper. Before I would allow this purchase, I studied all I could so as to ensure that Chomper would not become one of those statistical dead animals.

Sometimes Dorothy gets mad at me, she says that Barney did just fine, But I wanted us to go one step further and have this one be in the most ideal captive conditions we were capable of providing.

For substrate we use river bank clay dirt, it holds burrows well.

[Loren]

Sounds awesome Wayne. Glad to see someone putting in that kind of effort for a monitor.

Rosco was a great captive, just didnt live as long as he should have- made it about 5 years. He was a big puppy dog from day one. He went to several classrooms.

[infernalis]

Any ideas why he passed on??

Dorothy's Barney was murdered by her ex husband (they were still married at the time) seems he was knocking Dorothy around and Barney jumped on him, cut him up pretty good.

So the jerk took it out on the monitor!

[Loren]

Rosco seemed like he was doing ok, then one day, while I was in the reptile room, he put his head in the water dish for what I thought was a drink, and I saw bubbles coming out. I pulled him out of the water, and could tell he was on his way out. He passed a few minutes later. I didnt "take him apart" to try to find out why.
Atleast I got to rub his back a few times and say good bye.

[GartersRock]

How sad.... He sounds like he was a great boy!