Awkward moment

Today was like that day in every child-parent relationship, where the parent walks in on their offspring in the act of something very natural yet unnerving.

Lets just say Herbert is definitely a boy, and enjoys letting us know. It really was not an issue for me until he let me know on my hand while I was lifting him into his cage. I was not ready to be brushed with lizard genitalia.

We are pretty sure he was marking his area because he kept popping it out around the perimeter of his cage before he crawled on my hand to be lifted back in.

He is still eating very well, and calming down more and more everyday.

UPDATE!

Herbert is now 16 inches long.
We had him outside on Saturday, as soon as he stepped into the sun he sprawled out and sunbathed for a good 20 minutes.

We gave him a bath later and he had a really good swim then climbed on my hand to take a nap. it was probably the calmest moment I have ever had with Herbert where he clearly trusted me enough to sleep. Today after he ate he climbed up on my lap and laid there for 20 minutes once again.

Its really nice seeing him becoming so calm and he gets older and bigger :)

Here are some pictures of Herbert outside.






LIZARD BUTT!!!!

Success!

The Potty training seems to be a great success. We haven't had a mess on the floor since :)

PICTURES!

WEEK 1 = 6 inches

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

WEEK 6 = 15 inches

Update

Herbet is now.......15 inches.

Yes.

In 4 days, he grew 1 inch.

He gets lots of exercise, we feed him crickets to chase on our kitchen floor and we toss super worms in different directions to force him to run around. He will explore and climb on us before walking back to his cage when he's ready.

Herbert has found a new love for the bathtub he seems to enjoy swimming and a good soaking. Which is necessary since he dug a HUGE burrow and is ALWAYS dirty now, not to mention shedding like mad.

Greg cut Herbert's nails just yesterday and he was VERY good while he did so.  He is becoming calmer but still full of spit and vinegar. 

We read somewhere to actually give him a command such as "Hold" or "Stop" then he begins to squirm, then to praise him for heeding our request. I thought this sounded ridiculous at first but it seems to be working! He seems to understand our positive and negative tones, (when he is in the mood for it of course. :)

He is beginning to understand and remember the places he cant go on his leash, (under the oven, fridge and couch) he will try half heartedly to go there then quickly move on. Perhaps our little raptor is just testing the fences but learning is learning right?

Why are things going so well?

Personally I give a lot of credit to the leash. It has allowed us to ultimately maintain control over the situation but it gives Herbert his right to choose what he wants to do. The only time we force holding him is when we are putting the leash on, we give him his time eating but he doesn't mind being pet and scratched. Herbert started climbing on us first and got to know us on his own time. He trusts us but still demands respect. 

We spend 30 - 60 minutes with him everyday. If he's in the mood for walking and exploring then maybe longer, if we ignored this lizard he would NOT be so cool.

Potty Training Milestone

Herbert needs to be potty trained. 

We take him out of his cage for feeding, and he started to make a habit of pooing on the floor before walking back to his cage. I don't blame him, I wouldn't poo where I sleep  either!

In his cage Herbert ALWAYS poos in his big water dish, so theory was : If we have that dish out on the floor while we feed him, he will poo in there instead of on our floor.

After he finished eating the other day, we kept showing him his water bowl, picking him up and putting him in it or by it, then we left him alone for a few minutes and he waddled around and.....started to poo on the floor. 

Greg picked him up just before he started and put him in the dish.

He started it in the dish, walked out and ended it on the floor about a foot away from the water. 

"Screw you guys I'll crap where I want!"

Today we tried again, same deal, we showed him his dish, he got out, waddled around, then went back into the water and relieved himself! He got lots of positive vocal affirmations and a super-worm for his efforts. 

I'm not getting my hopes TOO high. Today may have been a fluke, but it is totally a step in the right direction. 

Bottom line, Herbert is going to do what he wants and when he feels its right, but I like to think that deep down he knows we don't want his poo where we sleep either.

Burrows and poops

We came home from work the other night and discovered that Herbert had filled in his log hide with dirt and dug his own burrow in the opposite side of the cage. While he was out being fed last night I dug out his log again to see if he would like to have two burrows, but he wants nothing to do with it. I think Herbert officially moved.

When we feed Herbert we have been taking him out, putting him on his leash in the kitchen and giving him 6 crickets and 6 super worms. Last night he ate about 8 worms.

Unfortunately he has gotten into the habit of eating, then pooing on the floor, which as some may know is an explosion of urine followed by a healthy sized turd.

It is pretty rare he will go in his cage anymore since potty time and feeding time seem to be a coupled event. So I have decided to take on the near impossible task of potty training him. When Herbert does go "potty" in his cage it is always in his secondary water dish. So my theory is if I have an identical dish in the kitchen maybe he will take the hint and make use of it.

After his poo, Herbert will explore and climb on things and us. There used to be the fear that he would try and hide himself under the fridge or stove, but he is starting to be too big for that to be an option.

We measured him yesterday at 14 inches!

A foot of awesome!

Herbert is now a little over 12 inches!!!!!!

We have videos!

We have finally posted some videos of Herbert!

Our Channel on Metacafe has about 7

Here is the link to his VERY first video when he was still a wee baby

VIDEO

Feel Free to look through the other videos Videos of Herbert

Herbert's Growth

We have had Herbert for about a month now. When we first got him he was about 6 inches long from nose to tail tip. Today he measured in at 10 inches!!

Herbert's Enclosure

We purchased Herbert on a mild impulse. We had agreed to not buy anything that day in the pet store, but after seeing how awesome Herbert was we were incredibly interested. After about 15 minutes of research on google we had and idea of what we were getting into; a high maintenance reptile.

The pet store had minimal options for enclosures so we purchased a 20 gallon tank, reptile sand, water dish (right), basking lamp, couple pieces of wood, and a hide (left), knowing that this would be temporary.

First week we knew: 

Herbert liked to dig, and Herbert liked to swim. 

He would use his water dish for swimming, drinking and as his toilet. 

The sand worked, but it was very messy and if he had just gone for a swim he would be caked with sand afterwards.

Humidity and heat were lacking.

Herbert's Upgrade

From the ground up:
-New 70 gallon tank cost $150

-The substrate is made of plain organic soil mixed with sand $3 (Herbert now as 3 burrows! 1 under his hide, 1 under his drinking water and 1 under the log.)

-Hotter basking lamp, the max temp under it is 113, that side of the tank is around high 80s while the cool side is in the 70s. We put in a UVB lamp on the cool side of the cage to keep it well lit.

-Drinking water dish, Toilet water dish, Herbert uses water as his toilet and is smart enough to make one strictly for drinking.

-Top- we will eventually replace the screens with plexiglass, but for right now the aluminum foil is doing an excellent job at keeping the humidity where it needs to be.

-Front- this is the main reason we purchased this enclosure, it has the front sliding doors for easy access but enough space below to put in a pretty deep substrate for digging.

There was a VERY huge difference in Herbert once he had his new enclosure. He went from sluggish and mopey to a spazzy little lizard that explored, dug, swam and climbed. And I FIRMLY believe a happy animal needs an interesting enclosure that they can make their own.

One change we will soon be making is adding more dirt and sand so Herbert can dig deeper and more stable tunnels.

Herbert the Dinosaur

Herbet is a 4 1/2 month old Savannah Monitor who has been with us for about 2 weeks now. Having spent MANY hours on reptile forums and boards we decided it would be cool to record our own experience in owning a Sav from infancy to adulthood. We will write about anything from his eating habits to his likes and dislikes, to what his poo looked like today.

Hopefully this will be a fun thing for other owners to read and something for us to look back on someday.

Pictures, video and more posts are soon to come!