If you have got your Savannah monitor, or thinking about getting one, you need to know what to feed it, portion sizes, how often to feed, if your Savannah monitor needs supplements and more. In this post, you will learn what to feed your Savannah monitor, feeding schedules, how much and how often to feed and what the best foods for Savannah monitors are.
What to feed Savannah Monitors? Best food for Savannah monitors
Savannah monitors can eat a big variety of foods, but these have to be mainly insects. Over 95% of your Savannah monitor’s diet should consist of feeder insects. Only rarely (once in 2-3 months or so), you can offer a treat, such as an egg, some lean meat (such as ground turkey), snails, or a mouse.
Best foods for a Savannah monitor include:
- Phoenix worms/Calci worms – ideal Ca:P ratio of 1.5:1, can skip calcium/vitamin dusting
- Crickets (full-grown, full-winged, 1 inch/2.54cm)
- Mealworms
- Superworms, or Morio/King worms (less often due to fat content of 18%)
- Silkworms (low fat – 1%)
- Tomato hornworms (low fat, 3%)
- Buffalo worms (less often, fatty – 24%, don’t offer their beetles)
- Earthworms and nightcrawlers – don’t buy worms for bait
- Roaches (Dubia, Madagascar Hissing roaches, Turkestan, Six-spotted roaches (however high fat of 27%), Lobster roaches (can fly, so need a secure container), False Death Head Roaches etc.)
- Grasshoppers and locusts
- Butterworms (offer less often, as they are fatty – 29%)
- Waxworms (less often due to fat content of 25%)
- Eggs (only as a treat, rarely)
- Snails (as a treat, but not wild caught as they carry parasites – you can also get snail meat)
Avoid feeding your Savannah monitor rodents and other meat regularly, as it will cause obesity, possibly a nutritional deficiency, gout and even renal failure. Your Savannah monitor’s lifespan will be greatly reduced if you follow a meat diet.
While feeding insects might be more expensive, you can start your own colony at home. Breeding Dubia roaches, for example, is one of the best options. Choose insects that smell less, can’t climb well or at all and breed easily – these will be the best types of feeder insects to breed at home.
Can I feed my Savannah monitor raw chicken?
In general, you should avoid feeding your Savannah monitor any raw chicken or other meats. That’s because chicken is not very nutritionally balanced, and very high in fats. Savannah monitors are very prone to obesity in captivity, and obesity can become lethal to them. Apart from chicken meat, quail chicks are also a good option as a rare treat.
Savannah monitors have a rather small heart, if you compare it to the rest of its body. Also, their bowels are rather thin, so overfeeding can cause big problems. And lastly, excess fats will cover their internal organs, cause huge pressure to their blood vessels, causing clots and organ failure.
If you really want to introduce chicken to your Savannah monitor, you can offer it as a treat very rarely. That’s because Savannah monitors are opportunistic in the wild and can sometimes devour meat (birds, rodents). But make sure that the portion is small. Also, don’t feed any chicken to your baby Savannah monitor – sticks with insects until your monitor has grown bigger.
Can Savannah monitor eat raw eggs?
Eggs can sometimes be given to a Savannah monitor as a treat. Because raw eggs pose a Salmonella risk, it is better to offer cooked eggs to your Savannah monitors.
If you offer a full large egg to an older monitor (over 1.5-2 feet long), it might swallow it whole. Large eggs might be too hard for your hatchling to swallow, and it might ignore it or try to break it and eat in parts. An alternative to duck and chicken eggs are quail eggs, which are smaller. Offer eggs only once in two-three months or even less.
Can Savannah monitors eat mice?
Because mice are fatty, you should only offer them very rarely, as a treat for your Savannah monitor. Make sure to only offer fuzzy/pinkie mice to very young Savannah monitors and larger mice to older monitors. Always offer only pre-killed mice, for ethical reasons. Avoid very large rats.
Can Savannah monitors eat fish?
Avoid feeding your Savannah monitor any fish, because they can carry lots of parasites. Some fish, for example goldfish, are not only infested with parasites, but also contain thiaminase – an enzyme that breaks down vitamin B1 and causes deficiency if consumed. While some fish can be offered, it should be a very rare treat.
Can Savannah monitor eat frogs?
Yes, frogs can make good treats for Savannah monitors, and you can offer them to your Savannah monitor once a month or two. You can often find frogs at Asian food markets.
Don’t catch any frogs from outside to feed, as they can contain pesticides, toxins and parasites. Even if you buy frogs, soak them in water for 3 days, changing water daily. Only then, you can offer it to your Savannah monitor. You can do the same with snails.
Food size for Savannah monitors
Make sure not to offer prey items that are too large for your Savannah monitor to swallow. That’s especially true for baby and sub-adult Savannah monitors, until they reach around 1-2.5 feet long (30-76 cm). If offering mice, start with fuzzy, then pinkie mice, and slowly move up with the size.
When offering any food, stick to the general rule – make sure that the food item is not larger than your monitor’s head. If you Savannah monitor can’t properly swallow its prey, it will either ignore it or start vomiting. Eating a very large prey item, especially if it’s a mouse or other meat, can cause difficult digestion and even impaction.
Where to get food for Savannah monitor?
You can get various feeder insects from pet stores and online, like this website. For different treats, such as snails, frogs, eggs and chicks, you can find lots of options at your local Asian food market. However, as your Savannah monitor grows, it will need more food, which can become expensive. It’s a good idea to start your own colony – Dubia roaches, for example, breed well, can’t climb and don’t smell like crickets do.
How often should I feed a Savannah monitor?
How often you will need to feed your Savannah monitor depends mainly on its age and weight. Please see the table below for a feeding schedules of Savannah monitors. Please note that this is a guide, and how fast your Savannah monitor gains weight will depend on what and how much you feed it.
Savannah monitors do most of their growing during the first 2 years of their life. After that, you need to be careful with how often and how much you feed your pet. In the wild, they eat whenever they have a chance, but also go through rather long fasting periods, especially during dry seasons.
If you can see that your older monitor (over 2 years old) has gained too much weight, reduce feeding. You also need to feed your monitor less if its cage is small as it will be moving around less. Keep records of your monitor’s weight.
| Age of a Savannah monitor | Size | How often to feed |
| Hatchling to baby | up to 1 foot long (30 cm) TL (total length) | Every day to then every other day once your monitor reaches around 8″ (20 cm) |
| Sub-adult, growing into an adult | 1-2 feet long (30-61 cm) TL | 2-3 times a week |
| Adult | 2-4 feet long (61-122 cm) TL | 1-2 times a week or even less (times when you have offered fatty insects or a treat, or if your monitor doesn’t move much and seems to be gaining weight) |
How much to feed a Savannah monitor?
How much you need to feed a Savannah monitor will depend on its age, season and its current weight. If your Savannah monitor is visibly gaining too much weight, you need to feed it much less. You will often start feeding a hatchling around 6-10 medium sized roaches/crickets, moving to over 20 in less than a couple months.
As mentioned in the point above, Savannah monitors do most of their growing in the first two years of life. So that’s when they will need more food to grow. With time, feed less often to prevent obesity. Also be careful how often you offer treats (such as eggs, meat or fatty worms). Once in 2-3 months or even less is optimal to offer treats/heavy food. Remove any uneaten bugs within 12 hours.
Always keep records of your Savannah monitor’s weight. Your monitor should be lean, with a thick tail, but no ribs showing. If your Savannah monitor starts getting round, with its belly protruding from sides, you need to feed less often. Savannah monitors don’t have a problem with fasting, as they do it naturally in the wild, sometimes over months on end.
Do Savannah monitors need drinking water?
Yes, Savannah monitors need a water dish in their enclosure. What is more, they like to soak, so placing a small tub which is filled with enough water for it to soak is a good idea. Water should not be higher than your monitor’s head and nostrils. Your pet will drink from it and soak in it.
Make sure to change the water daily to keep it clean (water can harbor lots of bacteria). Some Savannah monitors will learn to poop in water when soaking. For that, water has to be warm, as it will improve peristalsis (gut motility).
Ca:P ratio in Savannah monitor’s food
Calcium to Phosphorus ratio in your Savannah monitor’s food is also very important. Reptiles in general should get more calcium than phosphorus in their diet. You should be aiming at 2:1 or 3:1 (or even higher) of calcium to phosphorus ratio.
Unfortunately, most feeder insects have more phosphorus than calcium in them, so that’s why gut-loading and dusting them with calcium powder is important. Phoenix worms, also called Calci worms, Reptiworms and Black soldier fly larvae, have the most optimal Ca:P ratio. You can even skip dusting calcium on them. Ca:P ratio of some feeder insects include:
- Crickets – 1:9
- Dubia roaches – 1:3
- Grasshoppers/locusts – 1:9
- Turkestan roaches – 1:4.5
- Hornworms – 1:3
- Silkworms – 1:2.4
- Phoenix worms – 1.5:1
UVB importance for Savannah monitors and vitamin D
Apart from watching calcium and phosphorus ratio in your Savannah monitor’s food, you must ensure that your pet is getting enough vitamin D. Vitamin D is important for absorption and regulation of phosphorus and calcium in the body. Without it, your pet can develop metabolic bone syndrome, which can cause irreversible damage to bones and be lethal.
Savannah monitors in the wild are open sun baskers, so they get their vitamin D from the sun. In captivity, you should replicate this by installing a UVB tube in the tank to ideally cover 50-70% of the enclosure. Mercury vapor bulbs also emit UVB and can be an option for the tank.
A good option is a high output (HO) 10.0 T5 Reptisun UVB tube like this. 10-12% UVB is sufficient for Savannah monitors. You will need a hood that can handle the wattage and be the right size to house the tube. For a 46″ inch Reptisun tube, for example, you will need a 48″ hood, for a 34″ tube – a 36″ hood. Make sure to replace tubes every 12 months and bulbs 6-12 months (check instructions).
Supplements for Savannah monitors
Apart from gut-loading all the insects that you feed your Savannah monitors, you also need to think about supplements. Gut-loading is when you feed the insects a nutritious diet for around 24 hours before offering them to your Savannah monitor. This is important to prevent any nutritional deficiency in your monitor. You can read all about gut-loading insects here (new tab).
Every time or every other time you offer your monitor insects, you can dust them lightly with calcium powder, like this one. Choose calcium without vitamin D3. And once a week or two, you can sprinkle some multivitamin on your monitor’s food. Supplement more often for a younger, growing Savannah monitor.
Savannah monitor feeding tips
- Don’t put too many live crickets in the tank at the same time – it can stress your monitor.
- Prepare the food and feeding tongs before you open your monitor’s cage.
- Put worms and roaches on a dish, so that they don’t hide in the tank.
- Leaving crickets in the tank and allow your monitor to catch them will provide some exercise.
- Use long feeding tongs like these ones to offer food. Be careful with fingers!
- Offer only pre-killed or frozen-thawed rodents. It is ethically correct. Freezing also helps kill parasites.
- Don’t feed your Savannah monitor any vegetables, fruit, meat or organ meat! Meat can cause obesity quickly.
Thank you for reading this post! To learn more about Savannah monitor care, see this page.