Monitor agression

I know different species of monitors can have temperamental variances, but does anyone have any advice on Savannah's? My Fred and George are horrid! I have had them since hatchlings and held them almost daily for some length of time and usually around the same time, but it doesn't seem to matter. They try to tear my arms off when I am getting ready to feed them, change or give them water or clean their cage. They bite a lot! Hissing and clawing occasionally, but biting mostly and they will not tolerate being picked up anymore.

I don't know if this is true or not... Ive always been told that a monitor that is evposed to UV or sun light acts a little worse then those that haven't. My own experance is with a iggy that was great with heat only but a a%^h(*&^ with UV or real sunlight stand by. But as I said my experance. Ive not seen anything in writing about it one way or the other.
Another factor could be its a wild cought animal or what now call farm raised. Do you keep them in the same cage, if so seperate. Or you just may have two not so nice ones.

They do live in the same enclosure, which I am getting ready to build them two seperate enclosures. I've never heard about the UV thing, they are under full spectrum UV 10/14 in winter months and 12/12 in summer months. I'd like to think thats why my iggy was such an a##, but I think he was just born that way! I will look into it, thanks Steve

Do u have a huge water bowl n a hide cave to fit there whole body in and more space to move around? my runs around my reptile room with no problems

Yeah, they have plenty of room, and I am building them an even bigger cage to seperate them. They have a huge water bowl, both of them could soak together if they wanted and they are in it quite often and they each have their own "cave", one is a cave and the other is this big hollow rock type thing, but he loves it.

I try to feed mine good size rats once a week..im guessing u feed in the cage?

I do normally, when they get crickets, but when they get other stuff I will take them out (turkey, eggs etc.). I only feed them rat babies on occasion because I always thought that it was bad for them to have rats frequently due to digestion issues and they are high in fat? Do you feed tham anything other than rats? How many do you have?

I have one..hes a gentle giant..hes good size n ive had no problems with digestion..poops like no tomorrow shortly after eating..hes way to big for crickets n meal worms..he could eat small rabbits

wow... fred and george are not that big, they could probably eat a small rat. I had a hatchling before fred and george, but he died from a parasite infection, not really much I could do, I treated him, but I think he was just too small. Then, I got a juvenile, about 9 months old from a pet store, he didn't look bad, and he was so so sweet, he would sleep on the sofa with me and everything, then he stopped eating, and we found a nasty tick in his cloaca, so he was wild caught, which I was told he wasn't and from the temperment I believed it, 300.00 later and he still died, I was really sad because he was an excellent lizard. How old is the one you have?

Im like the 5th owner of the one i have..couple years give or take..when i hold him he pretty much gives me a hug..puts his face next to mine n just relaxes till i move em..sorry about your loss..hope these ones tame out..im looking to get a couple more in the future when i move..13 anscondas is enough at this point

yeah, 13 anacondas seem like a lot to me, space wise, do they have a house of their own That's cool, I'm jealous, I wish Ducky (the juvie) would have lived, he would have been the best. I hope they would get somewhat handleable, right now it's a struggle wearing gloves and then I feel like I just stress them out too much doing all of that, because they will defecate or regurgitate sometimes. I have a beardie, uromastyx, ball python, a 100 lb dog and fred and george, so I'm not really lacking in needing something else that is big, but I would like a blue tongue skink, brazillian rainbow boa and I think my dog needs a friend!

I have a whole room at this point..13 anacondas 2 retics 1 rat snake 2 burms 1 savanna monitor 1 asain water monitor 2 bloods 2 mastiffs 1 mastiff/lab mix 1 tegu...its pretty normal to be crapped on..if ur gonna hold em wsit at least 4 days after they eat..more likely wont come up then..if n when i move to chesapeak on a acre -4 acres of land gonna b breeding hundreds of rats about 50 rabbits n couple hundred mice n couple pigs..all the anacondas get a custom enclosure..do u wear heavy duty gloves?? i find get the savannas behind the head n slide ur hand up there front legs from thr back..wont have a problem

You have a lot, but pretty varied collection! Good luck in finding land and getting it set up. I feel so much better when my animals are in better and bigger cages! You will have to post pics! That's a lot of breeding, we have 43 acres, so we might get some cattle, pigs, chickens and a few horses eventually, but they are pretty much to feed us They aren't really heavy duty, kinda like garden gloves, but enough to where when they bite, it's just pressure, no teeth! I will try to hold them ur way...thanks

sure do at this point..wish i had the acres you got..deff make use of it..imma have to breed pigs to feed my anacondas..plus room for the asain water monitors..more savannas, possibly a custom enclosure for both retics and burms if i decide to keep em..if all goes well looking at 9-10 litters of anacondas in 3 years..not gonna be like most breeders though who just see dollar signs..i wanna see alot of growth and maturity from my reeptiles before any breeding..savanna monitor with full pressure of biting down could break your fingers..the holding of the head down and picking them up from the the front legs under neath will prevent them from biting you at all..

Feeding them in the cage has created "cage aggression"
This does not happen every time but can happen.
Also I would start planning on getting them seperate cages.
Bryan

Thanks Bryan! I'm working on building a cage for them to be separated, hopefully I will be done next week. I hope it is a fixable problem, not that i would get rid of them, but it would be nice to interact with them without losing an arm or a finger