Is how so many people on here want to take one of the easiest things about keeping monitors (their diet.) and try and make it ridiculously complex. Then to top it of they will ignore other aspects of their husbandry that do need more attention than diet.

You are not keeping your monitors in the wild you are keeping them in captivity. Furthermore there are problems with what they eat in the wild that you don't see such as live prey wounding or killing their potential predator or diseases caused by eating prey that is readily available but not necessarily healthy for the animal eating it.

Furthermore you are not going to have access (or limited access.) to the exact prey items they eat in nature. How cheap are those african millipedes savannahs eat? I don't even think they are legal to get here in fl. I'm sure it is the same in other states as well. I've seen mangrove snakes listed in the stomach contents of water monitors, perhaps I should get my hot permit and go deeper into debt to feed my waters their "natural prey". Oh wait thats right they do fine on rats and mice, and yes they will eat bugs but I think it would at that point be cheaper to go with mangrove snakes given the price of crickets these days.

It has been proven time and again that most species of monitors do fine on regularly available commercial insects and rodents. It is the other issues that cause problems in monitor husbandry. Perhaps it would be better to focus on those issues instead of their diet.

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