Hello All,



I am a Wilderness Firefighter in New Mexico and an avid herp keeper. When on assignment 3 months ago I brought home 3 SHL's. Following the basics of herp keeping I set them up with a spare 55 gal and set up over head heating on one side for thermoregulating. I filled the bottom with about 6 inches of decomposed granite that I use for my monitors, threw in some cholla skeletons and planted a group of cactus. Once I started researching these guys specific needs I realized that for the most part I had the basic setup ok. They have a basking spot of 94 degrees via tempgun and ambient warm end of 85 the cool end is 78. At night temps drop to 72. The few things I have not provided in the last three months but seem to be so important, according to the select few HL gurus is Ants and UVB. Sure they get the occasional ant that I scoop up in the yard but ants make up maybe 10% of their diet. I have fed them dusted roaches and crickets regulary and they took to them with gusto.



Has anyone done any long term studies on a diet not made up of primarily ants. It it only conjecture that they NEED ants to thrive? What results have you seen of a diet lacking in ants? How long was the specimen lacking an ant dominat diet. I guess my question is about WHY. Why do they need ants?



Most monitor species diets in the wild are not rodent based. They are made up mostly of large inverts, eggs, baby birds and then rodents. Successful Monitor keepers do not say, "well they primarily eat inverts in the wild so we HAVE to feed them inverts?" The most successful breeders of monitors in this country have bred using a rodent based diet.



It seems to me that just because a few scientists cut open the stomachs of HL's and found that ants made up the highest percentage of food everybody thinks they need them to be healthy. Ants can be found in huge numbers. Sit by an anthill and the lizard can gorge itself. I believe that it's an easy source and that HL's are oppurtunistic eaters, not that they need said insect.



UVB. Wow, all I have to do is spend a few moments researching and I can find controversy like mad about this topic. For one, most herps assumed to need uvb are not carnivores or insectivores they are folivores or otherwise herbivorous. reasoning is they do not receive D3 directly from the food. HL's are insectivores and I do not understand why they would need UVB.



I dust my crickets and roaches with calcium powder that contains D3 and no phosphorus. I do not provide UVB and have not seen any of the issues that I witness with green iguans that lack UVB.



I know I have only been a keeper of HL's for a short time I don't have much to go on. But my HL's have grown at least 2 inches in that time and are very active voracious eaters. According to the advanced keepers I am doing things wrong.



When I sit in my living room bored by the TV and look over at my HL's so plump and healthy, tromping so purposefully over the cholla obstacle in their way it makes me wonder how I can be doing something wrong. I know what the main HL site says about husbandry and what the gurus here at kingsnake say. I'd love to hear why they say it.



Nate

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