Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Have any of you noticed a relationship between the behavior of your monitors and the food. My monitor was on a rather strict rodent diet and was always defensive and ready to attack but then I switched him to a cricket diet because I ran out of mice and after a week and a half he's calm and even comes up to me and climbs into my hand. He's a 14in sav for anyone who's about to ask.

Ive not noticed it with any of my animals. Theyre all pretty wild no matter what I feed them.
Just curious. How do you sustain a 14'' Bosc on just crix? Mine would eat each other if I tried that.

Michelle

my savannah only eats 5 large crixets ever day. is that normal. i've tryed to feed it more but he didn't eat it.
from Alex

I normally feed him 2 large fuzzies and all the crickets he will eat but like I was saying the mail with all my fuzzies hasn't come in yet so for the past week he has been just eating crickets the thing is he eats 24 a day so he's eating more than enough. He'll be back on rodents this weekend but I'm not gonna lie I like the calm version of my little guy but the over all goal is to get him big and healthy so back to rodents we go..

you might want to consider feeding your sav fuzzies only every third day and find alternative (non-rodent) food the other days. You might find that helps. Cheers
Michael

I don't really know what else to try.. He hates worms he bit into one and actually spit it back out. He loves crickets and fuzzies. He didn't care too much for the hard boiled egg I tried once either. so whats left...ground up turkey can get expensive but is that the next best thing, supplemented turkey?? this may sound like a real dumb question but I honestly don't know but with the turkey you all don't cook it first do you? with salmonella and all would it be a good idea to boil it or something first???

Hi there,

I'm no expert on monitors but I agree with what you were saying about the change in temperament when feeding crickets as opposed to rodents. Interestingly I think I saw some research somewhere discussing that new research has found Savs to be primarily insectivorous in the wild; although they don't dismiss carrion entirely. (Might have been Bennett).

Anyway, I feed my Blackthroat primarily dusted adult locusts and adult black crickets. I only give him fuzzies twice a week. I am currently trying to get hold of hissing cockroaches as they are a large size and they're meant to love em!

That's my piece.

Laters.

(Gaper is a new monitor and he's only a baby at 2ft....so I guess it's kinda easier for me with him at this stage!)

I recommend hissing cockroaches in a -major- way! Anubis, you said e doesn't like worms, which is fine. I have had decent luck in the past with them, but there are a lot of different opinions flying around concerning mealworms, superworms, etc., so I figure there's no reason to really even bother with them anyway. As far as the hissers are concerned, you might want to consider just starting a breeding colony. They are pretty much the only thing you can breed that doesn't start to develop a peculiar odor -real- fast. They are a little slower to breed than some other things, slower than mice even, but the minimal upkeep is a huge benefit. By a rubbermaid container and throw down enough money for a hundred or so, and within a little while, you should have a self-sustaining little colony. I would recommend topline-roaches.com for your starters. It might seem like a lot of work just to make your sav more docile, but i assure you there are other, even more important, benefits derived from feeding your monitor a truly varied diet.
Lates
Michael

The effects of food as you gave are showing you his true personality. If he eats rodents hes full of energy and can act normal, not subdued and lazy. An ackie or something small can eat alot of crickets and act normal, but your bosc is growing and needs alot of food and energy to do so, so when eating crickets he would need to eat about 30-50 a day to be happy and energetic, so therefore the mice work better as a main food source balanced with crickets as he grows. Why not allow him to learn to trust you and you adjust to his personality, they become a better pet if you adjust to him. Good luck.

I think what I'll do is just continue to mix it up and try to find another insect he'll like and continue to give hime mice as well. I always leave more food than he'll normally eat so he's never hungry. Mice 3-4 days a week and and if I can find roaches anywhere I'll do roaches and crickets the rest of the days. I appreciate all the advice. Then part of it is I think he's finally starting to get used to his surroundings after 3months he doesn't hide as much and dpesn't run when I walk in the room as much either. So hopefully he's coming around. Last couple of weeks I've been simply putting my hand in his cage and leaving it their until he walks over to it and investigates which takes about 10 min but seems like it's helping a little