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I will be getting a 5 - 6 inch savannah monitor. How many crickets do you think it will eat before it moves onto mice? Or can you tell me how many crickets it will eat daily? Can they eat mealworms as well? Or what do you feed your monitor to ensure it's good quality health. I did my research but no where says how many cricket it eats per day, etc. I want to know because I want to have a good amount of crickets for it when it arrives.

Have plenty of crickets , plenty of heat and plenty of cooler hide spots and you should have a happy monitor...

You should buy as may crickets as you can and house them in a large tupperware bin or aquarium.... that way you always have crickets available... I would also recommend Superworms dusted with Miner-All ... Superworms are easier and not as stinky as crickets...

Its not really a cricket per day approach , he will dmeand more and more almost daily as he grows... you can also give ground turkey or beef , eggs or occassionaly canned dog or cat food..

Good Luck
Tom
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If you have access, feeder roaches are awesome.

I used to get my guy hissers from a local petstore where I used to live, and it was one of his favorites.

Just watch out, cause roaches are good at getting out of just about anything and you dont want em getting off into your house.

If you were to try to get a breedin colony goin, Pro Exotics has some stuff to keep em from escaping, a book regarding roaches and they sell the roaches themselves (http://www.proexotics.com/store/home.php?cat=257).

That stuff isnt even suitable for a proper diet with the animals it is sold to feed, why would you ever give it to a reptile with a much lower metabolism. The ingredients labels are 90% on those products.
WHOLE ANIMALS ONLY!!!
I dont even feed my dogs that stuff.

Variety is very important.

DO NOT just switch your monitor to an only mouse diet. A baby monitor can still pack away quite a few crickets, but size/amount differs quite a lot according to species. I'd say stick to small/medium crickets for now, do 6ish a day, and when the head of the monitor is bigger than a pinky, you can start giving him those. I would start with pre-killed, which is safer and cheaper in most cases. Keep doing crickets as well, and I'd suggest a higher quality canned diet to round it all out.

You are going to have to feed way more than 6 crickets a day. A baby ackie can eat more than that. The reason why you have been unable to find any set number is that is a terrible aproach. The actual amount will vary depending on the conditions that you are offering. Allow the monitor to become decide how much it needs to eat. Feed it as often and as much as it will eat on dusted crickets. Adjust the amount as the monitor tells you to. Measure the conditions and feeding by how fast it grows. A baby monitor will grow very fast if you allow it to.

Steve

Hello,
What,
This is not useful dietary advice anymore than telling you to eat six cheerios a day and add milk when you get thirsty is... This animal, if set up properly, will have the metabolic rate of a steam engine. Our baby monitors have grown 2.5 inches in 9 days!
Keep the food flowing, by this I mean there should be crickets in the enclosure at all times. If you don't see crickets roaming, add more immediately. We keep super worms in at all times also and feed pinkies as we breed them. YOU WILL HAVE NO SET FEEDING SCHEDULE AS YOUR LIZARD WILL NOT. It eats when it is hungry and if it's body is "running" the way it should be, it will eat before this time. Keep the food and water available. We have been doing this all wrong for years... they are not snakes... Mary and I have learned to view them as we do our rats- food or water runs out, problems...
If you have no inclination to breed then schedule away, otherwise, let it grow. It is simple, all animals have a BMR (basal metabolic rate). If the BMR is not exceeded then no growth or worse yet, malnutrition. So again, feed your lizard! Best to you all-Mike
P.S. For those of you who were trying to figure out the true expense behind maintaining monitors and especially big monitors- you have found it... electric and FOOD...

"Variety is very important."

The most sucessful keepers and breeders of almost all varanids species use mice exclusively, next these are also those with the oldest monitors, or some of the oldest in captivity, so what does this tell you, WHOLE ANIMALS, period. In fact it was shown that mice can accomplish more with monitors in captivity than any other food source, its your choice to add other food sources, its NOT important to vary it.
By the way mice with medium to large species from the time they can swallow them are the best food source to grow on.

Also...

Mealworms and Superworms are alright as a treat, or a supplement to stir up his life, but don't make them a habit. They aren't as good for any lizard, and they're harder to digest. Waxworms are another good one, although they can be high in fat. Another good treat.

Monitor Yummies are another option.

Mt Black Throat is 18" and I feed still feed it crickets and roaches as well as mice. Like everybody else said I keep the food flowing.