Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i recently purchased a black rough-necked monitor at a show. very healthy specimen, about 16 inches in length, active, alert, and the first day was feeding very vigorously on crickets. i've offered meal worms to it and it showed no interest whatsoever. still is showing no interest in worms whatsoever

i was wondering if any of you have experience with this particular species and have any advice in coaxing it into eating food items other than crickets? i'd greatly appreciate any kind of advice anybody is willing to put out for me. i have kept many different species of other monitors, but this is my first truly healthy rudicollis. about a year ago i purchased a baby attempting to "nurse" it back to health but to no avail...anyways, done with the rant! thanks in advance to any advice given.

-shane
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Shane

Hello Shane,
My advice to you Shane is to follow the leader, your lizard in this case. Feed what it will eat readily(crickets) and offer other items such as live pinky mice and superworms. If this is a baby, when it is ready to try other prey it will. Mine ate all sorts of critters... For now, watch your husbandry closely and DO what is spoken here on this forum by the experts- FR. Best to you and your new lizard- Mike

thank you for the response and advice. it's a gorgeous specimen, hopefully in the next day or two i can post a picture of it. i'm very excited about her...i've had exanthematicus, jobiensis, currently also have a v. p. horni, flavirufus, indicus, and salvator. but this is my first solid rudicollis. very exciting!
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Shane

Shane,
That sounds like quite a nice collection of species you have. It's also good to hear that you are excited about the new baby. Be sure to do right by them all... it's quite a duty with large species. Best to you- Mike

I have some not take worms. Like stated give them what they want. You could try other insects, roaches. Or go for a rodent. Rudi from everything I have read are on they hard to get a healthy animal. More so just because of the process it takes to get to you. This could also just be owner error. Lots of dark hides, Dragoon used to be on here. She got many eggs and had some hatch. Her thing was they do not like bright light.

Hello Weidjd & Varanid,
Fortunately for monitors they do not REQUIRE light at all just heat(FR) although some cheap source of light bulb helps them to see food from a distance. Funny, I was just reading a journal about V.griseus eyes- ever wonder how they perceive you?- Rudi's in particular seem to have great vision and if your lizard is set up properly you will have a great time watching it hunt. Make sure to include lots of branches and leaves on the cage floor over the dirt. Mist everything down with water a couple of times then continue this daily. If you have the right "seal" on the cage you will find that the misting will be minimal after the first few days... Throw in lots of food- crickets, roaches(talk to Mikesmonitors), superworms(these turn into big crunchy beetles)- cut the room lights to lower your lizards view of you, sit back and watch. Man, I did this for hours- sometimes all night many nights... You may find that your lizard is eating alot more than you ever SAW it was, unless of course you weren't offering enough food... Best to you- Mike

yeah, i have it set up in a large 60 gallon hexagonal tank that's about 2' high with all sorts of branching everywhere, a large water bowl, cypress mulch bedding with moss over the mulch. it's a very active monitor and has a lot of personality...and like i said, it feeds avidly on crickets. but today i'm going to the market and going to try some fish and fresh-water crabs with it too...daniel bennett's book about monitors said they typically relish fishy foods. but thanks for all the advice! still working on getting it's picture up here so you guys can see it, it's near perfect!
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Shane

i went to the market today and bought some filet of catfish...the new black roughneck muched down on it! so there's a big step. woot!
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Shane

Hello Varanid,
Mine never ate fish anything, but I never tried! Frogs, sure... But that is good to know... Try small whole fish if you can net(cast net shiners) them somewhere. Best to you-Mike