Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased a very young V. melinus. I've tried to feed it crickets, superworms, meal worms, and even female fiddler crabs, but it ignores them.

Before you start typing... keep reading.

now hoppers and fuzzies it will take from my hand! Heck, it will eat them while I'm holding her/him. (shy my butt...)

The cage is set up with a 100w heat, and a 75w infrared (24hr bulb) on the hot side. Spot temps are 120ish under the lights and 85 on the cold side. There is a gradient of 1 to 5 inches of dirt and mangrove mud (desalinated)mix. There is a large water bowl in between two half log hides (one on the hot and one on the cold side) with a branch across the top. Night time temps range from 90 under the red light branch to 83 degrees. The water temp is 82 during the day and 80 at night (aquarium probe). Humidity is kept high with daily mistings.

It spends the day basking, exploring the hides, sticking its head into the fiddler crab holes, and going for a swim. It will either sleep in the bowl or a fiddler hole it dug up on the thick side under the half log.

Has any other melinus keeper noticed the preference on mice? Or is mine just spoiled?

If I were you, I would try to lower the temps of the cool side of the cage, but its probably hard to do with 175watts of light bulbs in the cage, depending how large the cage is.

Anyway about eating. Your monitor is an individual just like you. It likes to eat certain things, and it doesn't like others. At first my water monitor loved crickets, and then one day she wouldn't even touch them. If your monitor is eating well, I personally wouldn't worry about it if it like crickets and worms or not. However, you can try roaches, my monitors never turned those down. But no, your monitor is not the only one who prefers mice.

My melinus was very partial to crickets when it was a hatchling (back in late august 2007), and when I switched him over to blaptica dubia he would not eat them for the first 1 or 2 days. After gaining a good appetite he started to feed on them and has been eagerly eating them ever since. Every monitor is different, but I do feel that it is important for your monitor to have insects included in his diet, not just mice. Give him some time (and maybe try roaches). When he is ready I am sure he will eat them.

Regards,
Lou

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dragonbreeders.com

Hi Lou, you mentioned you feel its important to feed insects to monitors. May I ask why you feel that? You see, anybody can feel anything, but do you have any real reasons othen then you just feel?

I ask, because I have extensive experience raising monitors and I never had a problem of any kind, when not feeding insects to medium to larger monitors(species large enough to start of pinkies and fuzzies)

Am I missing something? Looking forward to your reasons. Cheers

For clarification, I was referring to young monitors (as the originator stated he had a baby melinus). It is simply an opinion, and not just my own opinion. There are many keepers that prefer to feed their baby monitors both insect and rodent prey. As a matter of fact my melinus would not accept pinkies until he was a couple of months of age.

I myself have always had very healthy baby monitors when fed a diet of insects supplemented with rodent prey. Heck, I used to feed my adult Rudis a diet of large cockroaches and crickets in addition to the main staple of mice. It seemed the right thing to do since these animals get a varied diet in the wild (and the monitors sure did not mind). Either way we all know that there are many keepers that feed only rodents to their adult monitors without issue.

My main point was that I believe (nutritionally) it is best to provide a balanced diet as such to young and growing monitors…

-Lou

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dragonbreeders.com

Please do not get upset, but it appears to be your opinion(and others)(there are always others, but do they have proof as well)

I asked, if you had reason. That means, did you have any problems by feeding only rodents? As I mentioned, I have raised hundreds upon hundreds of many species, including this species and did not have any problems what so ever, on an all rodent diet.

On occasion, weak babies will only take insects for a few feedings, then I feed them rodents. A few feedings does not mean anything considering, the growth from hatchling size to adult size.

Consider, you can feed all the insects you like. I have no problem with that and do not see any harm. But you indicate there is something wrong with feeding a solely rodent diet, and my results indicate that is totally wrong. As I have superior results from growth, to reproduction, to longevity with a rodent diet.

Again to clarify, no one is questioning the diet you use, but you do not seem to have tested anything other then what your opinion is. Did you have monitors fail or express lesser results with a rodent diet? Did you see a drop in reproduction? did they result in a shorter less productive life? Etc.

With that in mind, did you see an increase in growth by including insects? an increase in reproduction by including insects? an increase in longevity by including insects?

U see, this is the point, if you do not have increased results, then its merely your opinion. And your very welcome to state that you like the diet your using. But to indicate that an all rodent diet is, less then, what your doing is not accurate. You have stated no results In fact, you have not stated what your success has been. So no one, not even me, can compare your diet(and combined husbandry) to whatever we are using. You simply state you think they have a varied diet in nature, but you really do not know what they would feed on, if they had a choice. Its been my experience with wild monitors, that they choose the best food source(chicken coups) until it runs out, then go on down the line until they feed on crap that is only getting them day to day. Unfortunately, its my opinion, most stomach content studies are done of individuals that are in trouble(they are easy to catch) but I wander.

For instance, we have no problem taking medium sized monitors from egg to egg in six months on a rodent diet. Which means, they have to grow well and solidly(healthy). Has that been your experience with your diet? What is the quality of your growth and reproduction, etc? Cheers

I not at all upset, but in agreement with what you are stating. Back in the early 90’s I fed my monitors rodents only and they were very healthy. However I did not breed any during that period so I would not have any useful data to provide within the topic of rodent only vs insect/rodent diets.

During the period where I was breeding Kimberly Rock Monitors the animals were on the insect/rodent diet from hatchlings to breeding adults. Since none in the group were fed solely rodents again I do not have any data for comparative purposes. It would surely be interesting to actually compare 2 groups of breeding monitors to determine if there are actually differences in health and reproduction. Since I only own one monitor these days that might be a bit hard. ; )

I cannot remember if it was here or not, but a while ago I remember a long thread on this topic.

I am not familiar with any studies of actual accounts of wild monitor feeding habits, but from what you have elaborated on it makes sense. We all eat what we like best, and when we run out of the good stuff we whip out the old standard PB & J ...

-Lou
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dragonbreeders.com

I’m not sure what you experience with monitors is, but in my opinion, it isn’t too far off base to say that this species tends to be rather shy. It isn’t like every individual will never, ever allow any interaction, but rather when compared to many other monitor species, V. melinus doesn’t seem to be nearly as bold and curious. I have a couple adult males that I raised-up. After working with them for years I have a decent rapport with them, but still they are quite aloof and shy compared to other species I keep/have kept.

Mine started ignoring bugs and preferring mice, birds, etc before they reached subadult size. I don’t really blame them. Those items make for a more substantial meal. I suspect that if your monitor was to get hungry enough, it would eat some bugs, but your monitor ought to do just fine and grow fast on a diet of mice.

Your setup sounds interesting. Please share some pics. The lights and temps sound a little off though. I shoot for a gradient of 130F basking surface temp, to around 75F on the cool side. Cheers

That Melinus is beautiful! Thanks for the pics, mate.