Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In most cases its not about the diet. Its about the keeper, as I mentioned, when a person asks about diet, that means they do not have the experience to know what is what.

I find it odd that folks think a beginer should do what experts do. Or a private keeper should do what a zoo does.

It has nothing to do with levels of success, its simply not against the law to feed what you want for the purposes you want as a keeper. If you want to mimic nature, good on you and I wish you luck and success. But if your after good reliable success and would rather spend your time on all aspects of husbandry, it helps to understand what a good basic diet is.

I got an idea, how about those with good success with the SDZ turkey diet or similar, SHOW IT, lets see some of your successes. And of course, I will counter by showing lots and lots pics of my basic diet success. This should be fun and entertaining. Particularly with such a slow forum. It does have to be about whos best or whats best, just plain and simple sharing of what works. Oh, not the word or theory of what works, but results of what works. Anyone up for it. Cheers

You said "when a person asks about diet, that means they do not have the experience to know what is what". Thats ridiculous.... I have been keeping Niles for 8 years now and Waters for 5... I am always looking for new ideas and techniques. Asking questions doesn't mean you don't know anything. It means your trying to increase you knowledge.
Granted some people might not know what they are doing but at least they are trying to get some help. Don't go bashing people that are just trying to do the right thing. Thats weak as hell.

"weak as hell"

that's "funny as hell"

it is about the phrasing of such a question, not "you can't ask questions". you can tell by the way it is asked that there is a level of ignorance of general husbandry that makes the question, and answer, moot. a keeper should worry about basic husbandry, not how to properly sautee Walrus rind for a Friday "snack".

this type of "varied diet" question, coming from a new keeper (no particular keeper in mind) is almost as common as the "I got a new baby Savannah/Nile. Now what?" post.
-----
robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Please do not be so sensitive, just think about what I said, its not about you. If someone asks that question, they either do not know the answer or in the case of this forum, they are trying to start a fight.

Sir, that is the two most common senarios. Of course there are exceptions to everything. Which is something you fail to understand.

There is no question, the average person on here DOES NOT HAVE extensive successful experience with any type of diet. ALso consider, I do not consider keeping an individual alive as very successful. That would be the very bottom rung of success. I consider repeated major life events as success and that includes generations. The quanity and quality of that is how successful it is. Cheers

the thing is, he's stating the facts about what works. although some people may find FR a little brash, what he says and the advice his gives is rock solid. i have yet to achieve life events with my monitors like others have on this forum, but i've noticed a major difference in my monitors since i've been taking people like FR's, robyn's, and mikesmonitor's advice.

i recently had a black throat. it was a cool monitor, but eventually decided it wasn't for me. so i decided to reliquish him into capable hands and go with a species more familiar to me. jobiensis. my dad kept one for about 12 years and it died while i was a teenager and it was a great monitor. although, back then, we seemingly hardly knew what we were doing, but it still lived longer than the average lizard. so i picked up a little peach throat.

this is a picture of it the day i brought it home. clearly a bit underfed and considerably dehydrated, it still had a thick tail and legs so it wasn't impossible to turn around.

now these are some pictures of the same animal about 2 months later. i keep a big fresh bowl of water available for it (often having to clean it out multiple times a day), it's on a soil mixture of approximately 50% topsoil, 25% playsand, and 25% mulch. mid to high humidity, multiple hide spots including one that stays in the mid 90's to one that's in the mid to high 70's. and, in my opinion, is doing much better than it would've if it continued on it's path. which is some degree of success in my opinion. i'm currently in the process of hunting down another one or two (optimally to come up with a pair or trio) so it can continue on to it's life events such as reproduction, pairing, bonding, etc. these pictures were taken yesterday.

as you can see, almost everything about it looks better. the eyes, the tail, the sides, hell even the color. my point being, i wouldn't take what some of these guys have to say lightly, or "weak as sh**"

by the way, all i feed this animal is crickets, super worms, and rodents. feeder insects and rodents. tried, true, and proven. not too varied either.

sorry to butt in but you have a great looking monitor.
i too only use a diet of feeder insects and rodents,and the occasional seafood and thank god they are easy to breed yourself so u dont have to go buy them. i once believed in the whole ground turkey and man made food idea when i first started w/ monitors but after reading and picking up tips from people who have had success and who say it doesnt do your animals much good, i tried the switch. the argus monitors that a buddy and i owned became less sluggish and less chunky,still in great condition. i also notice a BETTER feeding responce which is always great to watch for any keeper.
im not bashing the food but i dont ever use that stuff anymore.
if anyone were to use it...use it sparingly.

thank you. and i agree. it's not really about variation, it's about what works. and, as FR as pointed out, most of it is about husbandry. when this monitor came home, all it wanted to eat were fuzzy mice. it was picky. wouldn't eat worms or crickets.

2 months later, it will eat anything that moves that it can overpower. fuzzy mice used to give it a full mouth, now it's taking swallowing down adult mice. but it wasn't diet that turned the lizard around, it was husbandry.

Its usually in reference to a newer keeper or a continually unsucessful keeper asking for diet ideas looking for some miracle cure for their current problems.
Diet is but one brick in the wall that makes them sucessful. The idea being that if you use a diet thats proven to work, you have that brick in place, its now time to add the others.
The other scenario is the individual who comes here to post about a subject such as this to start a debate which they know will end up as a fight(some have done this many times for their own entertainment). This type of individual doesnt post here other than these instances, but posts on other forums regularly.
With 8 years keeping niles you should know the basics about a monitors diet and what at least supports some sucess (whole animals).
At that level of experience you wouldnt be disagreeing with his responce, unless none of the niles have lived very long, grew very much, or achieved any other life events.