Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i recently adopted a 3' black throat from someone who bought it off craigslist and didn't know what they were getting into.
I have had it for a couple of weeks and have been feeding it 1 med rat(frozen) a week and 1-2 eggs and some chicken about every day.

I am sure that i need to step up its diet, but have been going around in circles with poor caresheets.

YOU NEED TO FEED IT DAILY!!!!! Get rid of the eggs and chicken. Feed it whole prey foods. Chicken peeps are great for it. Stay strictly chicken peeps and small rats.
In order to feed daily and keep your monitor healthy, you need a basking area of AT LEAST 130*. Get 45 watt halogen flood lights, hang them above a plywood surface. Adjust the distance as needed to reach the desired temp. It should look like this:

check out our site for caresheets and other husbandry info. be sure to check the FAQ as well. at that size, your animal should be feeding nearly everyday.

and chicks are fine, until they come out smelly and runny through the other side. stick with rodents and feeder insects, that is all you need.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

My main diet to my albigs are birds, I don't think Rodents should be a base diet in albigs. Birds don't stink any more than rodents, but sometimes with chicks it takes a few meals for some animals to get used too.

Cheers,
Chad

From my experience with albigs both work great.
Its not just the animal type thats better or worse, its the husbandry that allows the lizard to use that prey item. Rodents take slightly more suitable conditions to digest at the same rate (birds usually digest a bit faster).
I have good results with both, but someone who breeds them such as FR and someone who has bred them many times also (Rob Faust) use rodents. This is only the beginning of the list of those who have used rodents only.
I do like to use birds more often but thats my personal preference, and a less expensive one in most cases Lb for lb in prey items. Ive had some albigs that preferred birds only for periods of time, and some rodents only for periods of time.
I know they grow fast on both.
The smell is different when it comes out the other end before they get used to them, some take a while to get used to birds. Also day old peeps come out the other alot end smellier than 3-5 day old peeps, or older yet. I wish I could still get 5 plus day old or older big peeps.