Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was feeding my large waters yesterday. In the dish was chicken necks, chicken gizzards, freshly killed young rats, and skinned and gutted catfish.

Both the male and female took the fish first.

The rats were still twitching, and they were nosed asid.

Anyone else feeding fish to their waters?

Sam
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Campti Sam

Why skinned and gutted?

Mike.

only because the fish were sold dressed.

Once in a while the store sells 'seafood' marked down.

Also whole shrimp for bait.

I buy it for the lizards.

I was struck by their preference for fish over bird and mammal.

I have yet to see if they prefer gumbo or etouffe.

Sam
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Campti Sam

I notice my monitors when presented with a smorgasboard go for the stinkiest items first.

When I still had my big sumatrian male i fed him fish once or twice a month. Some of the fish/seafoods he got were and this is only a partial list... and parden my spelling i'm sure i'll butcher a few

catfish... with spines removed
trout
tillincea
bluegill/sunfish
shrimp/crawfish/crawdads for all you southners on the list
squid
octopus
eels
small crabs

He didn't have too much trouble with any of them but his feces were stinkier then normal after he digested them but thats true for any fish eating animal. most of the fish were fresh that myself or friends cought but some were frozen from stores if possible avoid frozen as the freezing process causes higher levels of thiamin and mercury to be present in some species of fish but if they are just an occisional treat it's not much of a problem

I feed my variety of monitors a variety of items but usually it is the stinkier fish and shrimp foods selected off the garbage can lids first.

Not that I feed them garbage, I feed them fresh good food.

I just find that garbage can lids with the handle flattened make fine plates. The monitors can nose and strew their food around in them and it still stays in the pan and not on the bedding.