Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a juvenille roughneck monitor that is about 18 inches. He was wild caught but throughly treated for parasites. I have had him about a month and he is feeing excellent on crickets, but will not take any rodents and seems to have no interest in them (I have only tried live pinkeys and fuzzies so far). Does anyone have any feeding suggestions to get some meat into his diet? Can they sustain a healthy life off of crickets/insects alone and will the appetite for larger prey come in time?

Thanks for any help/adivce!

If it is eating crickets readily, feed it crickets. Eventually it will probably move on to larger items but I wouldn't worry about it at the moment. Don't make it more complicated than it is...

I feel that ss long as you're meeting it's calcium needs, odds are it will eventually take to rodents. I don't think there's any reason to start worrying at the moment. But there are some considerations that I think should be taken into account.

If you're buying crickets from a pet shop or bait & tackle shop I'd imagine it's getting a bit costly. At least, it will as your monitor grows. However, rodents from the same place may not be much cheaper. Especially live ones.

I personally would begin trying to get it to take rodents now. If you'd like to try - Skip a feeding and on the next feeding offer a single live rodent of appropriate size (rat pink or mouse pink), the livelier they are, the more enticing they can be. If that doesn't work you can try to find a young, small mouse that will move about the cage more freely, enitcing a chase from your monitor.

Best wishes!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

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