Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So like I posted before I have a savannah monitor that I got roughly 3 weeks ago. I've been trying to find what inverts I can use to feed him... He doesn't like mealworms.... He seems to not eat crickets fast enough (they hide under his dish).. What are my other options? One problem is I'm terrified of cockroaches, so the only time that we could give him cockroaches is if my boyfriend were to do it (only weekends).... He almost ALWAYS has crickets in his cage and I try mealworms pretty frequently... He just hisses at them though... Any other suggestions?
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Teresa
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3.0 Dogs (2.0 Chihuahuas, 1.0 Toy Poodle)
1.5 Cats
1.0 Cockatiel
1.0 Indonesian Blue tongue skink

Ball Pythons
0.1 100% Het Albino (Watson)
1.0 Pastel (Sweets)
0.1 Spider (Daisy)
1.0 Albino (Gormagon)
1.0 Lesser (Wendell)

There are several other insects. Silkworms, phenix worms, horned tomato worms, those can be a little expensive. You really need to get him eating several different kinds, variety is good. Also I feed my young monitors chopped up mice. Are you sure his temperatures are correct. Generally a monitor with a proper setup will eat anything that moves.

P.S. even though roaches are nasty they are amazing feeders. They breed really easily and dont smell like crickets do. I always have crickets get out and make noise, just a huge pain. I have never had a problem with a roach in any way shape or form.

I'll probably see if my boyfriend is willing to do it on the weekends... I really can't. I'm fine with them until they move then I'll run around screaming. I have no problem with feeding him mice and stuff since I do have snakes, I'm just worried about inverts... I've checked his temps and they are fine... He's eating like a beast... Just not mealworms... he just sits there and hisses at them and tries to look bigger and I've tried 3 separate times... I'll see what else I have available to me around her. Silkworms and waxworms are easy for me to get... are both okay?
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Teresa
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3.0 Dogs (2.0 Chihuahuas, 1.0 Toy Poodle)
1.5 Cats
1.0 Cockatiel
1.0 Indonesian Blue tongue skink

Ball Pythons
0.1 100% Het Albino (Watson)
1.0 Pastel (Sweets)
0.1 Spider (Daisy)
1.0 Albino (Gormagon)
1.0 Lesser (Wendell)

Well you can just feed crickets and appropriate size mice if that is all that is available. For the rest of the monitors life if you have too.

They can eat all the crickets in just a few minutes so take the water dish out and let them go to town on the crickets.

The thing that worries me about silk worms, horn worms etc is they are not always available and have to be shipped. What if the monitor prefers them over roaches crickets mice earthworms? Which are all easily aquired at a working mans price. So thats why I don't feed the exotic prey items but thats just me.

I have complete access to silk worms and wax worms... they sell them at some of the reptile stores out this way

i'll try those and see if he likes them... and continue the crickets...

Thanks for your help
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Teresa
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3.0 Dogs (2.0 Chihuahuas, 1.0 Toy Poodle)
1.5 Cats
1.0 Cockatiel
1.0 Indonesian Blue tongue skink

Ball Pythons
0.1 100% Het Albino (Watson)
1.0 Pastel (Sweets)
0.1 Spider (Daisy)
1.0 Albino (Gormagon)
1.0 Lesser (Wendell)

Grasshoper are a meal of choice, probably the first one for exanthematicus.
A friend of mine gives -100 adults grasshopers /week to is 2years old female. She eats Blaptica dubia, snails too, and one's a week or so, young mices (not fat), chicks, frog legs.
The girl....

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.http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/953/exantulric5.jpg

There is no delete fonction?

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Sweet pictures. I can't wait till my boyfriend can build me a cage like that... looks very natural...

I don't think any of the stores around her carry grasshoppers, so I'll check and see if I can buy online... I just don't want to be keeping a bunch of them...
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Teresa
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3.0 Dogs (2.0 Chihuahuas, 1.0 Toy Poodle)
1.5 Cats
1.0 Cockatiel
1.0 Indonesian Blue tongue skink

Ball Pythons
0.1 100% Het Albino (Watson)
1.0 Pastel (Sweets)
0.1 Spider (Daisy)
1.0 Albino (Gormagon)
1.0 Lesser (Wendell)

Grasshoppers are illegal to buy or sell in the USA but legal in parts of Europe. You can buy canned grasshoppers but some monitors don't like them.

That's what I thought since I couldn't find them... I'll try canned. If he doesn't like them, maybe my skink will

Thanks
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Teresa
------------------
3.0 Dogs (2.0 Chihuahuas, 1.0 Toy Poodle)
1.5 Cats
1.0 Cockatiel
1.0 Indonesian Blue tongue skink

Ball Pythons
0.1 100% Het Albino (Watson)
1.0 Pastel (Sweets)
0.1 Spider (Daisy)
1.0 Albino (Gormagon)
1.0 Lesser (Wendell)

>>So like I posted before I have a savannah monitor that I
>>got roughly 3 weeks ago. I've been trying to find what
>>inverts I can use to feed him... He doesn't like
>>mealworms.... He seems to not eat crickets fast enough
>>(they hide under his dish).. What are my other options?
>>One problem is I'm terrified of cockroaches, so the only
>>time that we could give him cockroaches is if my boyfriend
>>were to do it (only weekends).... He almost ALWAYS has
>>crickets in his cage and I try mealworms pretty frequently...
>>He just hisses at them though... Any other suggestions?

You might look into different kinds of roaches - some might not seems so squicky as others (for example, I find turkistan roaches to be icky - they are small, fast moving, and look like pest roaches - but the large, slow, wingless Madagascar hissing roach doesn't really bother me). In any event, the roaches that can't climb glass are much more convenient (such as dubias, death's heads, false death's heads, and turkistans).

Also, extra crickets hiding out is a good thing. It means your little critter will have snacks for later. It lets him eat when he is hungry, rather than on your schedule. It also gives him an activity - burrowing under the water dish for crickets when he gets hungry - rather than just sitting around like a lump all day long.

Further, work on getting usable temperatures and humidities. A good place to start is the pro-exotics care pages
http://www.proexotics.com/care_sheets.html
http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ2.html#lizard_monitorhousing
the care of all monitors is about the same, so you can use the details given on ackies or blackthroats. Some common problems I see are (1) Having a screen or open top on the cage - this dehydrates the cage and lets the warm air out, (2) not using deep, diggable dirt for a substrate, (3) basking temperature is too cold. A too-cold monitor will not have the healthy appetite of one that can reach its optimum temperatures, and dehydration will make your lizard listless and ultimately kill it. Note - just because you have a water dish does not mean the lizard will not get dehydrated - this is a common mistake people make.

Good luck, and have fun. Savannas can be wonderful pet monitors.

Luke

What kinds of food do you guys feed your savs?

When I choose a food for them I look at the following...

1. The food must be eagerly eaten by all the monitors
2. It must be easy to acquire and available year round.
3. Must be relatively cheap.
4. Must be good for them.

So my list so far is mice, crickets, roaches nightcrawlers/earthworms. Everyones list is a little different I guess.

Heres one of mine eating a grasshopper back a few years.

>>What kinds of food do you guys feed your savs?
>>
>>When I choose a food for them I look at the following...
>>
>>1. The food must be eagerly eaten by all the monitors
>>2. It must be easy to acquire and available year round.
>>3. Must be relatively cheap.
>>4. Must be good for them.

I have not had savs for some time now, but I have had other mid sized monitors (even if right now I'm down to just a psycho argus and two never-see-um timors). I feed a staple diet of frozen-thawed mice and various kinds of roaches (dubias, hissers, and turkistans). Turkistan roaches are small enough that some mid sized monitors might ignore them (my argus does -at least when I am watching) but they would be great for hatchlings.

When it comes to your criterea;
1. Appropriate sized roaches are eagerly eaten by all my lizards.
2. A roach colony can give you more roaches than you can use, if you give the roaches proper care.
3. An established roach colony just needs el cheapo dog food, old fruits and veggies, and occasional water.
4. Insects such as roaches are a healthy part of a monitor's diet.

And for frozen/thawed mice:
1. Appropriately sized mice are eagerly accepted by all monitors I have ever worked with.
2. Mice can be ordered in bulk from suppliers such as RodentPro.com year round, and will give you enough mice to keep your lizards fed for quite some time. You do need enough freezer space to store them, however.
3. Frozen mice are cheaper than live mice, and are a better investment than pet store crickets.
4. Whole rodents offer a complete nutritional package to a lizard.

Also, when I'm done with a chicken, I'll throw the argus the bones. It gets her to shut up and just digest for a while.

Luke

Right now I am keeping blaptica dubia roaches. They are my favorites so far. I heard the turkistan's are a good alternative to the lobster roaches because they do not climb glass.
I had some lobster roaches they were too fast for me but probably would be perfect for timor size monitors.

>>Right now I am keeping blaptica dubia roaches. They are my
>>favorites so far.

I like the dubias, but the hissers seem to breed faster for me. It is only recently that my dubias got to a population where I feel I can start culling them. I just wish the hissers couldn't climb glass.

>>I heard the turkistan's are a good alternative to the
>>lobster roaches because they do not climb glass.
>>I had some lobster roaches they were too fast for me but
>>probably would be perfect for timor size monitors.

I have generally had good experience with the turkistans, except that despite trying to be careful one or two will inevitably escape and they look really yucky and they can survive just long enough to migrate into other parts of the house - ick! Fortunately, they do not breed outside of their cage. (note - they are not escaping because they are climbing up the glass - turkistans can't do that. They get out in other ways, like when I accidentally let the egg crates get too close to the top of the cage, or when I am getting some for the lizards and one jumps out, runs over my arm, and leaps for freedom.)

They are fast, but there's an easy way to put them in with the lizards - get a smooth-sided plastic tub, grab some of the egg crate the roaches are hiding in, and bang the egg crate hard several times on the inside of the tub. This knocks the roaches out into the tub, where they can't climb out. Then just dump the tub's contents in the lizard's cage.

Luke

I think I will try a colony of hissers next. I was going to go with blaberous giganteus till I found out they are rather difficult to breed. Practically any monitor would love to devour one fo those. Man that would be fun to watch.

I had the Turkistans for awhile and they did breed like mad but they are super fast and when they get out the DO populate the house even here in New England (if you keep your house warm like we do). I dont think they breed out in the house but they DID set up shop in the cypress mulch in my tortoise pen for awhile. It took me a long time to make sure there werent any more out there. I wound up giving that colony away and working with the dubia. FAR better choice is the Dubia in my opinion. They get to a fair size for my dragons and the little ones are readily eaten by my leopard geckos and the smaller insectivores in the house. (the cresteds either dont get it or dont like them. The Dubia are seriously clumsy. If you drop one on the floor they usually lay there with their legs in the air allowing ample time to recapture them. And they breed like CRAZY. I have been selling off my extras.

Just my 2 cents...

Carole
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