Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so after quite an ordeal of blaming myself and my cage set-up, i finally found out that my ornate monitor was refused to eat because he had parasites. Which is apparently not surprising for african farmed ornates...
I treated for worms and was syringe feeding him with Flukers repti-aid and ground up mealworms and crickets.

My problem now is that he will sit calmly in my lap and allow me to syringe feed him, but he is a coward when it comes to eating on his own. He will hide from crickets and anything I put in his cage.

Any ideas how to get him off of syringe feeding? He is super sweet now, but I dont want to be handfeeding a seven footer in a few years...

Thats how it was with my dumerils monitor kind of. i was able to syringe feed him food because he stopped eating because of both parasites and a sinus infection. i just tried feeding him mice, per killed, from the tongs. sometimes i would have to tease him for 15 minutes before he would eat. it was about a month and a half until he was back to 100% of his eating ways, but it just took time. if he refuses to eat, continue with the syringe feeding, but try feeding him whole foods too.

What both of you have are symtoms, not causes. parasites are normal and do not kill monitors. Sinus infection?????? common gram-negative bacteria, all monitors and you carry those bacteria.

What kills monitors is a surpressed immune system. The immune system cannot function in poor conditions. So the monitors will die of ANYTHING.

As mentioned, monitors feed and feed well. As Jobi mentioned in a recent thread like this, The way a monitor feeds is how you judge its health and reproductive condition.

They eat all the time, in kept properly, they can and do fill up several times a day. They are not snakes, more like birds really.

So if your monitor is alive and does not feed, its all about your husbandry.

As Jobi mentioned, these posts sound like a set up, considering the recent threads.

Just in case they are real, Pick husbandry that works, copy from someone who has done it, not from those who talk about it.

In your cases, visit Pro exotics website and look at their monitor caresheet. They have some experience with wild caughts.

Farm raised, hahahahahahahahahahahaha thats bullbeans. First off, it would be called ranch raised, as farms are for plants, ranches are for live stock. There are no ranches. They may be hatched from eggs from wild caught females, but they are still kept in horrifying conditons, which makes their chance of survival once they reach their final destination, very very poor.

Which is why you really need to have superior conditions to save them, not petshop crap. I wish your monitors luck. Cheers

i guarentee you this is a serious post...
and I understand that they are normally incredible eaters. But not every monitor is the same and this little guy was not eating when i got him. And rather than just letting him die I started syringe feeding him to rehydrate him. He went from a scrawny, dehydrated mess to a chunky active monitor.

I know a lot of this is due to the changes I made to his cage. I switched to dirt/sand substrate that he can dig in. I went from a screen top to a plexiglass top to hold in heat and moisture, and I got his basking temp up to a 125 degree surface temp.

So am I to believe that if you had a sick animal you would not do anything to help it except change the cage? I would rather hand feed him forever than sit and watch him die

what is lost is that if the monitor is kept properly whether the animal has parasites are not the likelihood is that the monitor should be eating on it's own.There is a point where too much damage can be done,and no matter what you do the animal will die-which as stated with incorrect husbandry is sooner than later.What you are doing isn't correcting but bandaging the problem

you do understand that this is not about you...I d'ont know you.
however I do know monitors and trust me the stress you induce on him is 10folds more detrimental then him not feeding.

leave him alone and give him options, he will regaing a will to live on his own...you cant force life on any beings.

as for parasites...forget about them they are the product of a disfunctional imiune systhem...stress is the no1 primer to this.

thank you, that makes much more sense than the previous posts...

Message boards are for "tell it like it is" advice. You will get more accurate information that way, because people correct each other....harshly if necessary. People are usually more polite in private emails or in person or on the phone, regardless of what animal you are keeping. Just something I noticed over the years.

Thats the reason you very seldom see cages pictured here by the long term keepers. They don't want flaws on their cages pointed out. They will post pics of monitors all day long, but cages? Rarely.

it's weird though, I have been on snake forums, rat forums, lizard forum, frog forums, etc. but I really think there is something about people who own monitors that makes them downright mean. They almost always find something wrong with any option you have and love to fight... it must be something about owning an aima of such magnitude and strength that makes people want to rip each other apart, gotta love human nature.

I have learned amazing things here and wonderful husbandry tips, but I definetely will be going elsewhere for advice from now on.
Thank you everyone for your help so far

the reason they seem mean is, monitors are the last frontier of Failure. That is, its the last area where the animals are not expected to live.

in all other areas, beginers can go and follow a recipe and expect to succeed. Not with monitors.

Just hang out a while and you will see. Folks have a failing animal, and expect instant help, a simple this or that and its fixed. Its not going to happen.

Your comment about the magnitude and strenght of varanids may be appropriate. By the time a varanid is showing symtoms, its already near death. As in, to late.

So we offer advice that will support long term health. But the newbies are grasping at straws and want imediate help. Well, good husbandry would help if your monitor wasn't already suffering from organ damage.

Then the newbie keepers who followed recipes from some simple weak reptile, gets all mad.

Well they should of came here BEFORE they had a dying monitor.

The reality is, if your monitor is sick, take it to a vet, if the vet is poor and most are when it comes to varanids, then I am sorry. I cannot help that.

Besides, most come here kicking and screaming, we give them several hours of our lives hoping for the best, their monitor dies, or they trade it for a horned toad, and they are gone.

Thats not the reason, The reason is simple, you can make any cage work, its all about learning concept.

If you show pics and we all did a million friggin times. People just say, I cannot do that or I do not like the color. Or I have a ten gallon fry pan.

Education is not copying, its learning why you do something. So I try to allow folks to THINK, not copy.

As you will see, copying doesn't work so good with varanids. And most people do not want to think. It must make their heads hurt. Cheers

The point of this post is, if you want to discuss vet care, This is not the place. But if you want to discuss husbandry that will prevent the need for vets. This is the place. I recomended looking at pro exotics site. THat is a start. Cheers

With my 2- 2 foot Doreanus subadults i throw in two thawed hopper mice in each day.I never witness them eating but they are always eaten-many hours later.Because of their behavioural shyness it's hard to judge their health from an eating perspective,is this normal.They have many choices of security and temps-hiding of course the majority of time.Another reason the forest monitors aren't a good beginner monitor,as i am finding.With Ackies for example,if they aren't eating right now,you can act quicker to correct a husbandry error.Something much more difficult when the species you deal with hides the majority of time.

There are levels of good husbandry. With more support, even indos such as bluetails and peachies, and such, you fly after food. Then hide, hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

In most cases, shy monitors hide but have their heads where they can see out of their shelters. This is where positive re-inforcement training starts. Have feed at the entrance of the burrow, then farther out, etc etc etc. Soon you will have that animals feeding off your head.

The interaction between you, a food source, and monitors appears to be widespread with all species. And in nature too.

Since my situation has happened, i have read alot of your posts and learned alot. Unfortunately when it happened, the posts of yours i read were not yet there. currently my monitor is doing very well, and feeds very ravenously. Now when i brought him up to the vet, he said he had a sinus infection, which he gave me a medication to treat, and in addition he had the parasites which i also treated. And since doing what i did, i have a much more active and seemingly healthy monitor.

thankfully after a few more days of syringe feeding I was able to get him to eat some Merrick Turducken (turkey/duck/chicken) wet cat food. He runs up and chomps it down the second I put it in there. I am thankful for all the advice and attempts at advice that I was given.