Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Feeding time. I attempted to get pictures of him targeting for food, but nearly every picture was a blur. I'm hoping to get a video camera to upload videos of this onto youtube.

Eating whole, raw shrimp.

Best hiding spot EVER. This was a split second of stillness in between flailing like a maniac and clawing at his head. I cheated and pulled him off with the tongs.

Hi JoOaks,
the monitor looks in great condition, well done to you!
Those roaches really can be such a tease at times...(I think they deserve what`s comming to them, myself)...

Gee, now I put two MMs in coming???

Thanks Murrindindi! I think he looks a wee bit thin as of late, at least thinner than I want. I'd like his tail base to be a bit thicker. This one has been with me for almost a year. He was a two-year-old in a crap enclosure eating crap canned dog food. Shedding problems galore, dehydrated, too "tame" because he was neglected into a state of cuddle-able...

I mean, literally, she would cuddle him(!).

He has grown since I rescued him, but recently it seems to be more length and less bulk. I wonder why? He was twenty inches when I brought him home, now he's about twenty-eight inches long. He eats dubias daily, crickets, shrimp, and fertilized quail eggs on occasion, and various small cute things every other day, usually a small mouse or rat pup. I wonder if he'll ever grow to his full potential, he eats like a pig. I have another who is going to be a year and a half and she's nearly his size eating the same diet.

Hi again JoOaks,
have you had a fecal check done since you`ve had the monitor, sometimes if they`re eating "normally", but not gaining weight, it might be due to parasites (I can`t remember if you`ve mentioned having one done previously)?
On the other hand, being kept in much less than optimum conditions for 2 years, could effect the long term growth potential...
Perhaps you can increase the rodent part of the diet, the higher fat content might help put weight on, if there aren`t any health issues causing a lack of weight gain.

Hello again. The first monitor was treated for parasites when I first brought him home, and his stool returned clear for his follow up. The second monitor was checked when she was brought home, cleared, then both monitors were checked and cleared at their follow up. I hadn't even considered parasites, but I suppose it'd be a wise thing to check again. He's not skinny, but he could use a bit more weight on him to meet the condition I consider ideal.

And the super A-hole Sav finally let me interact with her without trying to eat my face. Progress... After only five and a half months of daily tong-feeding and interaction!

It never hurts to do a fecal check.
Great to hear you`re making some progress in the "tractability marathon"! Just keep doing whatever you`re doing....

I agree with you, the sav is not looking great, not really bad, but a bit dehydrated.

I would avoid that shrimp, and other partical foods.

As a lady, I hope you understand this, Any food item you give thats, less then, takes the place of something thats supports grown well.

While rodents are proven to support superior growth.

What that means is, feeding the animal will cause it to grow, not offering foods(whole) foods such as shrimp, will not support that individual and actually cause it to fail.

Consider, a full grown or slow growing adult, would not have that problem. It would be fine and maybe even better.

But thats not what you have, you have a young animal, thats nature design is to grow quickly.

So if your offering good temp choices, then you must also offer good nutritional support.

Yes, I know the internet is full of theoretical non sense. I am offerring you PROVEN by use, information.

Hello Frank, thank you for your input. I always enjoy coming onto the forums for constructive criticism. Would you mind if I contacted you via a method outside of the forums? If so, what is the best way?

Thank you,

Jocelyn

I think I speak for many people here when I say, we would appreciate you contacting Frank through the forums instead of outside the forums. Your questions and his answers will help all of us learn.

I agree with you madwhitehat, much better for everyone when these discussions take place on the public forum, we can all learn something that way!

Mostly I just want clarification. I get what his point is: a rodent based diet will support better growth and overall well-being than other suggested diets. However, due to the way the post was written, I don't understand ALL of what was supposed to be conveyed. I didn't want to ask on the forums because I'd feel like a douche for bringing spelling and grammatical errors to public attention. I don't care that they're there, no one comes to KS to write college essays, but I can't comprehend all the ideas without correction.

For instance:

"I would avoid that shrimp, and other partical foods."

Is that particle or practical? Particle, I would assume, means not a whole food source. That makes sense to me, but the shrimp was whole, it was just cut into pieces so it was easier to consume. On the other hand, if it's practical, the statement wouldn't make as much sense to me since whole raw shrimp doesn't come easy.

And this statement, which I can't make sense of any which way as its currently written:

"What that means is, feeding the animal will cause it to grow, not offering foods(whole) foods such as shrimp, will not support that individual and actually cause it to fail."

I guess the important thing is that I understood MICE > OTHER STUFF.

And I wanted to ask what my size monitors should be consuming in terms of mice/rats. Prey size, amount, frequency?

Hi again JoOaks,
I`m pretty sure Frank R. will expain, but I took his post to mean that a diet consisting almost exclusively of rodents is, in his opinion, the "best" you can offer to support the monitor/s (I agree), though I do like to offer a little variety with my monitors, but certainly, it`s rodent based.
Shrimps and the like are not as nutritious.
Until quite recently, I (like many others), thought Savannah monitors were specialist insect feeders. That`s not true, according to Daniel Bennett, the animals in the areas he studied, preyed on African millipedes and snails, in the vast majority of cases (not "insects".
I don`t believe Daniel`s ever suggested they shouldn`t be fed rodents in captivity?
I`ve had several conversations with him, actually, he said he`d be interested to see which prey they would take first, if offered the choice of a mouse or a Giant African milipede...
I have a friend who tried this, but no clear results (yet)!
I personally like to offer food daily (even with adults), but not necessarily "fill them up". As I mentioned in another thread, the ammount of energy they require is linked to the ammount of excercise, and the conditions they`re kept under...

Sorry, I forgot to add; I think your monitors ahould be able to take a full grown mouse, or weaner rat without problems...

They get one adult mouse every other day, along with dubia.

Again, I would suggest increasing the rodents to one a day, providing they have the sufficient temps etc (I`m sure they do), they`ll easily digest that ammount, perhaps more. It`s not difficult to see if they`re getting a little too heavy and reduce the total ammounts of food.
By the way, I thought about the word Frank R. used ; "partical", I think he means particular, as in that particular food item (shrimps), not being the best nutritionally, compared to the rodents! (If I`m wrong, I`m sure he`ll send a posse out to get me).... (Well, maybe not that extreme)...

The point Frank is making overall is this:

A monitor can and will THRIVE on a diet of nothing but whole rodent prey. Anytime you deviate from that, you are giving the monitor something less than optimal. Some people feed their monitors nothing but roaches or other insects. A monitor can survive on this diet, but he will have to be given lots of supplements to make up for what the roach diet is lacking (calcium for example). Feeding insects to a monitor really shouldn't be for anything more than giving them something to chase around, for exercise, and should be in addition to a proper portion of whole rodent.

I don't think he is saying that your shrimp is bad for the monitor. If you want to give him shrimp as a "treat" then that is fine. Understand that your monitor doesn't need a treat though. To him, food is food. It's your job to make sure that food contains what he needs to thrive.

Hey there, thanks for the response. I just picked up a 1.4 breeding group of ASFs and I believe all the females are preggers... So, provided I actually go through with gassing the little buggers I think this can work.