Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a juvenile water monitor that is eating crickets and mice.Im free feeding him crickets and give him 1 or 2 mice a day.
My question is when hes an adult will I still need to give him crickets?

You should only feed 1-2 mice a Week for Waters, when they get bigger they won't care for Crickets too much, but Turkey will defiantly replace crickets just don't over do it with rodents or you will end up with one fat water monitor, some more choices (Turkey, Egg, Roaches, Feeder Fish, etc)

First,
You can feeding young waters everyday. If you keep your temps right, they will metabolise the food and grow quickly.

Second,
Until they six feet they will still chase crickets and large grasshoppers. You can feed large roaches to adults.

Thanks for your replies,Ill keep doing it the way Ive been feeding him for now.hes not fat at all but hes growing pretty fast

Large water monitors oddly enough will eat crickets. It is kind of funny to watch an adult water chase down crickets and occasionally I will throw some left over crickets from feeding the bug eaters into an enclosure with one of my waters for some mild amusement.
That said unless you own a cricket farm feeding crickets to waters in a number to make them a part of a significant diet would be prohibitively expensive.
In spite of another comment on here, there is no problem feeding rodents to waters in large numbers. I have kept waters almost exclusively with only a few individuals of other species for almost 20 years. I have also raised my own rodents for just as long and the bulk of the diet of my waters is rodents and the occasional juvenile lagamorph(rabbit). Studies on stomach contents are all over the map on what they eat but the majority of what they eat is vertebrate prey and they do consume many of the native species of rodents found in south-east asia. Mangrove snakes seem to figure into their diet quite often as well. They will eat anything that consists of animal protein including dead humans.
As to the obesity comment another poster mentioned the only thing that will make waters obese is giving them improper temps and basking temps. Something that has been discussed countless times on here and I have found to be consistently true in my own personal experience.
something I have found in relation to waters and crickets is that there are actually some waters as juveniles that for whatever reason do not like crickets but will readily take pinky mice or rodents. I don't really know why and some waters are just fine taking crickets, overall however I go with a rodent based diet. I am not sure who started the turkey thing but ground turkey is not a very good diet and is best only as an occasional addition to their diet. personally I prefer using eggs when I want to give some variety to their diet. It is a bit more in line with what they would eat naturally.

is it better to feed mice or to feed rats?I breed both for my snakes so it dosnt matter to me which he gets as long as its whats best for him.hes about 2.5 feet right now and so far ive only offered him to small rats that hes ate with no problems.the last to weeks hes been eating anywhere from 2 to 5 jumbo mice a day though.

I do not necessarily think one is better than the other, rats to me seem to be a bit meatier than mice of a similar size. Back when I bred mice,( I only breed rats now.) I used them and rats interchangeably. It depended on what was readily available at the time in the appropriate size to what I was feeding.
I only breed rats now as they reach the sizes I need. Unlike snakes monitors are not picky eaters so you can pretty much feed them whatever rodent (or small lagamorph.) you feel like breeding or purchasing for feeders.

thanks,Ill stick to mice until hes a little bigger then.