Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had e-mailed the person advertising the black throat that is fed chicken and dog food and here is what he had to say:

In the wild they never eat rodents. In the wild these type of monitors eat thinks like snakes, other lizards and large insects as well as carion. It has been documented many times in the reptiles magazine and other sources that a diet of strickly mice or rats has been proven time and time again to cause fatty deposits on the liver which will kill your monitor suddenly. If you are willing to cut your monitor's life short brcause of your supposed breeding program than that is your business. I am supprised that so many people are ignorant as to what they should be feeding their varanus monitors. Maybe you should educate yourself before you try to chastize others. I was supprised at this feeding information also. It is the truth I love my monitors and only care for them as best as is possible. The monitor forum people need to take their heads out of their asses and educate themselves. If they want fat overweight lethargic monitors that is their business but that is not what the animal is supposed to be like. Bro I am noy trying to be a dick but that is the fact. If you feed you monitor a diet of strickly rodents and after it dies you sptit it open you will and I mean will find signifigent liver and kidney damage because of this. The rodents have more protien per square ince of flesh than the monotor can assimilare thus when you have more protien than you can assimilate your liver and kidneys have to take over and do more work to filter out the unused toxins. The unused protien is stored as fatty deposits on vital organs. If you do not believe me check the reptiles magazin archives on Varanus Albinugarlis. Tell all the monitor forum people "welcome to school" Thanx for you opinion.

What do you think about this? Any opinions are very much welcomed. Thank you for your time. -Jeff T

i think he is an absolute lunkhead, and the epitome of the sheethead "Hustler Joe".

he is a well known rip off artist, and simply resells crap imports. that's very impressive. so is his monitor knowledge. funny how he is a know-it-all, and proud at that...

and more funny is that he references some of the horrible monitor articles in Reptiles Magazine
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

I'd be curious to see the e-mail you sent him.

.

Ok, that's cool. Thanks for the e-mail. It's always good to hear both sides. I assumed your e-mail to him would be condecendingly written and it was. This explains why his reply to you was harsh. Either way... I think the guy actually did a decent job of explaining himself, even if he is wrong. Not only did he stick to his guns but he even provided references to support his actions. Perhaps the next step should be to try to educate him further as opposed to simply condeming him as a lunkhead, hustler joe or ripoff artist. He did mention he was giving his monitors the best care he knows how to give. Perhaps he just hasn't seen the good monitor articles in reptiles mag?

P.S. I have no idea who this person is, nor have I seen the ad in question. This thread just struck a chord in me from a human interaction standpoint and I wanted to add my $.02

Peace!

I am sorry, but I don't understant how my e-mail was condesending? I don't really think his reply was harsh either, but then again I could care a less because this is about a monitor and it's well being, not us going through some bonding process. I was simply letting him know some proven facts, in a very polite manner. I was letting him know that he was the topic of a thread and how his ad was viewed by monitor keepers. At no time did I resort to using any name calling or disrespect in any way. But, if you were to take a look on the BOI, and see some actual facts, some of those names might come to your mind also. I have sent him a couple e-mails, trying to educate him on how monitor husbandry has come a long way from the "dog food" feeders. He has no interest in listening to anything that I have said, and since he doesn't keep monitors like most of us do, he will probably never change. And no way, he is giving his monitors the best care he can, because the facts about rodent diets are proven and out there for anyone to plainly see, he just for some reason, and mabey it it because it is cheeper, feeds dog food. I am also sorry, but I don't go by what an article says, I go by real people doing real things. They are often completly opposite. Since this is about mointors, here's a pic for you too.

Hi JT, That particular arguement was very common about a decade ago. And of course it does have merit, that is, lots of things were blamed for monitors getting fatty deposits.

I do have a question, when and how does protien turn to fat??? So mice are high in protien, and that causes fatty deposits. Hmmmmmmmmm.

I guess the fact that many monitors use a lower metabolism to store energy to get them thru droughts is somehow lost in their understanding. So, I guess that not allowing these monitors to achieve a metabolism to burn up this stored fat has nothing to do with it. Or in the case of females, to reproduce, to eliminate this stored fat.

My first experience with Fla folks feeding dogfood came many years ago, when I traded some red ackies for some melinus. As soon as the melinus got here, they have these horrifying stinky stools. The dealer that traded me, said, not to worry, thats just the dogfood we feed them??????????

I have come to the thought that feeding cheap foods is common in Fla, because its a center for importation of very cheap reptiles. Its hard for humans to feed food items that are more expensive then the reptile they are feeding it to. Just a thought.

But what the heck, I know, I am not going to purchase a dogfood feeder, except if its a boxer. F

An aquaitance of mine who does animal rehabilitation not that long ago had a bosc monitor that was found after tripping a jogger in a parking lot of a mall, where he was dumped because his owner didnt know what to do with his fat animal. The animal was so fat he had trouble walking at all. He was taken to a vet to closely monitor his health as he was put on a diet of lower intake not lower quality food, his temps were set up higher than he was obviously used to to up his metabolism. He checked out on blood tests for a few weeks fine, but after a short period of time he was refusing food from stress, he now started mobilizing his fat reserves (he had alot of them) which in turn soaked his liver (hepatic lipidosis) in fat causing him to die in a few weeks. The reason it was known when the fat mobilized and when his liver this occured is it showed up in the weekly blood testafter that point, none the less he didnt live long from there.
Getting a fat monitor to get rid of fat reserves to thin down is a long slow process that can be very dangerous.

Is this a quote? Because if it is, I find it very amusing that he states that they do not eat rodents in the wild. I didn't know there was processed dog food readily available out there in nature either...