Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i go upstate ny every weekend i always cvatch crayfish in the pond can i bring them home and give to my 23" black rough neck someone told me give her some crayfish dont no if i have to bye them or cAN I CATCH THEM IF I CAN CATCH THEM WHAT DO I DO BEFOR I GIVE THEM TO HER
SRYY FOR CAPS

Ive always just boughten my crawdads at the local asian market. Though, I dont see what they could do to them to make them any cleaner than what a good rinse would accompish.

Give them to her just like you catch them.
I've done this with my Varanus dumerilii

They also love fiddler crabs, prawns, shrimp, stew beef, can dog food, and chicken breast.
Hope this helps!
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Greg Holland
G&M HERPS
www.imageevent.com/gmherps
gmherps@sbcglobal.net

I wouldn't recomend it because cray fish are seasonal and are pretty expensive to buy. If you monitor loves em than he might get hooked on them. Keep it cheap keep it varied.

Later,

haveagreenday

I used to feed a large Water Monitor I had several crayfish a week for variety in the diet. I would get them live and then rinse them in hot water to clean them off and slightly cook them.I would then freeze them for at least 30 days as this kills all of the bacteria and possible diseases they can have. When I used them I would take out one or two and rinse it under hot water to thaw it out and finish cooking it. Hope this helps...Joe

Anything that isn't killing the crayfish most likely won't harm the monitor if husbandry aspects are okay.

Very true. The tecnique I described was just something I read about many years ago and I used it for my Water Monitor. It did turn out to be very useful when I purchased large amounts of crayfish as a way to store and keep "fresh" the crayfish....Joe

Yeah its crazy, even though I have not been keeping/reading about varanus for very long, I can totally tell the old husbandry information and techniques from old ones. Some stuff has changed a lot. Nice name.

Joe