Reptile & Amphibian Forums

can savannah monitors be fed eggs of any kind? what size?

This will probably be debated, but from what I have read eggs are fine. I would not use them as a main diet, but rather a "treat". A diet of insects and rodents should be the main diet. Most of what I have read suggest only hard-boiled eggs be offered. I sure some others will weigh in on this with a little more knowledge then myself, but this gives you an idea.

If you feed unfertilized eggs (which most store bought eggs are) they contain a substance which I believe is called avidin(not totally sure but it's in Dr. frye's medical books somewhere and I haven't read through them in a while) which over time inhibits the absorption of vitamin B and can cause the related problems with vitamin B deficiency. Anyway cooking the eggs does away with this substance and it probably only causes a problem if you feed them a diet consisting of mostly eggs which is a bad idea anyway. Besides if you boil them you can cut them up to the appropriate size for your monitor(s) I have used eggs occasionally to vary the diets in my monitors for many years with no problems they are an excellent source of protein as well as calcium (the shells of course) Quail eggs work really well for smaller monitors if you raise quail or you can find them at Asian grocery stores but chicken eggs will do as well.