Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been reading up on Monitors cause I was recently going to buy a baby Water from a friend of mine whos roomate got kicked out and sent to jail. But he ended up dying this past Fri on my b-day due to no heat being provided and nothing for food except fried chicken breasts. I couldn't "save" him quick enough. I was going to buy him, the 75 gal tank with stand for $50 since the guy had no use for it.

Anyways, i haven't seen referance to feeding Monitors beef. Now my father lives out in the country and has several Buffalo, cattle, and other animals he'll kill every now and then for meat. He often asks if I want some steaks, patties, etc but I always decline cause I dont really have room in the freezer.

Also, i have several creeks nearby which have large crawldads, minows, and I have several kinds of grasshoppers around here. Are these animals ok to feed monitors to occasionaly or as a treat?

Some keepers feed there monitors chopped beef
without any apparent problems. Whole prey items
are better and I've never fed beef to my monitors
but thats just me.
The wild caught prey you mention would probably
be relished by many monitors, but there are some
potential dangers.
The easiest, cheapest and safest food source would
probably be mail order frozen rodents. Of course
you should offer a variety, and many other feeders
are readily available online.

I was thinking if i do end up getting a water monitor, could i feed it squrrils(sp?) and Rabbits? We have a crap load of them here in the burbs were I live and they are annoying. I thought about getting some kinda trap and putting it out and catching some "free" food for it when it gets big enough.

Funny I don't remember giving up my spot.

Check your laws before you go out shooting or trapping up the local wildlife to feed your reptiles. also beware of the risks involved. The wild critters may carry parasites, or who knows what and pass it on to your captives.

I won't even collect bugs here cause they spray for mossies around my nieghborhood.

yeah, thats another thing I thought about and thats why I was hesitant on the idea. It would be better to just buy a small cube size freezer and stock up on mice/rats and try to make a cricket/roach colony to save some money on food.

Didn't you just say NO to sliced ham??

?

np

np

np

Hmm, I believe Ive been saying that for a few years on here.
Your right some people use turkey burger, beef, pork, chicken, hot dogs, etc etc , and none of it is near as good to feed to a monitor as a basis of whole animals. The problem being that so many take the suggestion of feed on occaision to mean "every other day, or even every 3rd day and so on", the idea being that feeding whole animals as the basis is best. Hey, I dont feed eggs much if ever, but FR gives some of his whole eggs on occaision stright out of the refrigerator, but its not a basis of the animals diet.