Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got what is probably going to turn out to be a stupid question? Why can't I feed my lizards raw meat. Supplemented with calcium and multivitamin powder here and there.

Except it will most likely die. Other then that, its fine. Just like it would be for you. And please do not get mad at me, you have already know this before you got a monitor. FR

Gotta hand it to FR to be short, sweet and humorous all in a few short sentences

In response to the original post, it's because what you suggest will not meet the nutritional requirments of your monitor.

Why would crickets and rats meet my lizards needs and not assorted raw meats. Why can't I feed my lizards the same food I eat. I bet they'd live long lives and they'd be happy as hell, because they were smoking a butt while they were sippin on a scotch. I'm serious, if you asked a doctor what a human needs to survive then compared it to what you eat, you probably should by all rights be dead by now. What I'm saying is open your mind, feed your monitor a ho ho.

I'm sorry but that statement is a rather idiotic one. Most of our foods are vitamin fortified and laden with various chemicals. A monitor's body is geared to take advantage of whole prey animals as a staple diet. True enough they scavenge on carcasses in the wild however, they are also getting small animals, insects, rodents etc in the wild. The organs of those animals are what prevents the monitor from being deficient. He gets his vitamin D3 from the organs as well as iron, calcium, phosphorous etc. Feeding him just slices of meat would not even begin to meet his nutritional needs and could possibly even damage his organs if any of those meats have been treated with chemicals of any kind... as is most beef/chicken/pork/etc in the grocery store.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 2.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystic))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"

To add to your response Lucien, a slab of beef has a Ca ratio of 1:23 when ideally you would like 1.5:1 to 3:1.