Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have to go away on business for about 5 days and my 14inch monitor who I feed a fuzzy to everyday is gonna be watched by a friend but I'm just curious just in case they don't do it. How long can the little guy go without food. I'm leaving on thursday which he'll get fed on and coming back the following tuesday which he'll get fed on so he'll have to go 4 days without any thing to eat unless I leave crickets in their for him but I don't wanna leave too many or they might jump him in his sleep or something. The heat and lights are all on a timer but what do you all do when you have to leave just get a babysitter? I don't wanna leave him alone

I would really try and find someone who will do it, but still, I don't trust a whole lot of people to feed my monitors when I'm away. 4 days should be fine for a 14 in. monitor, while it is ideal to feed them almost every day while young, when they get bigger they have more fat to draw energy from and can go longer without food. If I could not find someone, I would feed the monitor as much as they would eat before leaving. A mouse or something of that sort would be better because they would be getting more nutrients and digestion would take a little longer than with crickets.
In the wild, monitors never know when their next meal will come, sometimes two days in a row, sometimes they may not see a meal for a week or more. Even in captivity, some animals that are sick may go a month or so without eating.
If the monitor is with a cage mate, I would not go long periods in between feeding because if hungry enough, the monitors may turn on each other as food sources...it happens!
With the crickets, it's advised not to leave them in with the monitors, but if you do, leave some potato slices or something for them to snack on so they don't try your monitor out for food.
Hope this helps.

and the answer I got was, a long time.
I went on vacation for a week, and just turned the lights off, and left clean water in a smaller bowl they could not defecate in.
Leaving your timers on, will keep their metabolism up, and they will feel hungry. If their 'sun' does not rise for a few, they should just conserve energy, and rest till you get back. Like a spell of bad weather or something. lol. Who knows what they think.
Neat animals, eh?
D.

Dragoon has got it right. Leave the basking lights on and you have more scope for trouble. Turn them off and the animal will just go into torpor for a few days. Make sure you haven't fed it a day or two before you turn the lights off, though, as you don't want it cooled down with a stomach full of undigested fuzzies.

ok that could work but I would rather him eat something while I'm gone he has been growing like a weed and I wanna keep that going. Could I potentially leave the timers on and drop two fuzzies in. He'll only eat one fuzzy and some crickets normally in a day..you don't think he'll try to eat both fuzzies and throw them back up at once do you? I just don't wanna come home and find a monitor that choked to death because he ate too much..but I found a friend who will baby sit but it's weird babysitting your monitor is like loaning your car I don't trust anyone.....this sucks

I would think a normal monitor would gorge itself if it could. They are not mammals, they grab energy/food when they can, conserve when it is scarce.

4 days is really a very short period of time. Personally I would go the cooling route, if I didn't have reliable friends.

Here is a pic of my female jobiensis that laid last week. She is quite proud of herself, because in addition to getting some food, she managed to steal some of her cagemate's food.

--Robert

ok that could work but I would rather him eat something while I'm gone he has been growing like a weed and I wanna keep that going. Could I potentially leave the timers on and drop two fuzzies in. He'll only eat one fuzzy and some crickets normally in a day..you don't think he'll try to eat both fuzzies and throw them back up at once do you? I just don't wanna come home and find a monitor that choked to death because he ate too much..but I found a friend who will baby sit but it's weird babysitting your monitor is like loaning your car I don't trust anyone.....this sucks