Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Quick question, at what age do you stop feeding monitors crickets, if ever?

I can imagine that at some point in time my black roughneck monitor will outgrow them...I think.

Is it good practice to stop with crickets and start with roaches at a certain age?

I feed my 1-1/2 year old black roughneck three fuzzys 4 to 5 days a week and usually spice up one day with crickets (just tried 6 huge roaches two days ago for the first time..he loved them).

If anyone has good info please reply.

Well you definately have to stop feeding them if your dealing with the larger or medium monitrs unless you want to buy a pound of crickets everyday. But for the smaller species like ackies or peachthroats you probably could feed em crickets their whole life. Just use your judgment and went the cricket just looks way too small then you will know. Roaches are also a good food item, switch over when your monitor looks big enough to handle them. Or you could just feed small roaches to it now.

Since we are on the subject of diet, what is best for a 1-1/2 year old black roughneck?

I currently feed him daily and always have since he eats everytime I put food in his cage. He is not overweight (I think)for his size because he never sits still.

If you have good info on a proper diet please reply.

I have to say I have never worked with a black roughneck but I think the feeding schedule I am about to give is almost universal. If it has reached its adult size then 3 mice weekly, this is if it is obese. Incorporate less fatty foods into the diet as well. Shrimp seem to work well or fish. I feed my argus shrimp from my local store and suckers(bait-fish) from my local bait store. He loves em almost as much as he does mice.If you live in warmer climates take him for a wlk on a leash or if nobody care let it wlak around in a room with no escape routes. It could also be the cage is a little to small for him to get all the exercise it needs. From what I have read, not from personal expeiriance, the roughneck is riparian in habits which means they love water so if you have a pond in your yard or a large tub in the tank get him to swim. I have a pond in my yard and it is enclosed so in the summer I let him soak and swim in it. He also chases the baby bass and golfish in the pond. This is good exercise and very stimulating to them. Try some of this. Good luck

you don't HAVE to stop, ever. they may not be sufficient to fill all the caloric needs for a larger monitor, but they can certainly fullfill some, as well as present activity and excercise potentials, so insects can always be a part of a nutritional diet.

larger roaches like hissers are better at providing more realistic calories, but with a mid sized monitor like a Roughneck, you could actively feed insects the entire life without a problem, and raise a terrifically healthy monitor.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

my point was that exactly that crickets do not supply that much claories. Should you then feed crickets to a 5 foot argus or a 7 foot water. My point was as they get larger gradually lessen the crickets into something else. If the monitor he has is 2ft long than yea no prob.

I mean you could feed crickets as a way of exercise but you also use a different insect. It is all up to you what you want to do.

Thanks for the helpfull info, I will keep with an insect and rodent diet.

With my Albigs it has always been pretty young, Ive never tried them with my flavi-argus, he was 3 ft long when I got him, my ackies, storrs both eat crickets and lobster roaches.
The medium and large species lose interest and wont even look at them early. I feed mice, rats, chicken peeps, and quail to them, with an occasional nightcrawler or so.
Ask Dragoon Im sure hers eat mice almost exclusively.
I have had a cricket running loose in Sobeks cage for 2 weeks, it climbs on her, around her and she pays it no mind, lol.

You're right on!
My BT stopped eating crickets already, and is eating a small mouse a day.

I've had 4 crix in the enclosure for the last 4 or 5 days, I got rid of them all today, pretty much got the message that he wasn't gonna eat em. He'll gobble a mouse right up though.

As a basis, with quail, and insects. Sobek was 16 inches total at 2 months old, they have no problem whatsoever with adult mice at that size, even smaller.

Yeah, Achilles is at 14" and eating one small adult mouse a day.

Question.... when it comes time that he'll eat more, is it better to then feed him two of the same size mice, or one bigger one? I guess that sorta depends on whether or not the two he'll eat are the biggest he can swallow though...
Probably better to feed two as he'll get more nutrition/meat/bone content from two whole medium mice instead of one whole big one.

Especially with young growing monitors, they digest faster also. I fed jumbo mice and chicken peeps to Sobek until she was 6ft long, then I started her on large rats, she now eats even larger quail, she could eat another size or more of rat larger yet.