Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All,

I recently read an article on blackroughneck monitors (I own one) and read that a rodent based diet will make them overweight and shorten their lifespan.

I have primarily fed rodents, crickets and cochroaches. I did quite a bit of research before I bought him, and thought that rodents was a universal feeder and great for growth.

I am from Chicago and have talked with my local (experienced) herp supplier and he said that rodents would work.

Any other roughneck monitor owners have good insight to a good diet.

If I have nothing to worry about, please let me know.

I had a rudicollis (WC, young adult) which lived with me for 21 years before dieing of old age last year. He was fed a diet mostly of mice and was not obese. Obesity comes when keepers overfeed monitors on any diet.

You will find two very different schools of thought on this forum when asking this question.
Many beleive that a rodent based diet is not only suitable but ideal,because rodents are easily available, relativly cheap and a solid source of protien.
I personaly have kept both black and brown roughnecks for years and find a rodent based diet to be less than satisfactory.
In my experience a shellfish diet is far superior to a rodent based one.I have had poor results feeding mainly rodents to these species i.e lethargy, poor color, poor breeding, etc.
I feed crayfish,shrimp,crab,fish,roaches and occasional rodents(about once a week)and have had exellent results.
Crayfish are also very cheap, you can get them shipped to your door for less than $4 a lb(what does a lb of mice cost?).
Every Rudi that I have ever owned (6 or so) has gone ape s$%# for the shellfish.When you switch a roughneck to shellfish you can really tell the diference when you see and smell the change in their feaces.
Others here will disagree with me strongly.
Try switching and see if you like the results.
Cheers
Ben

Thanks

You will have to contact me directly,I tried to email you but it said you don't accept emails from this forum,and you can't recomend websites here as the post will be deleted.
Ben

It depends Steve. Whole food items are great as well as rodents. But none will work well when the monitor is kept in subnormal conditions.

There are two basic considerations. First, monitors are reptiles and reptiles do not have one temperature, like mammals. So they use different temps to accomplish different tasks. Overall reptiles, and monitors are reptiles, conserve energy and expend energy. To do this, they use heat. In order to conserve, they use lower temps, to expend, they use higher temps. Of course there are other basic considerations, like humidity, if thats not suitable, they will not make proper choices.

When you understand that, you then understand if your monitor does not have the ability to expend energy, the richer(high energy) foods will cause a failure faster then low energy foods. But the food is not the problem. Its the conditions as the monitor will fail in due time, no matter which food is consumed.

The key is to fix the problem not change the quality of the food. Now, how simple and logical is that? The reality is, a heathy monitor can eat doorknobs for darn sake.

Second, the people who fail, surely have to blame something. And surely they are not going to blame themselves. So they blame rodents, or anything but themselves. Truth is, whatever happens in captivity is the keepers fault, period. As the keeper took away the kepts choices.

Thirdly(is that a word)OK, third, is about research, when most research, they research people, as in what people think. That has proven to rarely be about the subject, in this case monitors. In most cases, its about the keepers restrictions, as in, my wife said, no more cages(so I put it in a box in the corner), or do not use too much electrity(so I used a 25w bulb), or the cage has to fit thru the door(the closet door). Or she said, I hate roaches(in my case) or I don't own a saw. Or other such things as, what you mean dirt, dirt is dirty. Or what about bacteria, while not realizing they themselves are one giant ball of festering bacteria. hahahahahahahaha But rarely about the needs of the caged(the monitors). The problem is, they never mention the real restrictions, they only mention the results of them. As in, monitors will die for this or that reason. Of course they will, but not for the reason they said. So, rodents are great and not the problem. The problem is the conditions the monitors are kept in. FR

While I generally enjoy disagreeing with Frank, his point is right on the money, you must be keeping these guys properly to even start messing with diet.
I think that a well kept monitor could process little green army men.
Cheers

Ummmmm.......okay?

What didn't you understand. Oh, and while I have your ear(eye) I saw your pic above, nice combination of colors. Is that your rabbit cage? Is the monitor about to have dinner?

Sorry that was a poor method of getting your attention.(it really is a nice combination of colors) You see, you are using pellets as a tool for you. Its a method to suit your needs. To clean, or keep clean or some such thing.

The problem is, monitors live in their substrate(some species, including yours) not "on" the substrate, in it. Their life is based from the shelter(sets of burrows) out. Not living outside and going in a shelter to sleep or something.

Consider if you were a captive and your keepers gave you cheerios to make your house and sleeping area, with. Hmmmmmmm I guess it would be possible but surely stressful. Then if they gave you the wrong set of temps and moisture. Like maybe you on the south pole with cheerios. Then they made statements about how poorly you digested clams. And that clams caused you to have a short life and get all skinny and caused you to quiver.

Hmmmmmmmm OK, I guess what I am saying is, whats important to the monitor is completely ignored by you, instead you feel keeping the cage clean is more important. Hmmmm Ok, you do that because you understand how to clean and keep a cage clean, but you do not understand the needs of the monitor. This is what those other fine folks may have done. They made statements out of context. Out of the monitors context. FR

I think we are all here to make the best monitor...strongest, tamest, healthiest, long life, breeding quality etc. So I would think the most accurate duplication of their invironment, then take away all the negatives, like parasites and predators then you will get the most out of your monitor. If you figure that an animal has evolved to digest seafood, I am sure rodent could **possibly** cause long term problems. As well as a rodent eater **might not** do well on crab no matter how perfect the environment is. Everyone is right here in some sense, until one of you does a very scientific study and has proof it is all based on short term results...maybe a little coke is good for them since it gives them energy lol