The Gregg syndrome.
For Gregg, its not about being smarter then for phd product maker, or about making some product to promote. Its simply about monitors.
The problem is, those folks do not have successful experience with varanids, and this is a very specialized area of reptile keeping and the last frontier of reptile keeping. You know, where breeding is rare.
The problems with varanids is, not that they are complicated and specialized, its very much the opposite. They are simple and behavioral. And so extremely tuff.
For instance, us longtime successful varanid keepers know that varanids will feed well into death. So we do not use the old other snake gauges like it eats it, as a measure of success. Monitors eat anything and everything.
I just rescued a monitor that was lost in a cage for over a year, with no food or water. It drank and fed within hours of putting it in a decent cage, And is fine.
We had one lost in shipment for over six months, then it arrived where it was sent. Its was fine, six months in a snake bag in a small shipping box. And was fine.
Of course these animals lost a lot of weight, but for monitors kept in decent conditions, that is recovered within a day or two.
Now the problem, all species of varanids are prone to organ damage, with some species more then others. With wet land species being more prone to kidney damage then desert or drier habitat species. Liver damage is also a problem. And from various causes.
Whats odd about this is, these monitors can and do feed for about a month, then perish for failed organs. A common statement here is, well it ate yesterday!
What I have a some problem with, and the thread below is in that area is, RESCUE. from what I ask?
Then you talk about a RESCUE diet, like those canned foods. Cool, but still the question remains, what are you rescuing it from? Or what is it recovering from?
An example would be if there was kidney problems, feeding is not a good approach, electrolytes are. Etc.
Again as I indicated above, recovering from lack of food takes no special approach, not with varanids. Organ damage does take a special approach.
As long as their bare minimum is available for their use.
Yes, I can and do get confused, specially when the word rescue is envolved. Again, I think, rescued from what and heading to what. In most cases, its from the pot to the pan. I know, bad attitude I have. But I also got that bad attitude from this reality.
And for those that rationalize that breeding is takes something extra, well if you kept you cat or dog or mouse or horse, in conditions that would not support reproduction, you would be cited or arrested.
Reproduction is normal, and the design of all living animals. Its not the exception, its the bare minimum. Below the ability to reproduce is FAILURE.
With Varanids This reproductive failure is the norm. But that does not make it right.
ALso, as far as vets having a decent understanding of varanids, well that have not proved out either, With only one or two exceptions.
Allow me to get my bum in trouble one more time. That nice person, Wayne I believe, that is walking his Sav on a leash. Everyone that has posted that type of keeping as lost their wonderful pet within a year or two. AGain, they died, and died healthy. That is, died fat and normal looking. I really hope this does not occur with Waynes monitor, but I also hoped it did not occur with others kept that way. The problem is, 39" and over 10 pds, to much fat. My guess is, thats about 5 pds of fat.
The problem seems to be, monitors need to use that fat, in captivity, if they hold fat for long periods, then seem to perish.
Such monitors as Savs, have very long dry seasons where they use that stored fat on a yearly basis. Its not to be stored the lifetime of that animal.
In nature, they consume as much as they can, to store as much fat as they can hopely to get thru the next year. In captivty, the store never closes and they feed on a schedule yearly. There is much more to this.
For folks like Gregg, who comes here with a really nice Sav, and quotes all manner of stuff, I will remind you. This forum is about the keeping and breeding of Varanids. The actual keeping and breeding, not the theoretical keeping and breeding.
So if your going to take a foot hold on someones degrees or Uni they went to, try calling them and asking what their specific experience with VARANIDS is. You see, thats been the problem. generic information, has totally failed with varanids. What has succeeded is direct working experience. You know, actual success and failure experience.
Good luck and have a great new year folks. later
and I have looked into his ears with a flashlight, and when he eats, I am impressed by the cavernous passage of a throat.. I almost bet he could get a baseball down that pipe of his.