fav monitor foods?

Just wondering what are your monitor's favorite foods? Please also list what kind of monitors/tegus you have.

Sorry, I started typing a poll but was kicked off line.:mad: But for some reason the thread saved. Oh well, please let me know what your guys like best and what they are. I know what care sheets and books say to feed but I just want to know some of the favorites. Pics are always welcomed (I know it has nothing to really do with this thread but I love to pics of your babies). :gj:

Roaches, hard-boiled egg, lean ground turkey. Depends on what type of monitor. If it's a Savannah, I do know that you'll want to stay away from a mainly rodent diet. Stick with the insects and he'll stay lean and healthy. A roach colony is SO easy to maintain and are very good producers. He/She would probably get a kick out of those :)

Monitors should eat WHOLE food items only. Ground turkey and canned meats are useless and serve no benefit to the animal.

I feed mice, crickets, various 'worms' (i.e. waxworms, silkworms, etc.), and a few other things. Roaches are great. I also let the waxworms and silkworms turn into moths and feed the moths.

I have a Savannah and I try to get him a variety of different things.

- Chicken (Breasts that are cut into cubes)
- Steak (again cut into cubes)
- Crickets
-Various Worms
- Feeder Fish
- Mice
- Egg

I recently picked up two different types of food at the petstore to try him on. I don't have the names of them though. One is these little pinkish red cube things. The other is this new meat mix that you add water to (Which he seemed to like)

I have been wanting to get him roaches lately **They creep me out though and I don't know anyone that sells them around here**

I was asking because my girl loves pinkies, not big on crickets, and will eat only 2 or 3 very small meal worms. I don't want her on a strictly rodent diet, but I want to keep her on a whole food diet (no canned foods). My hubby said no roaches in the house, I know in the wild they will eat carrion, so could I give her small pieces of fish that I'd buy in the grocery store? Just trying to get some ideas for what work for you. I'm not too worried about her not eating as much cause I've only had her about a week or so. She became acclimated faster than I figured she would. Only two days and she was swimming in her water dish and trying to get out. So I feed her a pinkie on Sunday (right after i feed my bp) and within 5 minutes she ate, very cool thing to see (she tossed it, caught it, two gulps and all gone). I just want to find some thing that she would enjoy between rodents (the last thing I want is a sick or fat monitor). The only BIG lizards I've had were iguanas and they were so active I never had to worry about them becoming obese. And Daniel, do they prefer the moths over the worms?

So far, mine will only eat crickets and beef (which I very seldom offer)... He wouldn't go near the mealworms for some reason.

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Originally Posted by Thunder Kat

And Daniel, do they prefer the moths over the worms?

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My Odatria go nuts over moths. The moths have alot more movement so I think that triggers the reaction.

Again, I would stick with whole food items. Also, you might want to think about supplementing the pinkies with calcium or get some fuzzy mice and chop them up. The added calcium from a bone structure is very beneficial to growth and is the missing component with all of the other food items.

From my reading on Savs, they seem to have a slower metabolism than most other monitors. This is suggested why so many become obese. Personally, I think an rodent based diet is fine if you adjust the feedings to your animal's metabolism.

Have a read of the article in Biawak concerning the breeding of savs:
http://varanidae.org/Vol1_No1.pdf
He feeds hissing cochroaches and a ground turkey & supplement mix.

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

Again, I would stick with whole food items. Also, you might want to think about supplementing the pinkies with calcium or get some fuzzy mice and chop them up. The added calcium from a bone structure is very beneficial to growth and is the missing component with all of the other food items.
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I've only feed one pinkie so far, and I forgot to mention I did dust it with Reptimineral for carnivorous reptiles. I will try moths, what about the fish? What kind would be best if any? And I only want to keep her on whole foods, I don't want an obese, unhealthy, or unhappy animal.

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Originally Posted by Thunder Kat

I've only feed one pinkie so far, and I forgot to mention I did dust it with Reptimineral for carnivorous reptiles. I will try moths, what about the fish? What kind would be best if any? And I only want to keep her on whole foods, I don't want an obese, unhealthy, or unhappy animal.

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Personally, I would not feed a sav any fish. If I were to feed a monitor some fish, it would be the whole fish not just parts. I think I remember someone saying that the chance a sav would eat a fish in the wild is slim to none.

If you are looking for an alternative to mice, check out some of the commonly fed birds. You can pick up quail, chicks and finches from most frozen rodent supply companies. Smaller eggs are good too....not the scambled junk.....whole eggs shell and all...it is so cool to watch how delicate a monitor can be with an egg. Also, feeder lizards are usually available on the classifieds at ks.com so those are always an option. It really depends on you.

I am about to order some quail for some of my monitors as a substitute for mice. It won't hurt so give it a shot if you like ;)

mice, super worms, roaches, and lean ground turkey supplemented with calcium and vitamin d3 are what i've always done.

Whole prey items only! Your Bosc is too big for a bug diet and even with dusting them will not get all the nutrients it needs. Varanids draw all their nutrients from their prey which includes not just the calcium but protiens also. Bugs, and "human" foods do not have that even with a suppliment.
Proper diet would be:
Mice
Rats
Chicks

The only way you are going to get an obese monitor is by over feeding and no exercise. Proper caging and climbing logs are what ensure good health. Not to mention you can do enrichment exercises for them like hiding a mouse under something for them to figure out how to get it or putting the food item up in a climbing log so they have to use natural methods to get it.

What is the monitors current setup???? Temps, substrate, so forth and so on???

I have tegus and a blackthroat monitor.
The tegus eat mice, baby quail, small rats, a small amount of ground turkey, eggs, and fruit(they seem to like the granny smith apples and grapes best, but get quite a variety).

The blackthroat eats mice, baby chicks, small to medium rats, some ground turkey on occasion, eggs, and on occasion fish.

The fish I get locally. Technically it's bait fish, makerel mainly. But it's caught and packaged locally and is fresh and whole and good. I've actually cooked some right out of the same package for the lizards.

The MAIN diet is mice for all the lizards(with a LOT of fruit for the tegus). The rest is off and on, with ground turkey almost exclusively for when I happen to run out of rodents due to poor planning, OR if I was dumb enough to not thaw rodents and it's too late to do so. (Or in one case when the silly cat got the thawed mice.. sigh. Pets...)
All rodents are frozen/thawed for my lizards. I don't like to feed the lizards live rodents.
Hope this helped.

she loves large crickets, baby rats, hopper mice, and she gets small amount of turkey or beef for an occasional treat. i will give her crickets for as long as she'll take them she eats up to 50 crickets a week and she gets 2-4 rodents a week. she doesn't eat worms any more. it just took a few days to settle in and like i said she loves crickets i think she just likes to hunt:D. i love her and i'm having a lot of fun with her. she's very active and as soon as she sees me she stands on her hind legs too see if i have food:P.

kat, she sounds active from what you say, you care about her a lot as i can see it but follow daniels instructions as he knows his info as does storm dragon, whole foods are really best and bugs can be offered it she likes if you supplement, and your previous pics seemed a little dehydrated, but keep up the work, monitors are harder than snakes.

p.s. Frank Retes, the pioneer, yet a-h some think of monitors in the US feeds all rodents if you care about his routine. Many dispute him and feed varied diets, which are always good, but you can't dispute his results, only his attitude... do what works for you and keeps her growing, fat and happy...


p.p.s. happy new year, and I wish you and cortana the best you deserve it, she's hard work, keep her healthy... sorry if i ramble, it's been a long new years eve.

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Originally Posted by qiksilver

kat, she sounds active from what you say, you care about her a lot as i can see it but follow daniels instructions as he knows his info as does storm dragon, whole foods are really best and bugs can be offered it she likes if you supplement, and your previous pics seemed a little dehydrated, but keep up the work, monitors are harder than snakes.

p.s. Frank Retes, the pioneer, yet a-h some think of monitors in the US feeds all rodents if you care about his routine. Many dispute him and feed varied diets, which are always good, but you can't dispute his results, only his attitude... do what works for you and keeps her growing, fat and happy...


p.p.s. happy new year, and I wish you and cortana the best you deserve it, she's hard work, keep her healthy... sorry if i ramble, it's been a long new years eve.

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she eats 2-4 rodents a week, the crickets are mainly for exercise. when i take her out she climbs on my shoulder and falls a sleep (like she is right now). she was a bit dehydrated in those pics, the first i posted was when i first brought her home and the other two pics are when i was trying to get her settled in (she makes it hard for me to read her temps because she buries her thermometer). i'm getting a gun for temps and humidity for my b-day (next week) so the temp/humidity issue should be solved. and cortana says happy new year! now i have to date all of my paper work 08:D. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!!!!

i just got a baby sav but did anyone ever think about rabbit instead of beef or other fatty meats rabbit is also alot higher in calcium or maybe i got that backwards

Lets see I feed
-crickets
-worms (superworms)
-mice
When he gets a little bigger I will feed chicks,rats.

Other then that they can eat alot!
heres some safe food items that can be used
WHOLE SEAFOOD
Crabs
Shrimp
Octopus
Fish(Trout, Bass, Crappie, etc etc)
Crayfish(crawfish{Whatever you want call them}haha)
Mussels
Clams.
More foods
Snails(a favorite)
Snakes
large bugs(Roaches, Tarantulas, Scorpions, Millipede�s, Locust)
Rabbits
Guinea Pigs
Pigs (if you have large albigs and other species of Varanids)
Frogs
Lizards
Turtles
Fertile eggs