Quote Originally Posted by BallsUnlimited View Post
crickets,super worms,hard boiled eggs with shells, or you can do the san diego zoo diet which is lean ground turkey with 2 crushed centrum vitamins and bone meal mixed into it. Can also add crushed egg shell to it as well. pinkys,mice try and stay away from a high mice diet. to much fat is not good for them. Once a week a mouse or two depending on size and lots of insects. You can get roaches in bulk they love them.
No rodents? Are you twenty years behind in your varanid literature? If proper husbandry conditions are met (high humidity, basking temps of 120-140F, lots of space and hides) then there is nothing wrong with a predominantly rodent diet. The problem with rodent diets is when the animals are kept in tiny enclosures that are too cool. Proper digestion is not possible.

A rodent (mice or rat) is a complete diet. Millions of snakes can't be wrong, can they? What's the difference between an active monitor and a lazy snake? From what you're saying every snake in captivity is doomed to obesity and a short lifespan.

I've been keeping varanids since 1990, and they have all been fed a predominantly rodent based diet. My first niloticus lived to be 16.

Chris