Hi everyone, I would like to know other types of food for my monitor besides crickets and mice. Yesterday I found some grub worms under my goat's water trough and he just loved them. I want to be able to give him a varied diet.
Pretty much any feeder insect or worm out there is good for adding variety: hornworms (captive bred only!), waxworms, mealworms, superworms, butterworms, silkworms, soldier fly larvae (calci/phoenix/reptiworms), crickets, grasshoppers, roaches. Setting up a colony of a larger species of feeder roaches would be a wise investment as I imagine a fully grown sav goes through a boatload of crickets in one sitting. Small pond snails, ghost shrimp, and crayfish are also good treats. Remember to keep vertebrate prey (small mice/rats and chicks) to a minimum. The majority of your savs diet should be invertebrates. Be careful feeding wild caught critters to your monitor. Make sure you are collecting in an area that is far from any place that might be spraying any kind of chemicals (herbicides, pesticides). Also, keep in mind that wild insects are more likely to pass on parasites to your animal. Anyways, you've used the magic word: variety. That really is the key. Continue to mix things up and your monitor will be good as gold. =)
here's a great site to look into http://www.savannahmonitor.co/ night crawlers are great to feed to them as long a they are collected in a pesticide free area as are some snails.
The website is really good, basically talks about how important it is to provide a enclose with soil for digging when the humidity is low. It also talks strongly about varied diet with no mice included. Crickets, roaches, night crawlers, shrimp, snails and crayfish. My monitor will eat snails, crickets but did not like dubia roaches. His big pen outside is big but I need to dig out a hole to fit the cage in then provide soil for digging a burrow. His indoor cage contains soil but not enough, I need to loosen it and then add fresh soil. Anyways I'm going to try and see if he will eat shrimp. Its hard to get nightcrawlers here in AZ but I can always order some on line.
I would like to respectfully ask where and on what page of the site did you read anything about not including mice in the diet? Furthermore, the burrows are not "for when humidity is low", The fact that you should have literally a ton of soil in your enclosure that is kept moist, the humidity inside a properly sealed enclosure should never fall below 60% with the exclusion of directly under the basking array. Burrowing is an instinctive behaviour in V. Exanthematicus, and since virtually all baby/juvenile specimens sold are unsexed, prudence mandates that you set your enclosure up expecting a female, as females will egg bind trying to find suitable nesting, Nesting occurs down inside burrows. And yes, the ladies ovulate (produce eggs) in the absence of males. (The eggs will not be fertile) Thank you.
It's quite OK, I just didn't want any misunderstandings. I have been feeding mine rodents nearly every day (with variety, worms & arthropods also) It's a common misconception, heck I was preaching no mice myself for over half a decade, and my Invert only Exanthematicus died in 5 short years anyway. It was only through a ton of research and speaking with several Varanid biologists that I was able to conclude exactly why poor caging decisions led to my Savannah Monitor's early demise. Captive Monitor Health! All of my web site information is "peer reviewed" prior to publication as well.
Thanks! Your info is helpful! I have had experience with Green iguana females and the burrowing to lay eggs. So I totally agree that Savannah Monitor's would also do the same for laying eggs. I'm glad to hear that feeding mice to SM is not a bad part of their diet.
What happens is that many people, including veterinarians will blame the diet for lack of understanding just how reptiles utilize their food. Savannah Monitors (all monitors actually) command very large territories in the wild, Field scientists will tag a lizard, and find it over a mile away the next day at times. So exercise is very important, and that cannot be accomplished in a small cage. People will excuse this away by saying "I let it out of its enclosure a lot" and that is unacceptable as well, because the vast majority of owners do not live in the tropics. (There's a reason Monitors only live near the equator) so therefor it's not going to be 100 degrees with 80% humidity inside our homes. My gout pages outline exactly why these animals NEED these conditions to survive.
I only within the past two hours found this site while looking into how to calm my "aggressive" tempered monitor. Oddly enough.. he was given as a gift to me after my ferret passed away from cancer complications.. And needless to say.. I knew nothing of the species. I deal more with ball pythons and boas, to be honest. But I am convinced this board will help me provide the proper husbandry and care for my Sav! FYI, he's the one in the pic and his name is Boss. Thanks for all the info guys! This is a VERY informative group!!
Does the description below describe a soil I can use for my monitor?? This Top Soil contains an organic humus that is good for top dressing lawns and gardens and for creating berms to elevate planting areas from wet conditions. The ready-to-use soil is also good for blending with peat and compost to create custom potting blends and planting mediums.
As long as it does not contain any chemical fertilizers, it will be just fine. I will be back on shortly and I'll start a thread outlining how to mix a good soil for Savannah Monitors.
I finally got Zeus to eat cockroaches! Now I feel better that he has a better diet. Mice, snails, crickets and cockroaches.