# Monitors and dog food?



## XxStormsWebxX (Jun 22, 2004)

My older brother is buying me a Savanna Monitor for my passing birthday and he tells me the best thing to feed them is purina dog chow, the gooy stuff. No crickets or mice. Does anyone know anything on this or know any other good methods.


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## LaRiz (Jun 22, 2004)

Dog and cat food, especially given in the manner your brother suggests, will lead to an obese and unhealthy monitor that will eventually die from liver disease.  They don't get dog food in the wild, so don't give it to them.  A small treat wouldn't hurt, but don't exclusively feed it dog food.  The best way to go is vary the diet with all the available arthropods and supplement it with small mice/pinks if it's small.  There is some commercial monitor diet available, but I know nothing of it and if I were still keeping monitors I would steer clear of it anyway.  Variety is key.  I believe that a staple of most monitor diets are arthropods.  I once had a fresh wild caught _Varanus dumerili_ that passed it's first stool while in my possession.  This stool contained segments from a scorpions abdomen.  Also, this particular BRN absolutely loved crayfish.
If you want a healthy and longlived monitor, stay away from the dog food...unless you have a dog.
john


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## Brian S (Jun 22, 2004)

*savannah food*

I have heard the same thing. I talk to a dealer at a reptile show that raises nile and savannah monitors that will sometimes scramble an egg for their monitors. But they even said that crickets and insects was the most nutritious for the babys and mice was the best food for the adults. I got a savannah about 2 months ago and I can't get it to eat anything except crickets and grasshoppers. I have tried scrambled eggs and tuna fish which it ignores.


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## Lycanthrope (Jun 22, 2004)

I agree with John here. As referenced in an earlier thread, go to MAMPAM.org and order Daniel Bennet's book. A very thorough manual on owning savs.


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## Brian S (Jun 22, 2004)

Lycanthrope said:
			
		

> I agree with John here. As referenced in an earlier thread, go to MAMPAM.org and order Daniel Bennet's book. A very thorough manual on owning savs.


I have the book ordered. When I get it I will tell if it is a "keeper". I have heard that it is the best book on the market for savannahs.


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## pitbulllady (Jun 22, 2004)

I wouldn't even feed Purina Dog Chow to a DOG!  Read the ingredients-pet food ingredients are listed in order of importance, and the first five ingredients listed actually make up over 75% of the food's content.  Unless Purina has drastically changed the formula of their Dog Chow within the last few months, you'll see that of those first five ingredients, the majority is GRAIN and grain by-products, especially soybean meal, which is the left-over residue which remains after the oil has all been rendered out of the soybeans.  It has little, if any, nutritional value and is used as cheap, readily-available filler and a source of protein-protein which is unavailable to carnivors!  I used to work as a distributor for dog and cat food, by the way, so that is how I learned how to judge the content.  Common sense would tell anyone that an animal which is designed primarily to eat meat is not going to do its best on a grain-based diet!  SOME dogs can do pretty well on it, but keep in mind that dogs have been domesticated for nearly 100,000 years, according to latest research, and have had longer to adapt to poorer-quality foods.

I would feed a monitor a diet mostly of rodents, with an occasional snack of shrimp, crawfish, eggs and other proteins.  If you feed any commercial pet food, it should be a high-quality canned food, meat-based, such as Eukanuba, and ONLY on rare occasions!  Meat baby food, such as chicken or lamb, can also be fed, and some people have had good results with ground fresh turkey.   Stay away from grains; monitors are the ultimate Atkins dieters!

pitbulllady


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## Israel2004 (Jun 23, 2004)

The best food for any monitor is whole prey. Mice, rats, chicks, roaches, crickets, etc... 
NOT dog food.


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## cichlidsman (Jun 23, 2004)

i have seen on wildlife shows sometimes they eat chickens. not sure what kind of monitor, but i would say that whats good for one is good for all.


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## Dragoon (Jun 23, 2004)

I have a few monitors. I have hatched out black roughnecks twice, and have eggs incubating now. 
All mine eat mice. Babys start on crickets. I give eggs and ground turkey once a month just to amuse myself.  They are all growing, and shed nicely and recover from pregnancy, and heal big cuts just fine so far, on a diet of mice. 
Cheers
D.
http://varanid.mvd2.com/Files/Dragoon/RavenSpar.jpg


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