a couple of quick savannah questions

[skelington]

Hi everyone, i was out purchasing frozen shrimp from the asian store by my house and the owner was very worried about a sharp barb on the shrimps head harming my lizard. he advised me to cut it off before feeding. I not sure what kind of shrimp they are, but they are head on and wont have them in until tomorrows shipment. i figured i would run it by you guys for the cut or not to cut the barb. if there is any chance of him being hurt, i want to remove that risk, but this is also the same lizard that takes on crawdads and demolishes them.
my second question is i have the opportunity to trade a friend my monitor for his 2 babies that he is very confident are male and female. i would have liked a pair when i bought mine, but didnt have the money or space for 2 at the time so i stuck with what i could care for. now i would be able to provide for both of them and hopefully can get a breeding pair going. i understand that there is no profit margin on the babies, but i think it would be a fun project and give me something to shoot for. what do you guys think? would you do it? i really want to, he even offered to buy another baby and give me a trio in hopes that i would get a male and female. It really seems to be a win win for me, im just out a year of food for my monitor, and i dont even want to add that up haha

[smy_749]

Hi everyone, i was out purchasing frozen shrimp from the asian store by my house and the owner was very worried about a sharp barb on the shrimps head harming my lizard. he advised me to cut it off before feeding. I not sure what kind of shrimp they are, but they are head on and wont have them in until tomorrows shipment. i figured i would run it by you guys for the cut or not to cut the barb. if there is any chance of him being hurt, i want to remove that risk, but this is also the same lizard that takes on crawdads and demolishes them.
my second question is i have the opportunity to trade a friend my monitor for his 2 babies that he is very confident are male and female. i would have liked a pair when i bought mine, but didnt have the money or space for 2 at the time so i stuck with what i could care for. now i would be able to provide for both of them and hopefully can get a breeding pair going. i understand that there is no profit margin on the babies, but i think it would be a fun project and give me something to shoot for. what do you guys think? would you do it? i really want to, he even offered to buy another baby and give me a trio in hopes that i would get a male and female. It really seems to be a win win for me, im just out a year of food for my monitor, and i dont even want to add that up haha

That is probably not likely. Only a few success stories here and there, and I doubt your friend knows the sex if they are still babies. Hard to answer about the shrimp without seeing them though... I'll leave that to wayne.

[skelington]

i totally agree about the sex, i was very apprehensive to take him on his word. thats why him purchasing a third was brought up. and i understand that breeding is not likely to happen even if i get lucky on the sexes. its basically a chance to trade in my lizard for 2 or 3 new ones and maybe get lucky.
i was just hoping for some insight that if you where in my shoes what would you do type of thing.

[formica]

I guess actually it could be quite dangerous to a Sav as they like to swallow head first - the sharp serated projection would then be pointing straight into the Savs throat, and it can be very very sharp (I used to be a fish monger, i know my shrimps haha)

[Mikoh4792]

I would just take off the whole exo skeleton and just give it the meat. It's not hard.

Why wouldn't you take off the barb. It's not safe to swallow sharp things anyways.

[infernalis]

I would just take off the whole exo skeleton and just give it the meat. It's not hard..

Defeats the whole purpose of complete prey animals, if they are no longer complete. Peeling the shrimp is no different than feeding fillet chicken. it will be missing nutrients, especially calcium. All the calcium in Arthropods is in the exoskeleton.

[smy_749]

Defeats the whole purpose of complete prey animals, if they are no longer complete. Peeling the shrimp is no different than feeding fillet chicken. it will be missing nutrients, especially calcium. All the calcium in Arthropods is in the exoskeleton.

Yep. If its really that serious of a barb, just smash the head, or break off the barb. But don't peel off the skeleton.

Try to find out what they are called or get some picss

[infernalis]

I am curious, seems scorpion claws, bird beaks, bird talons, crushed snails, etc... are sharp too.

Healthy lizards pass these things in nature.

[smy_749]

I am curious, seems scorpion claws, bird beaks, bird talons, crushed snails, etc... are sharp too.

Healthy lizards pass these things in nature.

This is why I doubt its as bad as he thinks it is. I REALLY doubt its worse than a bird beak or bone claw of something

[formica]

i think the potential issue comes from the way a Sav swallows its food, the spike on a shrimp points straight out of its face, straight down the gullet of any animal which eats it head first - u might be right, a Sav may have a throat strong enough for it to not even scratch, but there is a possibility it could also cause allot of damage, there is some speculation that this is why the shrimps have it, as a defense

[smy_749]

i think the potential issue comes from the way a Sav swallows its food, the spike on a shrimp points straight out of its face, straight down the gullet of any animal which eats it head first - u might be right, a Sav may have a throat strong enough for it to not even scratch, but there is a possibility it could also cause allot of damage, there is some speculation that this is why the shrimps have it, as a defense

I think he would just demolish it like a garbage disposal, crush it to little pieces and go down smoothly. Like I said, I can't imagine it being harder to swallow than curved beaks and claws

[StudentoReptile]

Like Wayne said, these lizards have been eating barbs, spikes, horns, teeth, shells, etc for eons. Shoot, retics sometimes have the horns of a deer poke through their stomach wall, and they survive/heal fine.

I think the pet community "coddles" herps too much sometimes. Sheesh.

[jarich]

It sounds like your friend might be using transillumination for sexing, which is a pretty reliable way to sex young monitors if you know what you are doing. As for the trading, personally Id feel weird giving mine up in a trade. After spending all that time and effort raising it, why give it away? Why not just get another of the opposite sex if you want a breeding pair? Maybe Im just overly attached to mine, but I cant imagine giving him up.

As for the shrimp, it shouldnt be a problem, but then its easy to fix if youre worried. Its the rostrum that the guy is speaking of. Just take a pair of needlenose pliers and snap it off before feeding. Its just an extension of the carapace that runs out the front of the face to aid in stabilizing during swimming, sort of like a rudder. It should not be an issue for that same reason (swallowing head first means the rostrum just points straight down the gullet, so wouldnt poke anything really, and would be digested before it got out of the stomach) Crayfish have them too, just not as extensive as in shrimp. Depending on the species of shrimp they can have some pretty good sized rostral teeth too, so I suppose it cant hurt to break it off if thats the case.

[skelington]

you guys pretty much brought up how i have thought about the spike. worry about it hurting them, but at the same time, they deal with sharp stuff all the time so it shouldn't be an issue. i will probably just look at it on a case by case basis, if they look too big i will cut them off. hopefully he got the shipment in today and i will get to see what they are :)

as far as the trade goes, im still up in the air about it. about 3 months after getting my baby i got in a really bad accident at work and havent been able to interact with him they way i had planned. i am just now getting to the point where i am working with him. so he is a 2 and a half foot terror, so i wouldn't be losing much in the way of personal effort, just the year of food money.