Nile Monitor - Which dog food should i give?

[Fox Hound]

Hey im curious as to which dog food i should purchase and feed to him. I also want to mix it with vitamins/calsium and stuff

[kap10cavy]

Dogfood? It's a monitor, not a dog. Feed it roaches, rodents, crickets . How long have you had it and how big is it?

[Scales Zoo]

Oops, there goes some beer onto the screen.

I wouldn't feed any dog food to your nile monitor. The majority of commercial dog food is just garbage, any good stuff is expensive and I wouldn't use it either.

What size is your monitor? The young ones we had I fed crickets, superworms and pinky mice. As they grew, they'd get mice, small rats and some boiled egg, sometimes fish as a treat.

Adults get mice, rats, fish and whole boiled egg (shell).

I'd suggest feeding the dog food to the dog, and get some mice and rats for the monitor.

Ryan

[kap10cavy]

Is this the same guy that wanted to trade a sav for a nile because he couldn't handle the sav?

[mbayless]

Are you NUTS or something?? There is no dog food in Africa, only wild Cape Hunting dogs/Cape Spotted Dogs and the Bisengi of Cameroon....and they both eat mammals and anything they can catch - enough on the African dogs; now to nile monitors.

If your SERIOUS about living with this animal, then go get the Rob Faust book on Nile monitors and read it = it will take you 2 hours tops to read it cover to cover. Then you will realize I hope these animals do not/should not/CANNOT eat dog food - dog food should not be given to DOGS. It is 90% inert crap and totally useless crap the Purina company has deemed nutritious that even old ladies in down/out part of Detroit and Chicago should eat!!

Your nile monitor SHOULD EAT: shellfish (shrimps, prawns, clams, shellfish), fish, rodents, insects, and add calcium supplements as I suspect you will be holding back on the food as it is even more expensive than dog food!!

Sorry to be so harsh but I simply cannot believe that someone would feed a wild caught, beautiful animal such garbage and crap when common sense would tell you they they do not eat that in wild or captivity - but then common sense seems to be sadly lacking in so many common people these days? I hope your not one of those?

So get yourself the book, read it in one (1) afternoon, and learn to appreciate the animal that is living (I hope?) with you, and that you learn it is not a trophy to feed it Kalcan/Purina Dog Chow or SKippy (dog food, not peanut butter - but don't feed him that either!)....

and if your really interested, go find the November 1996 issue of Reptiles - there is a good article on nile monitors in there...if your the kid with a savannah monitor, then also go buy Daniel Bennett's book on Savanna Monitors and read that too...

good luck,
mark bayless

[Fox Hound]

geez why the hell is everyone spazing, one person already said "why dog food"

well i saw it on a care sheet http://www.anapsid.org/nile.html

and i aint the one who can't handle it...

[M_surinamensis]

Ugh, Kaplan.

Melissa Kaplan is... bad... evil... a foul abomination stalking the earth for the sole purpose of obliterating the herping community. anapsid.org is a lot of misinformation, lies and anthropomorphic crap all wrapped inside a neat anti-pet trade PeTA shell. Looking at that care sheet... all... five short paragraphs of it, I see a half dozen blatant mistakes. Use that sheet to determine the care for your animal and it will die. Maybe not overnight, but over time, as the nutritional deficiencies and improper environmental conditions catch up to it.

The "taming" part is absolute garbage too.

[matmq]

The vast majority of care sheets are a load of Boll***s and the reason everyone is "spazzing is because they are concerned for the animal and not the monkeys who keep a lot off them if you want good info look in forums , join a herpetological society and find somebody who has succesfully kept the animals you have and ask them also try good zoos e.t.c ,as well as that study up on the animal you have . I have never fed any of my monitors dog or cat food, the reason THERE IS NO NEED TO DO SO
cheers Mat Mchugh

[V.hb]

The simplest and most unhostile way to explain the dog/cat food bit...

Monitors don't digest it very well, which can cause a world of problems. Keep your monitor on full food sources. Full meaning, full bodied, like rodents, chicks or like Mark said various types of seafood/shellfish. Also offer lots of insects etc.

You definatly don't want to take shortcuts with any reptile. they aren't as forgiving as, say.. dogs.
Good luck.

[mbayless]

Hi Vh.b,
You said that very well - I am a blow-hard and know it, and this dog food thing really burns me - thanks Vh.b.

markb

[V.hb]

Hehe I hear you mark :)

[Fox Hound]

oh i c... well i dont know why people here have such an explosive attitude...

thx for the clarifiying that

[crocdoc]

the other thing that 'care' sheet hasn't mentioned is basking spot heat. The recommended temperature gradient on that sheet said nothing about a hot basking spot (and 32C doesn't cut it)

[reptiguy123]

Well, at least you know now.:)