SDZ Diet for Savannah Monitors

[Little Wise Owl]

This is something I've been thinking about... It's heavily implied and backed up that Savannah Monitors are insectivores yet... I keep seeing that it's okay to feed the San Diego Zoo Diet as a staple to them (and other monitors). What's the deal... How exactly does a diet consisting of: lean mince turkey, a human multi-vitamin and bone meal suddenly become suitable for an insectivore?

[infernalis]

Not sure if I would use it as a staple, maybe as an emergency or a rare snack??

Maybe it's supposed to emulate the content of bugs??

One thing we do have to remember, even bugs are meat, I believe the dietary issues are more about hair and fat (Rodents) ....

an insectivore is a carnivore, so all I can think of off hand, the lean turkey provides the meat proteins, the bone meal provides the calcium, and the vitamin pills provide the trace nutrients.

[BarelyBreathing]

The SDZ diet really isn't all that appropriate for savannah monitors. It was made for komodo dragons (an animal that regularly takes vertibrate prey and carrion), and was introduced to savannah monitors via the pet trade. Pet stores use it as a ply to make savannah monitors sound easy. "Oh, you can keep it in a forty gallon fish tank and feed it ground turkey with a Centrum tablet and calcium." Really, it isn't ideal.

Just a note, though, I do use the SDZ diet as a base for the diet I feed to severely malnurished and dying animals that sometimes come to me from rescues I volunteer with. Once they have been nurished to a decent weight/strength, they're weaned off of this diet and put back on a proper one.