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I am looking in to using small lizards/geckos as feeders for my group of ackies. I have learned that it is part of their natural diet so I would like to find some information and/or first hand experience, opinions and debates on the topic. Please keep in mind I do not wish to read or care for any thing pertaining to morals or ethics of the practice. This is strictly for the health of my monitors. Their diet currently includes crickets, beetles, dubia, orange head and baby hissing roaches, ground fuzzies and grasshoppers/locusts. I would like to add more diversity and prefer it be as close to their natural diet as possible.
Things I'm concerned with are:
1) parasites and parasite control
2) which species
3) breed a supply or wild catch
4) how often to feed
And so on
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What I share are only my experiences, point of view or things I have read. They are not what you must do or believe. They are simply things to give you ideas and research further so you can make an educated/informed decision on what may work best for you and your animal.
Try leopard geckos. There are plenty of cbb ones to go around
This. Baby Bearded Dragons too, there's even more of those to go around. Just contact some breeders and ask for any dud eggs, dead babies, or surplus babies if they'll give them to you.
Thank you infernalis and monitorlizard for the useful information. Should I assume the house geckos option is the same?
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What I share are only my experiences, point of view or things I have read. They are not what you must do or believe. They are simply things to give you ideas and research further so you can make an educated/informed decision on what may work best for you and your animal.
If it's for their health they are better without them in my opinion.
They cost more then feeder prey items and are more likely to carry disease and parasites that could be spread to your ackies.
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"ML doesn't need crack. He's naturally high."
What about corn snakes? They may be even cheaper than beardies no?
Yep. Ask breeders for any dead or deformed babies. Heck, at most reptile shows where venomous animals are sold, there will be large bins of baby corns for King Cobra food.
My point exactly... Watching that vid, you can tell they are not snake eaters.
I disagree, because he ate the snake. It could just be from 'inexperience', maybe he has never eaten one before. However, if its small enough to fit in its mouth and it moves, generally they will eat it. And in Australia, if an ackie happen to stumble across a snake of this size, and was hungry, I believe we'd see the same result. I'm sure they do not 'typically' eat them, or they don't make up the majority of the diet, and maybe thats what you meant. Saying they aren't shrimp eaters or crab eaters may make more sense, becaues although I'm sure they would eat that as well, there is no land shrimp roaming the outback