Savannah Monitor diet debate thread

[Little Wise Owl]

I don't doubt how healthy and active Chomper is at this age.

He's what, 4 months now?

[mo9e64]

i've mentioned this before,Sav's have no more specialized diet than any other monitor.i've read stomach contents studies of other monitors-not really that different bugs lizards snakes athropods -people who rely on limited resources don't have the whole picture or ability to sort the facts or increase their knowledge

[Jay]

so savs 15- 20yrs plus fed strictly worms turkey chicken organs and rodents are unhealthy my cousin had a sav for 6 months when he died he was fed crickets mealworms and a mouse hopper once a month ?

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Little Wise Owl

I don't doubt how healthy and active Chomper is at this age.

He's what, 4 months now?

close to a year

[Little Wise Owl]

Originally Posted by jay0133

so savs 15- 20yrs plus fed strictly worms turkey chicken organs and rodents are unhealthy my cousin had a sav for 6 months when he died he was fed crickets mealworms and a mouse hopper once a month ?

This is going absolutely no where.

I'm sorry for the derail, Wayne. I'm stepping out of this thread because it appears that such opinions will not be reconsidered from this pointless bickering.

[infernalis]

My back yard includes a 14 acre meadow, a grassland.. as close to the Savannah plains as you are going to get in central New York state, We let chomper run and forage out there as often as the weather permits, he has a vast choice of food to prey on out there.

Time and again, he chases down bugs, he sucks down every beetle, grasshopper, cricket, and Dorothy just pointed out to me, slugs clinging to the blades of grass that he encounters.

He will dig through the rocks at the creek and catch his own crayfish.

Their teeth are specifically "designed" to crush insects and mollusks, not tear flesh.

I believe in science and forensics, not voodoo and made up fairy tales.. sorry.

google my signature if Latin escapes you, I live by that creed my friends...

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Little Wise Owl

This is going absolutely no where.

I'm sorry for the derail, Wayne. I'm stepping out of this thread because it appears that such opinions will not be reconsidered from this pointless bickering.

Agreed, Wayne when you feed chomper night crawlers how many does he get a dozen ?

[mo9e64]

that's good,foraging outdoors we can just agree to disagree- i think you misunderstood that i have nothing against your diet- i am not quit sure what Jay is talking about or to whom LOL

[infernalis]

six at a time, In the "spirit" of variety, each feeding consists of around 6 adult Dubia roaches, 6-8 of the jumbo shrimp, the night crawlers and that's it.

I feed trout to my garter snakes, and give Chomper the leftovers, but just the flesh, no skin, no bones. He only gets the venison about every other month, usually when my Dubia colony is "recovering" (I need a bigger colony)

He only gets to power feed in the summer when he goes outside. Since he gets infinitely more exercise running around out on our property, we allow him to eat as he pleases.

during the winter when he spends far more time cooped up, it's diet time. Maybe when I get his room ready I may up the diet.

What the plan entails is to frame up a 10 - 12 foot corner of the basement, lay down radiant heat pipes and pour a slab over it. effectively creating a giant "hot rock" that will be plumbed directly into my house boiler system, with an integrated thermostat I can maintain that floor at whatever temperature I chose.

We have an abundance of prime soil from the creek banks that is rich in clay and will hold a burrow forever, so I would take a front end loader and scoop up a few cubic yards of this and dump it down on the floor until it's several feet deep.

Then I would install a camera up high on the ceiling looking down, to observe him at will without actually disturbing him.

This would be as close to a zoo paddock as I could possibly replicate inside my home.

The laws of physics mandate I put it down there, my floor could never support the weight if I filled one of the bedrooms with soil.

[Reptile_Reptile]

superb idea