Rescued Nile Monitor. Need advice. - Page 3

infernalis · 01-14-13, 07:53 PM

I leave my basking lights on 24/7.

My lizards sleep in their burrows, so the lights being on don't matter at all.

I also notice them out and about sometimes at 2:00 am, 3:00 am, they don't care about clocks.

Pirarucu · 01-14-13, 08:22 PM

They will sleep in their cool burrows anyways, lights on or off makes no difference. What it does allow them to do is heat up at any time if they want to. Effectively it improves on wild conditions by removing the factor of limited heat, just as the factors of limited food and other resources are eliminated in captivity.

That said, it is fine to turn the lights off as well. It's more important to leave them on when multiple monitors are housed together. That way if one is more dominant than the other, they can just establish different sleeping schedules and still have access to heat, instead of competing for it.

Vegasarah · 01-14-13, 09:11 PM

This is wonderful news. I'm going to try it! I have such an odd sleeping schedule, how great would it be to see one of my animals up and running around at 3 am! I'm going to make sure he has lots of hides to go under to get away from the light if he wants to. Maybe one near the light so it's still darker but warmer if he wanted to get some sleep but still stay toasty warm. Thank you everyone!

infernalis · 01-14-13, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

Maybe one near the light so it's still darker but warmer if he wanted to get some sleep but still stay toasty warm. Thank you everyone!

It's common for them to hide under the basking light.

I find mine hiding under the basking spot frequently.

Vegasarah · 01-14-13, 11:29 PM

So today he ate:

20 small, medium dubia roaches
15 meal worms
1 fuzzy mouse

Kept offering those meal worms one at a time till he didn't seem interested in them any more. He ate a few dubias around noon, a few more around 3, then 5 meal worms at 8 pm along with the fuzzy, the rest of the dubias, and then 10 meal worms in a row. This seems like a lot of food for something so small! I understand he's growing but is this going to be like a daily amount? And should I just keep doing this every day, feeding from tongs till he doesn't seem interested?

I enjoy the interaction with him.It's funny how the first few roaches he's so angry that my hand is in there and then by the 10th roach he's practically climbing up my arm and totally ignoring it lol.

So moral dilemma: I can get live pinkies and fuzzies from a pet shop near me for about $.75- $1 each. Petco sells frozen for $2 each. I prefer f/t because I feel bad for the mice, but that price is kind of making me re-think this. I know that with some animals feeding live prey makes them attack anything moving and pink (like fingers!). Is this the same with monitors? Anyone know of a good place to buy frozens for a good price?

I know, I know, I'm being kind of a pansy with the mice but I just hate to see them die like that

Pirarucu · 01-14-13, 11:45 PM

Yep. Give him as much as he wants, they have crazy metabolisms. A monitor can easily tell the difference between your finger and a rat pink. He'll try to eat both of them anyways, but he knows the difference. LOL.

infernalis · 01-14-13, 11:49 PM

Yes it will eat daily, and the amount will be going up and up.

My lizards are only 30 inches long, and I have seen them eat nearly their own body mass in food within one sitting.

Heck, one time when they were still around the 20 inch mark, I watched Littlefoot slam 4 baby rats, six jumbo shrimp, 15 night crawlers and he still acted hungry.

The smart thing to do with mice is order them in bulk from a place like Rodent Pro, Mice Direct or Layne Labs. (google any of them)

You will have to order like $200 worth of frozen mice at once for it to be a bargain, but it will get you hundreds of feeders all at once at about 30 cents a mouse.

Don't let the shipping deter you, when I order 800 feeders at a time, I divide the shipping by 800, and it's mere cents per mouse for shipping.

If you only order 100 mice, the shipping makes them cost a lot more, the bigger the order, the bigger the bargain on shipping.

Another plus is that you can get day old baby chicks in the same order.

Baby chicks are an excellent monitor food.

Vegasarah · 01-15-13, 01:43 AM

There is a reptile expo coming to town soon and apparently they are advertising those prices but obviously no shipping! Woooo! And one of the large booths has quail and chickens too, which is awesome. I just dont think I will be able to handle feeding live mice, so I will just deal with the petco prices for now til I can stock up from the expo. So far I've got meal worms, dubia roaches, pink and fuzzy mice, and minnow. I will be adding baby quail and chickens, what else can I add? Where do I find other whole prey items like bigger fish than a tiny minnow? And with shrimp and crabs and crayfish can I just buy what they sell for people to east in the freezer section? Or should I try and find done place that sells these seafood items whole?
Night crawlers are the ones used for fishing bait, but the only place I know of that sells those is walmart and I'm pretty sure they are treated with chemicals to preserve them for longer. I wouldn't really want to feed that to my monitor. Where do you guys get your worms?

Corey209 · 01-15-13, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

There is a reptile expo coming to town soon and apparently they are advertising those prices but obviously no shipping! Woooo! And one of the large booths has quail and chickens too, which is awesome. I just dont think I will be able to handle feeding live mice, so I will just deal with the petco prices for now til I can stock up from the expo. So far I've got meal worms, dubia roaches, pink and fuzzy mice, and minnow. I will be adding baby quail and chickens, what else can I add? Where do I find other whole prey items like bigger fish than a tiny minnow? And with shrimp and crabs and crayfish can I just buy what they sell for people to east in the freezer section? Or should I try and find done place that sells these seafood items whole?
Night crawlers are the ones used for fishing bait, but the only place I know of that sells those is walmart and I'm pretty sure they are treated with chemicals to preserve them for longer. I wouldn't really want to feed that to my monitor. Where do you guys get your worms?

Wait until it rains and dig them up!

infernalis · 01-15-13, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

Night crawlers are the ones used for fishing bait, but the only place I know of that sells those is walmart and I'm pretty sure they are treated with chemicals to preserve them for longer. I wouldn't really want to feed that to my monitor. Where do you guys get your worms?

I buy Night Crawlers at wal mart all the time.

There is no chemicals on them.

DMF Bait

The above link is the worm farmers who supply Wal Mart. Look up whatever you need to know.

Quote from web site.....

Quote:

Can DMF Bait be used as pet food?
DMF Bait is very nutritious and healthy as pet food. Please review each product description specifically to see if it may fit your need.

jarich · 01-15-13, 08:31 AM

Crayfish are, in my opinion, the best food source and generally pretty cheap too. You should be able to get them about 3 for $5 at Petco. Look on CL too as there are many people who sell off their extra. If you happen to have an extra fish tank around (say 20 gallons or more) then they breed rather easily too. When it gets bigger, you can buy them in bulk (by the pound) for even cheaper.

Id probably not bother anymore with the mealworms. They arent a particularly good food source, and not worth the hassle. Go with the roaches and worms as they are much healthier and you can feed them right up to adulthood.

Vegasarah · 01-15-13, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey209

Wait until it rains and dig them up!

I live in the arid desert, there's no night crawlers in our soil. Not to mention it rains here maybe 10 days a year lol. Everything here is imported, including every single food other than pork meat. We have one pig farm outside the city and that's about it!

Vegasarah · 01-15-13, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarich

Crayfish are, in my opinion, the best food source and generally pretty cheap too. You should be able to get them about 3 for $5 at Petco. Look on CL too as there are many people who sell off their extra. If you happen to have an extra fish tank around (say 20 gallons or more) then they breed rather easily too. When it gets bigger, you can buy them in bulk (by the pound) for even cheaper.

Id probably not bother anymore with the mealworms. They arent a particularly good food source, and not worth the hassle. Go with the roaches and worms as they are much healthier and you can feed them right up to adulthood.

Thanks for the info on the crayfish, I didn't know they sold them at Petco. I searched craigslist, no luck. But then again I would think the closest place to catch crayfish is probably not even in this state. I wish had the opportunity to just go in my backyard and catch my food. Unless they can live on a diet of scorpions, that's probably not going to happen lol.

Where can I buy them by the pound? Like at walmart frozen or do I have to look elsewhere? What about shrimp? Can I just do the jumbo shrimp sold in bags at walmart?

I've never had a reptile that eats like this, so I'm sorry if these questions seem stupid.

Wayne- thanks for the info on the walmart worms! Someone told me years ago that they had chemicals on them so I never risked it! It's going to be a new diet addition to many different animals I keep now

jarich · 01-15-13, 01:38 PM

The questions arent stupid at all, and thank you for asking. Would much rather have someone asking all these questions than just guessing and ending up with a sick monitor. Keep it up!

As for the crayfish, sorry I shouldve been more specific. The ones you buy by the pound are usually live shipped in from Louisiana or somewhere down south. They are actually meant for people, hence why the weigh them by the pound.

The crayfish that I have bought on CL or other places like that are from fish keepers. (thats where you'll find them at Petco/pet stores too...in the fish tanks) They usually start out with a crayfish or two and then end up having tons of babies. Its nice because they are then just looking to get rid of them and will sell them for cheap. I bought 25 for $10 last time I found them on CL.

DiscoPat · 01-15-13, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

Where can I buy them by the pound? Like at walmart frozen or do I have to look elsewhere? What about shrimp? Can I just do the jumbo shrimp sold in bags at walmart?

I wouldn't risk trying to feed him frozen shrimp meant for human consumption. The preservatives may be a problem for the monitor.

Unless someone can tell you for sure that it is safe I wouldn't risk it.