Interesting new whole prey item...

[infernalis]

I am going to chime in here.

just about 7 years ago I myself purchased a Savannah Monitor without any research.

The package arrived, I set up a 10 gallon aquarium with some thin substrate on the floor, a hide log and basking lamp. (pretty much the "standard you tube newb" setup)

I was already on some forums, so I promptly and very proudly took pictures and posted them all over the place.

Responses were split, most people were like "so cool, Congratulations" I was happy, I was now a "monitor keeper"???

This lasted right up until I posted on Kingsnake, those folks tore me a new arse fast, and guess what, my first reactions were "these crusty old meanies are picking on me for being new" ...... They were NOT picking on me, and it had nothing to do with being a newb, it had everything to do with my horrible setup, but I was such a proud owner, all of my inexperienced buddies had told me already how cool I was, everyone was ooh and ahh over my walking pictures on a leash...

so why listen to the meanies? after all they were not helping me, they were calling me a lizard killer instead.

Then along came this really loud, really obnoxious man who could care less what my opinion of him was, he barked and bellered at me at every turn.

five years in, the lizard died, my foolish unearned pride was crushed... the grumpy man was right... I did kill my own lizard.

People, listen up... if we are going to learn from each other and stop this lunacy of killing lizards with preventable sicknesses, we need to pay attention to those ahead of us and not get up in their grills when they toss a little experience or knowledge our way.

Please take your off topic arguments to the off topic forums. This thread is specifically about weather or not some scorpions are going to hurt a Nile monitor.

we are now going to return to scorpions as monitor food......

[KORBIN5895]

Originally Posted by B_Aller

If we're talking Bronx zoo here they have had success with mertensi, when Sam Lee was head of reptiles. Long term the Bronx has a poor record of success with varanids. What Bobs report found was that overall their husbandry was seriously lacking. Looking at their new tree monitor exhibits I have to wonder if they've learned their lesson or not?

Not that it matters but for the record I have raised exanthematicus to adulthood, and my experiences were written up and published.
You can see pics of one of my exanthematicus in Mark Bayless's Savannah book, and I shared my husbandry notes and records with Mark for that book.
Mark and I also wrote a book on red tailed boas and we were working on two other books on monitors and monitor husbandry at the time of his death. Maybe someday I'll finish them...who knows?
Best.

I was thinking about savs.

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by infernalis

Please take your off topic arguments to the off topic forums. This thread is specifically about weather or not some scorpions are going to hurt a Nile monitor.

we are now going to return to scorpions as monitor food......

And just like that.... silence.... Hahahaha. Oh, man. I thought it was all very interesting, to be honest.

Anyone have a copy of any of Auffenberg's trio of books? They are crazy expensive online on Amazon but I really would love to read one if not all three.

Any more thoughts on scorpions would still be greatly appreciated... hah.

[pdomensis]

This is barely related to your post, but a few years ago I was blacklighting for scorpions in St. George and found that certain lichens will fluoresce really beautifully. There were some rocks so covered in different species that it looked like a night club. it would be awesome to have a blacklit viv dressed with those lichens.

[murrindindi]

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

And just like that.... silence.... Hahahaha. Oh, man. I thought it was all very interesting, to be honest.

Anyone have a copy of any of Auffenberg's trio of books? They are crazy expensive online on Amazon but I really would love to read one if not all three.

Any more thoughts on scorpions would still be greatly appreciated... hah.

Hi, I have copies of his Komodo and Bengal monitor books, let me know what time you`re calling.....
If Ben Aller has fed (American) scorpions to his monitors without any health issues that`s good enough for me.
We do get them in Oz but I never fed them to any of my monitors. I think (not sure?) they might actually have them here in the U.K, though I`ve never seen any.
Can you show a few recent photos of your Nile monitor?

[Pirarucu]

I think it is very unlikely you would have any problems feeding scorpions to monitors. They are not fragile animals when they have access to what they need.

[Gregg M]

Originally Posted by B_Aller

Not that it matters but for the record I have raised exanthematicus to adulthood, and my experiences were written up and published.
You can see pics of one of my exanthematicus in Mark Bayless's Savannah book, and I shared my husbandry notes and records with Mark for that book.
Mark and I also wrote a book on red tailed boas and we were working on two other books on monitors and monitor husbandry at the time of his death. Maybe someday I'll finish them...who knows?
Best.

I still get all choked up when I see Marks name brought up. The amount of literature at that mans finger tips was amazing to say the least. He was a fountain of knowledge and if he did not know it by heart, he had the literature to find the answer. He was one of the reasons I got into this hobby as deep as I did. He was an asset to this community and one of my great friends. I would love to see you finish the work you and him started. I have a pdf file he sent to me a number of years back of the cryptozoology book he started.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by murrindindi

Hi, I have copies of his Komodo and Bengal monitor books, let me know what time you`re calling.....
If Ben Aller has fed (American) scorpions to his monitors without any health issues that`s good enough for me.
We do get them in Oz but I never fed them to any of my monitors. I think (not sure?) they might actually have them here in the U.K, though I`ve never seen any.
Can you show a few recent photos of your Nile monitor?

We have only (as far as I know) the yellow tailed scorpion and it is only found in a couple of places in the UK

[franks]

In the vein of this conversation, has anyone here tried breeding scorpions for their monitor? I have read that they can produce up to 30 young per clutch, but nobody I know has tried breeding them for feeders so I am assuming it is not practical?

[murrindindi]

Originally Posted by Donnie

We have only (as far as I know) the yellow tailed scorpion and it is only found in a couple of places in the UK

Thanks! Hopefully neither of those two places is near where I`m living...

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by franks

In the vein of this conversation, has anyone here tried breeding scorpions for their monitor? I have read that they can produce up to 30 young per clutch, but nobody I know has tried breeding them for feeders so I am assuming it is not practical?

I think it has to do with the fact that scorpions are carnivores, you would also need a steady supply of crickets or roaches... In that case why not just feed crickets or roaches lol.

[B_Aller]

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

And just like that.... silence.... Hahahaha. Oh, man. I thought it was all very interesting, to be honest.

Anyone have a copy of any of Auffenberg's trio of books? They are crazy expensive online on Amazon but I really would love to read one if not all three.

Any more thoughts on scorpions would still be greatly appreciated... hah.

Walters books are expensive but worth the investment in my opinion. I'd go for the Bengal book first as Bengals are a more generalized species and the info is applicable to a broader range of species.
I love the grays book and have read it front to back at least three times, but I keep grays so I'm always going back for another look.
The best part of his books can be the bibliography, a really great resource for more learning.
Sadly his family threw out all of his unpublished work when he passed, so what you get is what you get.
I say go for it with the scorps! have fun!!

[B_Aller]

Originally Posted by Gregg M

I still get all choked up when I see Marks name brought up. The amount of literature at that mans finger tips was amazing to say the least. He was a fountain of knowledge and if he did not know it by heart, he had the literature to find the answer. He was one of the reasons I got into this hobby as deep as I did. He was an asset to this community and one of my great friends. I would love to see you finish the work you and him started. I have a pdf file he sent to me a number of years back of the cryptozoology book he started.

Hi Gregg,
Yeah I think about Mark everyday have his goofy face staring at me now!
I've got all of Marks collection here (except for the stuff I sent to John) and have been slowly organizing and arranging it for some manner of eventual availability.
I promised his brother I would finish the work we started so I will, just don't have the time to dedicate to it that I'd like.
Best.

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by murrindindi

Hi, I have copies of his Komodo and Bengal monitor books, let me know what time you`re calling.....
If Ben Aller has fed (American) scorpions to his monitors without any health issues that`s good enough for me.
We do get them in Oz but I never fed them to any of my monitors. I think (not sure?) they might actually have them here in the U.K, though I`ve never seen any.
Can you show a few recent photos of your Nile monitor?

I'm TRYING to upload a video to youtube of him from my phone but it's slow going haha. I will try and post to my thread dedicated to him! His growth has slowed way down but he's still growing evvvvvery day. He is also much more confident, you can see that in this video lol. Comes right up out of the enclosure on to the lid just to grab this mouse

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by B_Aller

Walters books are expensive but worth the investment in my opinion. I'd go for the Bengal book first as Bengals are a more generalized species and the info is applicable to a broader range of species.
I love the grays book and have read it front to back at least three times, but I keep grays so I'm always going back for another look.
The best part of his books can be the bibliography, a really great resource for more learning.
Sadly his family threw out all of his unpublished work when he passed, so what you get is what you get.
I say go for it with the scorps! have fun!!

Just dropped the money I would have spent on that book on frozen whole prey items lol! Such is monitor keeping- they are little money pits. Hopefully someone will let me borrow the book!