monitor has gas?

[crocdoc]

Originally Posted by jarich

Sorry Dave, I have to disagree with you on just that one point. They digest the exoskeleton quite readily.

I think we're both half right on that one. The exoskeleton is a mixture of calcium (which they can digest) and chitin (which they cannot).

[jarich]

Agreed, and it appears that the amount of chitin in crayfish exoskeleton is relatively small compared to land based insects. The chitin acts more as a matrix on which the calcium binds, so stays a relatively small amount of the whole. For instance, I can see numerous roach exoskeleton parts in the waste of my monitor but almost no recognizable exoskeleton from a big meal of crayfish.

[crocdoc]

That's fair enough. It's been a long while since I've given my lace monitors crayfish (called yabbies here), but now that I think of it I don't recall there being exoskeletons in their faeces.

[Toothless]

So when you feed a monitor food with hard exoskeletons, should you expect to always see pieces of exoskeleton when they defecate? I ask because I feed my guy a diet of insects, rodents, and fish and rarely ever see pieces of exoskeletons in his feces- its usually some white chaulky stuff and a brown turd. His little poo varies in size depending on what type of meal he's had the few days before (he poos a few times a week).

[fuzzhc]

Originally Posted by Toothless

So when you feed a monitor food with hard exoskeletons, should you expect to always see pieces of exoskeleton when they defecate? I ask because I feed my guy a diet of insects, rodents, and fish and rarely ever see pieces of exoskeletons in his feces- its usually some white chaulky stuff and a brown turd. His little poo varies in size depending on what type of meal he's had the few days before (he poos a few times a week).

Not always. I feed mine on rodents, uncooked shelled prawns occasionally, locusts, worms, bettles and morio worms and have yet to see an exoskeleton. He also deficates almost daily.

[infernalis]

How many of us have actually placed the feces in a screen and washed it to see what is in it?

I have not. Biologists do for dietary studies.

If you really want to know what's in that poop, you are going to have to spend time getting close to it.

[KORBIN5895]

Originally Posted by fuzzhc

Not always. I feed mine on rodents, uncooked shelled prawns occasionally, locusts, worms, bettles and morio worms and have yet to see an exoskeleton. He also deficates almost daily.

What do you mean by shelled? A shelled shrimp would mean peeled where I'm from.

[fuzzhc]

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

What do you mean by shelled? A shelled shrimp would mean peeled where I'm from.

It still has the shell on it lol. Probably should have said whole shrimp. Im not often the best for wording things :P

[Pirarucu]

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

What do you mean by shelled? A shelled shrimp would mean peeled where I'm from.

It depends on where you're from, I've ordered "shelled" crabs/shrimp/etc. and in different places it can mean with or without the shell. In this case I believe it means with the shell on.