Savannah Monitor Food

Snake Eater · #1 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 11:42 PM

I have read from post from this site and others that alot of people feed their monitors ground turkey, tuna, red meat, chicken, shrimp, and dog food. Now I know that dog food is high in fat and not a good staple diet for any monitor, but I was curious about the other food. Do you feed all this raw or does it need to be cooked? I have looked at post on this site and have only found reference to some of these but never on whether or not it was cooked when fed. I was just a little curious and was hoping someone could shed some light on this for me.

LukaTisus · #2 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 11:56 PM

I'd imagine raw, or half-cooked at most. Cooking breaks down a lot of protiens in the meat that could possibly make it hard for them to digest.

Xeikeness · #3 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 12:05 AM

Depends. Chicken necks get fed raw, hunks of beef fed raw, cockroaches raw, grubs raw(bugs ought to be the staple of the monitor's diet), but I feed a myriad of things to my monitors.

So, if I'm ONLY feeding meat, I cut it up and feed it to them raw. EXCEPT for poultry or anything that may carry salmonella. I'm a touch on the paranoid side.

However, I do like to cook my monitors breakfast while I make myself breakfast. So often times, each monitor will get a 2-egg omlette with cockroaches and crickets and lean ground beef cooked into it as well.

Snake Eater · #4 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeikeness

Depends. Chicken necks get fed raw, hunks of beef fed raw, cockroaches raw, grubs raw(bugs ought to be the staple of the monitor's diet), but I feed a myriad of things to my monitors.

So, if I'm ONLY feeding meat, I cut it up and feed it to them raw. EXCEPT for poultry or anything that may carry salmonella. I'm a touch on the paranoid side.

However, I do like to cook my monitors breakfast while I make myself breakfast. So often times, each monitor will get a 2-egg omlette with cockroaches and crickets and lean ground beef cooked into it as well.

Thanks for the info. That clears things up. I'd be a little paranoid about the poultry too.

devine* · #5 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xeikeness

However, I do like to cook my monitors breakfast while I make myself breakfast. So often times, each monitor will get a 2-egg omlette with cockroaches and crickets and lean ground beef cooked into it as well.

that is too cute xeike, I make all my pets breakfast too when I make my own... not as elaborate as yours tho

Xeikeness · #6 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 04:49 AM

My roommates can't wait until they find roommates who don't cook with cockroaches. They just like us enough that they're willing to turn a blind eye to our... eccentric... cooking practices.

XD

billwalsh · #7 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 04:32 PM

The ground meat topic comes up every once in awhile.

You should be feeding your monitor whole food items. Whole rats, mice, insects, whatever you feed should be whole. There's more to the food they eat than just the meat, the bones of a rat provide calcium, for example.

Xeikeness · #8 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 04:39 PM

Absolutely - but bugs really ought to be their staple food. Mine get chicken neck bits, and I have my butcher throw marrow into the meat I get. I tend to mix the "just plain ground meat" with calcium powder. Not the my critters are lacking in the calcium department. LOL

I do all but hand them a glass of milk and say "Now drink that - it's good for you. You want to grow up big and strong, right?" LOL

Snake Eater · #9 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 05:09 PM

The reason why I asked was because I just recently purchased a Savannah Monitor. I know their diet is mainly insects like crickets, roaches, also rodents. I just wanted to know what other Sav owners feed or recommend to feed their monitors.
I left him alone the first day, then figured he might be hungary so I took him out yesterday to feed him crickets in a plastic tub. He only got down about three before he got tired of chasing them down. I also got him some freeze dried meal worms, but he didn't seem to interested in them.
I know he is still getting used to his new home and me so I didn't want to stress him out by pushing him to eat more.
What is recomended- feeding in their enclosure or feeding outside in a tub? I didn't want him to eat inside because I didn't want him to accidentally ingest any substrate.
Any other tips or advice is appreciated.

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