feeding my savie

[Bartman]

No it wont cause impaction because this is what they eat in the wild!! How is what they eat in the wild not good for them. If it wasnt good for them they'd be instinct!

Yea if you have to go through hundreds of crickets and other insects then you have to. Its a monitor, not a leopard gecko, and deffinetly require more food/money to go into them. Obviously rodents will work for you and it will live however some odd years but you can't tell me its more healthy for them then their natural diet.

[blkcrochunter]

If you feed it things that it would eat in the wild, then do you feed your monitor snakes? They eat them along with anything else that is dead, and that they can overpower.

[TheOtherAndy]

Yeesh..... some common sense is in order here. Everyone is partly right and half wrong. =)

Savs don't eat a lot of mammals in the wild. It's true.... sorry. Talk to Daniel. He's done more of the work than anyone. Period end. Citing what monitor breeders do is senseless here. How many people are breeding savs? It's like saying people should feed olivaceous rodents because thats what flavi breeders do. Goofy.

Savs seem to randomly die even when kept under conditions ideal for other monitors. Again, talk to Jefe. They very clearly have a weird metabolism that we don't understand entirely. Maybe this is related to the fact that they are inactive for half the year in the wild? It's all the more reason to discourage them as first monitors.

Bartman: I'm not sure if they have to be tied to a wild diet in captivity. Lots of other monitors are not. That being said, it does seem safest. But not because of hair impaction or whatever. Impaction is a sign of bad husbandry, period. I would look more at things like liver and kidney problems. But how many people actually take care of this species and take careful records about these things? Last I checked, nobody. If I kept savs, I would probably keep them to mostly invertebrates. But then, I'd also probably put them down for half the year. I'm not usually an advocate of trying to emulate nature in captivity, but this species is weird, and its a starting point.

Itachi: When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. The advances in monitor husbandry over the last 10 years are a huge leap, but if you notice, they seem to work best with generalists (which is relative with varanus, I know). The devil is in the details. When something works equally well for such different species as gouldi, salvator, and albigularis, it's not a stretch to assume it works across the genus. But tell that to olivaceaous (and yes, I know Frank thinks they'd thrive on rodents...I think he's wrong =) ). The question is how specialized are exanthematicus? Rather, how tied to specialization are they? Field guys seem to think very much so, and keepers still haven't done squat to find out. As easy as they are to obtain, savs are still barely understood.

/boring speech

[Itachi]

Well when i had Critter, he did fine on a rodent/insect based diet. He grew fast and I never had any problems from him other than the respritory infection he got right after I aquired him.

True, we don't really know squat about monitors still, but we have come a long ways. There are some things I agree with Daniel on and then some things I don't.

Also, I don't believe any monitor specializes in any one thing. They aren't picky eaters and will eat just about anything.

[blkcrochunter]

Like you said Itachi bartman should feed his sav what he wants. No matter what anyone else says he is his own person, and that is is Sav. Its just to many authors around here and not enough books, just alot of text book talk.

[chrispaine]

listing to andy he knows alot, and just for the record, just ABOUT everyone (that has any idea what they are talking about) will say they do the best one a varied diet.... .. , and the rest has already been said, so feed him bugs, and few mice (i herd to keep away from rats) and more bugs... bugs are good for them, i hate crickets tho, so annoying.

[chrispaine]

Originally Posted by Bartman

I thought I was clear enough but I was just talking strictly about savannahs..since this original question was about a savannah. As for your ackie Chris, they dont very large at all so you could keep it on only insects pretty much its whole life. Try and find hornworms/silks/mealworms/butters/wax, etc. Those are all great and silks being the best, nutrition wise.

Silks, is that true, their the best nutrition wise??? anybody else think that?... cause if it is true, ill get some... thanks bartman

[ann0306]

Silkies have great nutritional value- no doubt. There are a bunch of good online vendors to get them from. I get mine from www.silkwormfarm.com

[Bartman]

I know if you look at a nutrition chart when comparing all the available insects we can get, silks a lot of everything (especially calcium) but the only thing they lack is fat. So if you're trying to get a thinner reptile fattened up you'd be better with mealworms and wax.

I'm not sure if they have to be tied to a wild diet in captivity. Lots of other monitors are not.

First I want to say, great post andy. As for the quote above, obviously we can't perfectly replicate a savannah's wild diet, or any reptile for that matter, but if there's a guy who has gone out in the wild and studied what they've eatin and it mainly says insects (and no sign of mammals) then I will try and feed as many insects as I can and use mice, chicken giblitts, and seafood mix as a means to get more food into the little guy. Of course we all know it would be #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& expensive to feed only crickets and the monitor would probably be hungry all the time, which is why I feed other food items. I also like that rodents have bones in them, which helps them with calcium and all that.

So don't get me wrong, I want to make sure you guys understand that im saying its deffinetly not bad to give them rodents, and I think you agree with me that you deffinetly don't want to only be feeding them rodents, but that insects will deffinetly give them a healthier life style. If they mainly eat only invertibrates in the wild then we should deffinetly give them as much as we possibly can, right?

(good debate guys )

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

Originally Posted by Itachi

Just a note, when monitors get older, especially Savs, you don't have to feed them every day or every other day. They stop growing or only grow alittle and Savs are notorious for packing on the lbs if not watched carefully. But they need to fed more than once a week, try 3 times and if he starts to gain to much weight, cut back. Also restrain from giving them any fatty foods.

Agreed, savs are notorius for liver problems associated with over feeding. 2-3 times a week is enough I'd say.