#85258

 I have as queation

what do montders eat

 #85320

 I have as queation

prey animals and insects.

 #85329

 I have as queation

kool i mean a baby baby

 #85471

 I have as queation

My baby sav’s calcium-dusted crickets, and I offer it pinkies twice a week. When they grow, monitors eventually lose interest in insects and will eat (pre-killed) larger mice or small rats. You can also offer an adult canned dog food and raw turkey as a treat from time to time.

 #85534

 I have as queation

New lesson for you Whitehorse. DO NOT feed dog food or cat food to a monitor. That is for dogs and cats. Monitors should eat mice, crickets, roaches, chicks, meal worms. Whole prey items. As they grow, and they will grow fast if you feed them and their husbandry is right, you can feed rats, rabbits for your larger species, and crustaceans. Fluffy really likes a couple of crawdads. Fluffy was raised on catfood before I saved him. He was suffering from major calcium deficency and I doubt if his tail will ever fully recover. Scott

 #85603

 I have as queation

that is sad toi hear

 #85668

 I have as queation

Scott, my monitor and I both thank you. I�m actually sort of glad I posted that misinformation (Spikey, my sincere apologies) so that the record could be set straight before I commit that error. I knew that cat food was bad; sorry to hear about yr Fluffy (my Fluffy eats cat food, but she is a cat). Two references I own mentioned canned dog food in their diet information (The Guide to Owning a Savannah Monitor by John Coborn/ Savannah & Grassland Monitors by Robert George Sprackland) and so did quite a few care sheet I found on the web. It is a sad thing for people like I who seek to provide their monitor the best of care �and of course for the monitors themselves- that misleading information is so widespread�E By the way, one care sheet listed goldfish as a possible item in their diet. What do you think of guppies (they multiply so quickly)?

 #85686

 I have as queation

i could be wrong, but i think i’ve heard that goldfish have very little nutritional value for your monitor.

 #85689

 I have as queation

LizardKing, I’ve just looked at your profile and it seems you are the one I wanted to ask a question to. I own an international Montessori kindergarten and one of my projects is to make a small "hands-on" reptile house for the children. They love my corn snake and I’ve just acquired a bearded dragon (I’ve got other herps too, though not necessarily for young children). I want to increase the collection so that the children can handle herps as often as they want without of course stressing the animals (I reckon I’ll need quite a number of them...) What I have in mind for the next acquisition is a blue-tongue skink, and then perhaps a uromastyx. Do you think they’re a good idea? Any book/care sheet you would recommend? Other herps in mind? Thank you, Mark

 #86259

 I have as queation

Dog and Cat food can also have very high sodium levels, which will make you monitor very sick

 #86269

 I have as queation

if you have the room whitehorse, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a pair or trio of ackies.

 #86378

 I have as queation

i’d say uromastyx would be good. some of the wc ones are really skittish, so a cb would be better. my bluetongues are actually very good considering their circumstances. i think if you bring them up right they will behave better. both of them had a history of biting, or so the male skink’s other keeper said, but he was scared of it and didn’t feed him well and would never handle him (this seems kind of pathetic to me now since owning a blue tegu and a black roughneck monitor, the blue goes absolutley crazy sometimes)the female had an abscess on her mouth from a rotting tooth, but she is fine now (just bringing your herp to the vet, but that was never done) they have never threatened to bite me. the female will occassionally open her mouth and threaten my girlfriend and other females (i don’t know if it’s because a woman had owned her or what) so i would just try to pick a calmer blue tongue, and the uromastyx would def be fine.

 #86382

 I have as queation

do you have any tortoises in your program? i think the kids would like them too. i think you can order old issues of reptiles magazine from their website (reptilesmagazine.com)the july 2003 issue has prob the best info on keeping uromastyx that i’ve seen.

 #86431

 I have as queation

Tortoises are way cool, even though they need a lot of room. as far as Uro Info, i don’t think Pro Exotics Uro Archive can be beat (you might wanna read all that information over a period of days/weeks)

 #86454

 I have as queation

Thanks to you all, please keep it coming. I’ll check up the suggested info as soon as I can. I’m not sure I want to own a tortoise though I’m sure the children would love it. I usually think that the larger the better: if the animal is heavy enough, the children take extra care not to drop it, they have to be more focused on their handling. (How about iguanas? -of course, I’m ready to accept that not all herps, whatever the species, will necessarily become a "classroom candidate"...) So far, Athena (my corn snake) is by far the most popular "pet" in the classroom, and she behaves marvelously. Roachy, you mention ackies: is it okay to own just one? Also, I’m planning to breed geckos at school as a "project". I know I could breed other herps too, but I want to make sure I can take care of them all if no one is interested in getting one; I think that trading them in a pet shop is dumping.

 #86469

 I have as queation

oh there are some large tortoises, although some would prob be too big. i don’t think an iguana would be wise tho. they can be very moody and they can give a painful bite or tail lashing.

 #86472

 I have as queation

wow, i didn’t read it all but scrolled through the diff archives on uro care at proexotics. looks like a lot of good, different info that i haven’t seen before.

 #86701

 I have as queation

If I were you I would get a ball python and as for a tortoise a russian tortoise would be great.

 #86711

 I have as queation

Thanks to you all for your suggestions and support. I already own a ball python (look at my profile to see what I’ve got) but I don’t consider ball pythons as the perfect candidates as they are shy, get stressed easily and are not especially fond of handling. That said, I am more than satisfied with Cleopatra (my ball python) and the children do handle her, usually once a month. I’ve got to say that I’m not too interested in tortoises, neither is my wife. Please keep the suggestions coming. Oh, and I’ve just bought a second corn snake, a snow motley hatchling. Darya is the name, she’s so cute. Mark