My black roughneck monitor not eating frozen mice
 

Hello,

I'm David. I have a black roughneck monitor, about 3' long. He is very active and doing great on crickets, roaches and live mices, but he never take the frozen mice or other meat like turkey or chicken. To be honest, I just don't want to feed him on live mice. Can anyone help me on this please ?

Thank you

Have you tried tong-feeding? If you can use the tongs to simulate life in the f/t prey, it may interest your animal and elicit a feeding strike. Another tip that I have found to work with snakes when switching from live to f/t, is to show the animal live prey, arousing their interest, then switch out the live rodent with an f/t once interest has already been established. I've not tried that technique on monitors as my monitors always ate whatever, but it may be worth a shot.

Thank you for your advice. I tried tong-feeding so many times, but it didn't work. I even tried without feeding him for a week, he still didn't show any interest on pre-killed mice. So I guess that I will just feed him on insects, as long as he is healthy and active.

try live mice
 

I had the same problem shortly after getting my rough black neck, and i had to switch to live mice.

But now as I am doing more research I am starting to learn that feeding them a diet of mostly furry rodents is not good for their health and am currently on the search for more items of variety to feed him. I suggest you do the same.

Yeah, I do not feed it on rodents any more. I have fed my black roughneck on raw chicken and dubias for one year. Now it is reaching 4 feet.

BRN feeding baby chickens and etc?
 

I just fed my black rough neck a baby chicken for the first time, I got it from the tractor supply type store, it was small and he ate it like a boss. But how often can i feed him baby chickens? Once a week? Once a month? Or not at all? I live in Indiana and do not have access to fresh live seafood, shellfish, or even minnows most of the year.
I tried to feed him raw freshwater shrimp, the brown kind not the ones that turn orange when you cook em. He ate one and stopped because i think he thought it was a mouse. I tried fresh tuna and he didn't eat it, that was a $10 fillet that went to waste.
Next I am going to get frozen silversides from the pet store and try those periodically, as well as order me some live dubia roaches.

Only feed whole prey items as raw chicken, hamburger or turkey is not a well-balanced meal. Powders don't truly substitute whole prey either.

Agreed. Powders are a supplement, not a replacement or substitute. I like to lightly dust insects for my monitors with Miner-All and even pinkies for growing monitors. IMO it's definitely good for them, but the absolute key ingredient is whole prey items.

OP, have you tried small birds like quail or chicks? I had a peach throat that preferred birds and roaches over everything (although he would eat just about anything offered).

Mine all eat mice as their primary diet, with bugs on the side. The main way to get rough necks eating , other than cleaning up their internal parasites(usually a considerable load,) is to provide basking spots of at least 145°F, with a retes stack, with a cool side of 80° , enough substrate to burrow in and a water container they can get at least all the way into if not bigger.