Monitor Diet ......

Hi everyone,

My question about diet is in reguards to meat. In addtion to reptiles I and my family also deal in alot of mammals both exotic and domestic. On the domestic side one of the things we have is
a whitetail deer ranch. Each year we have to harvest x-amount
of does to keep the population in check etc in the heard (which is currently 150+deer). This leaves us with a great deal of extra meat etc... The meat for those of you that are unfamiliar with venison is extremely lean.
Can anyone think of a reason this meat couldnt be used in our
monitors diets?

God Bless
Ben

Not that I know much about monitors, but so long as the mat is frsh, I don't see why you couldn't.

Varanid diets all differ in the exact needs and the proportions of what they have evolved to eat (insects, soft bodied inverts, bird/eggs, mammals, fruits, etc.) but as long as you're keeping it balanced for whatever species you happen to be keeping it seems like it would be fine as a suppliment to the diet of many of the more common species, replacing the rodent portions to a great degree.

It's something you can vary the proportions on though, so it shouldn't be a problem in the least (unless there's some unknown toxin in venison that I'm unaware of).

i have givin tegus venison and they (both of them) went wild over it. soon i will be giving my nile monitor either deer or steak slices
jst make sure it is cut small enough if the monitors are young

I just got a savanna monitor,and i am the type of person who doesnt like giving them anything live to eat mice ect.....Plus the fact it cost more.And i have heard from others giving live mice for feed might hurt your monitor,if the mice bite.I would much rather give mine steak meat or even hamberger,i was feeding him dog and cat food,but he got the <font color=red>[**censored**]</font>s real bad.I dont see any harm in giving them deer meat,i would,unless like there is some kind of toxin in deer meat that we dont know about,like the other person was talking about.Any ways good luck with it,and would like to know how it turns out with it,if you try it.

If you give your monitor nothing but hamburger, your monitor is going to die pretty premature... prematurally? Well, you get the idea. Dog food would be better than hamburger, at least it has vitamins and calcium. I've supplemented my monitor's diet with turkey, but dead mice are pretty good for them, and usually well accepted. As a caveat my only monitor experience is with Timors.

Erin B.

Hamburger isnt the only thing i feed him,as with giving him vitamins,i give him those's also,plus he eats eggs and large crickets,grasshoppers,worms.Just not mice,because there so exspensive,tegue montitor food has every thing they need in it,and cheaper then mice,and more pleasent and enjoyable to watch him eat when its dinner time.And im not going to go and have to buy mice and kill them before he eats them.And he is way to big now for pinkys,and like i said they cost to much!.And if you give yours live mice,its only going to make him agressive and hard to handle.