Curious if anyone else here owns a black roughneck monitor. I'm going to be building him another vivarium sometime in the near future and want some ideas and see (or read) what other people have done. Also.. I've heard various things on meat feeding. Raw or cooked?
what kind of meat? I've known guys on Kingsnake who feed rabbit or Deer.. and one guy who feeds ground moose as long as it's relatively fresh raw shouldn't hurt a monitor, certainly doesn't hurt pythons. I've never owned one of the larger monitors but I imagine it's much the same.
you can feed him coocked chicken but only as a treat basically. never feed any raw meat to a reptile because there is the possibility of salamonella and reptiles already have a high amount of that. you should only feed raw meat to gators or crocs because they have such a high immunity system. they can have their leg cut off and go swimming in the dirty water and come out fine. but yea back to the monitor my baby savannah seems to enjoy cooked turkey.
NO COOKED MEATS. In the wild Black roughneck Moniters eat carion (road kill) so they have excellent immune systems. I feed my BRN live mice, Lg crickets (with calcium powder), RAW chicken, and occasionally RAW beef tips. As for housing I keep mine in a 5ft tall, 4ft wide, and 3ft deep cage made out of pegboard and plexiglass. I keep plenty of branches for climing and basking and some plants for shade and cant forget a large water dish that he/she can lay in.
Raw chicken can add more salemonella into the animal which cause problems such as runny stools which can dehydrate the animal.
This may be changing the topic, but my new tegu won't touch anything besides eggs now (the reason I bring this up is because his stools are runny and, like I said before, I took him to the vet for fear of parasites but that wasn't the case). He's picky now, he was fine with crickets then the first time I gave him a hard-boiled egg he won't even look at his crickets. Then I gave him a little high-quality dog food, and he was ok with that until I let him try a raw egg, now he won't touch the dog food. Or the crickets. Now he won't eat unless I give him raw eggs, but I don't want to do that. I've never had this problem with my monitors, they would eat anything I gave them. What should I do? If I keep giving him only eggs (which I won't), what would happen?
never give them dog food, no matter what the quality. it should be given as a treat if anything. i know some people feed it to their tegus, but they shouldnt, or it is given as a treat. since youre still giving him crix im assuming he is small, so give him a pinkie or a fuzzy and im pretty sure he will eat it.
Well see, I actually had to down-size the size of his crickets because he was throwing them up because he doesn't chew them well, so I was told by his vet to give him smaller crickets, but he won't even touch them. I'm giving him the small crickets, the next size up, not the baby ones. I know not to feed any lizard dog food on a regular basis, and he doesn't even really care for it, but he absolutely refuses to eat anything besides raw eggs! And I DON'T want to do that. I've never had this problem with any of my monitors. I wouldn't mind tryin a pinky, but since his crix were too big for him, I think that would be too since he's too stupid to chew & hurts himself. Like I said, I've never had one that only wants raw eggs so I don't know the consequences if any of that. Doesn't he need solids too??
crickets are too big for a tegu? hmm now im very intrigued. how big is your tegu? and you could try cutting up the pinkie
his body's about 6-8 inches long not including his tail, and I know that he is big enough to eat the crix given to him since his head is the same size if not bigger than them...so I cant quite figure it out. vet says he's fine too. And I don't know if I can cut up a pinkie :-P I may be big into reptiles, but i'm still a 20yr old girl. It's hard enough to feed em pinkies whole So what do ya suggest with the whole egg thing?
i think he is able to handle the large crix and a pinkie. what are the temps? put a basking spot of at least 120F
the temps are even too high sometimes, I think he can too, he should be able to, but he just doesnt I think I'm going to just not feed him egg or anything and eventually he'll be hungry enough and will just have to suck it up and eat his crickets :
It's def that high, thats why im saying its probably not the problem. I just dont know what to do about his eating habits. When I don't feed him egg, he doesnt eat.
let him go cold turkey for about 2 weeks, then offer him something other then an egg, that should do the trick
mouthrot i have a black roughneck monitor and it has mouth rot!! is this serious? can you give me any tips on how to cure it if it is curable please!!
Where exactly did this information come from? Varanus rudicollis is rarely ever seen in the wild. Only a few pictures of it in the wild even exist. In the few studies done on this species and what it eats in the wild, Brandenburg 1983, Duckett 1986, Losus & Greene 1988, and Bennett 1993, there has never been a report of road kill being eaten, nor would the stomach contents or the behaviour of those animals studied suggest that they eat carrion. Even in my interviews with people that live near and forage in the jungle and researchers that have seen V. rudicollis (I live 3 hours away from where they can be found and I have yet to find them) in the wild is there any suggestion that they eat carrion. You may ask why if it is not uncommon in the pet trade is it so rarely seen. The answer is that it is a very secretive species and not nearly as common as the numbers in the pet trade would make one think. The ones that entered the pet trade are trapped and rarely ever seen running around. Concerning meat of any kind, it is junk food. It does not contain all the nutrients that a monitor needs. A monitor requires whole foods (the whole body of animals) to obtain all of which it needs to stay healthy. Michael
Re: mouthrot Mouth rot is a serious problem. I suggest that you take your monitor to the vet. Snakes have this problem more than most reptiles and the same kind of medication can be used for treating it in monitors, but it will not be easy applying it. Michael
My roughneck loved live mice. as long as they were small ( just big enough to walk) she would chase them all over her cage. she also loved to have feeder fish put in her water. she is a great hunter. she liked the big hollow tree stump i put in there, and enjoyed a really large water dish. she wouldnt eat things like chicken or anything, but my brothers roughs neck likes cooked chicken. i wouldnt recommend raw meat like that because its not something they get in the wild so i wouldnt think digesting it would be as easy as small rodents and bugs. i hope this helps.
