3 question about Bosc monitors. please help.

[Van777]

1) If my baby bosc monitor (4 months old) get some of the gravel like sand or small pieces of bark in with the food can it be bad for him. I have heard that they have very strong digestive systems.

2) What is the best gravel or substrate to use for bosc monitors?

3) What can I feed him until what age and from what age can I feed him meal worms. At the moment I feed him only crickets, 5- 10 in the morning and 5-10 at night.

Your help will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Sico]

I keep mine on newspaper, whether it is the best or not, it definitely is the easiest. If any animal ingests a lot of substrate it can cause problems like constipation. Mine eats *everything*, don't just feed it one type of food, it isn't healthy, and you risk it becoming hooked on one type of food, which will cause problems if you can no longer source that food (it can happen). Mealworms are not the healthiest staple food out there, as part of a balanced diet they aren't bad though. Lean beef mince, small eggs, chicken necks/heart/liver, any insects you can catch (locusts, flying ants, crickets etc) Garden snails, crustaceans, rodents, birds, meat... mine gets all of these duuring the course of a month. The more varied the diet, the healthier your monitor will be.

[Daisy10]

Hi Sico. Thanks for your feedback. What can I feed him now. He/she is 4 months old.

[Sico]

Feed him the same stuff, just smaller sized items? They're not like baby mammals that need a dietary change huh, they can eat whatever they can catch and swallow. So feed him whatever you can catch and he can swallow, and if he cant swallow it, cut it up into bits he can swallow. You can take the plastic top off a coffee tin and use that as a feeding "dish" for him, it will keep the substrate clean if you're using paper, and keep the food clean if you are using some kind of natural substrate, and he will get used to eating in one place. I dump all my monitor's food onto a paving brick in his cage, he knows that is where to go look for food (which is always).

[jarich]

Hi there,

Id like to clarify a little on diet. As Sico said, a variety is better than one food source alone, especially a store bought insect. However, the rule with Bosc's (and varanids in general) is to feed whole prey food items. In other words, thing with all their brains, guts, organs, etc still intact. The best things for Boscs are crayfish, earthworms, mealworms, hornworms, roaches, snails, crickets, locusts, fertilized eggs, and rodents occasionally. Id recommend staying away from things like mince and chicken parts. Its not going to kill him or anything, but there are much more nutritious things that are easy to feed him. You'll find as he gets older that some of the smaller stuff wont catch his attention anymore. For instance, he will probably stop going for the mealworms within the next six months.

As important as what you feed him is what you feed the feeder prey. Dont just buy the crickets from the store and feed them right away. You want to gut load them with some nutritious high calcium foods like collard greens, green beans, etc. Same with the other insects.

As for the best substrate, its a mixture of dirt and sand. They need the dirt to burrow in and retain moisture. These are not desert animals, and the require a high amount of humidity in order to survive long term. I mix it about 50/50 dirt and sand. The sand helps the dirt to hold a burrow. These guys like to dig a lot. They not only use the burrow to feel safe, they also use it to regulate their blood acid levels and keep from losing valuable moisture. As far as them eating the dirt, its no problem as long as you keep them hydrated. Youll notice that when they catch prey, they kill it by beating it into the ground and rubbing the prey into the ground until dead. They ingest a fair amount of dirt as is. They pass this easily through their digestive system, and the foremost authority on Boscs, Daniel Bennett, actually thinks they gain some nutritional value from it (mineral rich soil).

However, that means you need to keep them hydrated. That means the enclosure must be kept at around 60-80% humidity. The easiest way to do that is by having that deep soil substrate in a sealed enclosure. Its best to have about 24 inches of soil mixture in the bottom for them. Hope this helps!

The best book around for Boscs is called The Truth about Savannah Monitor Lizards by Daniel B and Ravi T. You can find it online as an ebook for only 3 pounds here...

http://www.muncom.com/mampam/the-truth- ... 23484.html

[Warren Klein]

I 2nd getting a copy of Daniel Bennett’s book. He is one of the foremost authorities on the species and still does field trips to study these monitors in wild in Ghana. Most people don't realize that V. exanthematicus is one of the most specialized varanids with less than 1% of their natural diet consisting of vertebrate prey. The Truth about Savannah Monitor Lizards is a must have book for anyone keeping this species or interested in varanids in general.