savannah monitor food

[monstruo-the-tegu]

ok so i had left over steak and chicken so i decided that since i dont have crickets i boil the chicken and steak so i did and fed it to my savannah she really liked it but is it ok to feed her that as a secondary food when i don't have crickets or just as a treat

 

[Maro1]

I think it is OK. The thing to watch with a sav is weight gain. Since they are not primarily rodent eaters. They gain weight easily. A round bellied sav is a fat sav.The San Diego zoo diet works well for them. That's ground turkey and bone meal.

 

[Little Wise Owl]

I would only feed it as a treat and I wouldn't use the San Diego Zoo diet as a staple. Ground turkey and bone meal =/= suitable food for an insectivore.

 

[Maro1]

" This diet was created by Jeff Lemm and nicknamed the “San Diego Zoo” diet by the pet trade. It was created to be a healthy monitor diet that could not only supplement a diet consisting of whole prey items, but also aid in feeding monitors in areas where the supply of feeders has not caught up with the exploding pet trade. The diet consists of:

10 lbs. lean ground turkey
90 grams steamed bone meal
2 ground Centrum tablets

This diet has been proven to be nutritionally complete and used to feed"

http://savannahmonitor.org/feeding/sdz/

 

[james.w]

" This diet was created by Jeff Lemm and nicknamed the “San Diego Zoo” diet by the pet trade. It was created to be a healthy monitor diet that could not only supplement a diet consisting of whole prey items, but also aid in feeding monitors in areas where the supply of feeders has not caught up with the exploding pet trade. The diet consists of:

10 lbs. lean ground turkey
90 grams steamed bone meal
2 ground Centrum tablets

This diet has been proven to be nutritionally complete and used to feed"

http://savannahmonitor.org/feeding/sdz/

First you say Savs are not typically rodent eaters, but the SDZ diet is ok to "feed". Which is it??

 

[Little Wise Owl]

I may stand alone in this but it seems hypocritical (for savannahmonitor.org especially) to heavily promote Savannah's as insectivores but then say it's okay to feed SDZ diet... I would not feed mince turkey, a human multivitamin and bone meal to a Savannah Monitor (or any animal for that matter).

 

[james.w]

I may stand alone in this but it seems hypocritical (for savannahmonitor.org especially) to heavily promote Savannah's as insectivores but then say it's okay to feed SDZ diet... I would not feed mince turkey, a human multivitamin and bone meal to a Savannah Monitor (or any animal for that matter).

I'm with you, I only fed whole prey when I had my monitors.

 

[Maro1]

James, I just stated my opinion that savs tend to be insectivores and then I stated that the San Diego zoo feeds a diet they developed. I did not say you or anyone should feed the SD diet but that the SD zoo does. Regardless of your view. I bet the SD zoo has done well on that diet and not lost animals because of it. Many well respected herpers use that diet as well as an option to insects and specifically rodents.

Maro1

 

[dragonmetalhead]

I've been considering investing in a sav in the future and almost all of the literature I found points to them being specialist insectivores. They don't have dentition that's appropriate for ripping flesh and apparently in the wild they almost never go after rodents and rarely scavenge carrion. I was quite distressed to find more than a few articles saying many savs don't live beyond five years or so due to malnutrition.