Black Tree Monitor

Hello,
I have a Black Tree Monitor that only wants to eat fuzzies. Tried feeding him eggs and other stuff, but he wont eat it. Anybody else have this happen? Its not really an issue, just curious.

My green tree monitor is very picky too. He'll only eat crickets and hornworms/hornmoths out of insect feeders, and the rest he will only eat meat/eggs. How long have u been feeding him mice? He probably enjoys them too much.. And actually it is a problem tree monitors need to be fed just about every day and mice aren't a suitable daily prey for them.

I remember seeing this recently when looking into getting a green tree monitor:

Monitor Meatballs* - by Shari Anderson

I made this recipe up after reading everything I could about monitor nutrition in captive situations, whether in zoos or as pets in private hands. In the wild, all members of the Varanus genus are carnivores (except, of course, Gray's monitor which does include some fruit in it 's diet) and eat a wide variety of items from large mammals to tiny insects. Duplicating this sort of diet for captive animals is almost impossible, although one of my heroes, Dr. Walter Auffenberg (The Komodo Monitor), feeds his monitors road kill provided by Florida's wildlife agents. Well, most of us can't do that. So most people with large lizards, snakes, and assorted carnivorous things feed the ever popular, easily available, commercially raised rodent. And as most of you are probably aware, we herpers are very opinionated people, so there's always controversies popping up: live or pre-killed, rodent or insect, raw egg or cooked egg, or just the whites? Then, of course, one must consider the ratio of protein, calcium, phosphorus, etc (see excellent information) - well, here's what I came up with - no guarantees, no scientific analysis, except real-world experience. I' ve been feeding this to my monitors for years (about 25% of their diet) and they have all eagerly taken to it.

1 lb. ground turkey (both light & dark meat)

about 1 ½ cups good quality dry dog food (Science Diet, Eukanuba, etc)

3-4 eggs (including shells)

Soak the dry dog food in very hot water until it turns to mush (may take several hours) and roughly equals the same volume of the ground turkey. Thoroughly crush egg shells (in a mortar & pestle is easiest)
and mix all together. Form into small meatballs, about one inch in diameter. Bake on cookie tray at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
They should be quite brown on the outside (a little too done) to more resemble natural 'prey' that's crunchy on the outside and softer inside. Larger animals can eat them whole and just break them up a little for smaller animals.

Wow, that sounds great! I'll definitely try it out. Thanks for sharing

Wheres the pics!!!

ataraxia said:

Wheres the pics!!!

Click to expand...

Ditto!!! I love these guys, one day i will have one! Every time i see them at shows i always stop and think about it til the girlfriend says " lets go!" Lol.....one day i say!

gotta love them