Feeding mice to monitor

[Lukecee]

How do I know what size of mouse to feed to my gouldii, do I just go off the size of the monitors head compared to the size of the mouse or what ? Hes been having a couple of pinkies with ease at the moment.
Secondly should I start euthanizing mice at all different sizes and ages to give myself some size options for when my monitor grows over the next couple months ?

 

[user 43767]

How do I know what size of mouse to feed to my gouldii, do I just go off the size of the monitors head compared to the size of the mouse or what ? Hes been having a couple of pinkies with ease at the moment.
Secondly should I start euthanizing mice at all different sizes and ages to give myself some size options for when my monitor grows over the next couple months ?

Hi, I thought I`d mentioned it already but perhaps not? Pinky mice have little nutritional value for varanids because of their relatively higher energy needs, fuzzies are better, if too big to swallow whole cut them up before defrosting, although I think your Gould`s will easily take a whole one, and no, the prey does not necessarily need to be smaller than the monitor`s head, they are adapted to swallow larger items much like snakes can (not to suggest you should always feed larger).

 

[Lukecee]

Hi, I thought I`d mentioned it already but perhaps not? Pinky mice have little nutritional value for varanids because of their relatively higher energy needs, fuzzies are better, if too big to swallow whole cut them up before defrosting, although I think your Gould`s will easily take a whole one, and no, the prey does not necessarily need to be smaller than the monitor`s head, they are adapted to swallow larger items much like snakes can (not to suggest you should always feed larger).

Yep I think you did mention that about pinkies but a couple of them were rejected by mother and died so fed them anyways instead of wasting. On no worries I'll try some fuzzies in future, if he struggles ill chop them up. Cheers

 

[dragonlover1]

I followed this advice with my juvie lacies, chopped fuzzies, initially 4 pieces, then 2, then whole.Now 10 weeks old and eating 3 fuzzies each.

 

[Lukecee]

I followed this advice with my juvie lacies, chopped fuzzies, initially 4 pieces, then 2, then whole.Now 10 weeks old and eating 3 fuzzies each.

Ok ill give it a try, just gonna have a couple beers first get the balls to chop the mouse up

 

[dragonlover1]

Ok ill give it a try, just gonna have a couple beers first get the balls to chop the mouse up

do it while frozen and it makes no mess

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

do it while frozen and it makes no mess

Get a nutribullet. Lol

 

[dragonlover1]

Get a nutribullet. Lol

no they need to chew it up, mush is no good

 

[Lukecee]

do it while frozen and it makes no mess

Thanks for the tip
[doublepost=1604211044,1602915171][/doublepost]Thanks again for the great advice he started off with hoppers in 4 pieces now in 3 pieces having one whole mouse per week and just crickets every other day cheers

 

[Sdaji]

no they need to chew it up, mush is no good

Fun fact, monitors are physically incapable of chewing. They swallow whatever goes into their mouth whole. They have neither the dentition nor jaw mobility required for chewing (or shearing or crushing or any form of mastication of similar functions).

They may not be too keen to slurp up Nutribullet-processed rodent goo and you're right about it not being a great way to prepare food (I'm sure he was just joking about the Nutribullet suggestion), but if they did do it there would be no problem.

OP: I'd personally just use rodents of the right size for a meal. I'd just give a smaller rodent rather than chopping up a larger one. If you're not sure what size they can take, YouTube is your friend. If they're too small for velvet mice you can just use dusted insects (cheaper anyway) and bits of chicken etc, bone included. To be honest I'd personally mostly use thawed frozen roadkill for larger monitors.

 

[Bluetongue1]

Another fun fact about larger monitors is that they eat carrion. This often takes the form of larger animals, such as kangaroos, resulting from road kills. Being too large to swallow whole, monitors tear off manageable sized chunks that can then be ingested. To do so they use their front legs and claws, their long muscular necks, their strong jaws and their specialised teeth. Most monitors possess laterally-compressed, triangular-shaped teeth with a sharp tip and edges. They are similar in many respects to the shark teeth you often see used for pendants and other necklaces. Such teeth are particular effective at piercing and then slicing through flesh and sinew. This is why bites from monitors can do a lot more physical damage than the bite of most similar sized reptiles, even if it’s only a snap bite rather than a tearing one. So never hold food in your fingers when offering it to a monitor.

EDIT: Corrections have been made due to errors pointed out in the following post by Murrindindi.

 

[user 43767]

Another fun fact about larger monitors is that they eat carrion. This often takes the form of larger animals, such as kangaroos, resulting from road kills. Being too large to swallow whole, monitors tear off manageable sized chunks that can then be ingested. To do so they use their front legs and claws, their long muscular necks, their strong jaws and their specialised teeth. Monitors have sharp pointed triangular shaped teeth with serrations on the front and back edges – very similar to the teeth of the great white shark. Such teeth are particular effective at piercing and then slicing through flesh and bone. This is why, generally speaking, bites from monitors tend to do much more damage than those from other non-venomous reptiles.

Hi, just for the sake of clarity, not all larger species have serrated teeth, V. varius, V salvator, V.komodoensis/others do (komodoensis teeth being most like some sharks) so not all are suitable for "slicing through flesh and bone" (in fact I`m not aware of any species that can "slice through bone")?
I might be misunderstanding, you say the teeth do more damage than other "non-venomous reptiles", if that infers varanids are not venomous, according to the very detailed studies and results they are?

 

[Bluetongue1]

Thanks for that @Murrindindi.

• The purpose of the post was to add a bit of interest as the forum has been particularly quiet of late. Unfortunately it was ambiguous and incorrect in part. It is good that you were able to pick up on the misinformation, which I have hopefully now addressed.
• I admit that I was under the misapprehension that the teeth of our larger monitors had a degree of serration, which is not the case. My bad.
• Interestingly, I had some misgivings at the time about including ‘bone’. I decided to do so knowing that croc monitors have been known to slice off parts of fingers, and the ribcage of a carcass can be torn into smaller pieces by scavenging monitors. I should have qualified the comment. Happily it reminded me that I had forgotten to explain the purpose of saying this, which was to make people aware of the danger of holding food for monitors in your hand or fingers.
• Yes, I am aware of the work of Fry and others, and that not only do monitors have venom glands but so do things such as the common tree snake and bearded dragons. Using the term ‘non-venomous’ was an afterthought to exclude the potential damage done by a highly venomous snake bite. I’m afraid I still fall into incorrect old habits at times.