Young Goanna food size

[Magpie]

I know with young dragons you are not supposed to give them food that is longer than the gap between their eyes, but does a similar rule apply to young goannas?

 

[benson]

I think its all a lot of common sense.
I am cutting up rats and mice, as well as chickens, for a lace monitor. And every week, the pieces are getting BIGGER, so is he!!
Others will say to let them rip their prey to bits, it is a lot messier that way.

 

[hornet]

i have seen them eat larger food

 

[cris]

dont know any rules but they can eat farily big stuff, definately bigger than what i would feed to dragons.
I feed them rats a bit larger than their heads and they get them down easily.

 

[Tristis]

i feed young monitors pinkie no bigger than the space between there sholders, other wise they have problems getting the pinkie all the way down. bigger animals just get mice following the same rule.
i see no reason to cut up rats and mice for any monitor they simply do it themselfs

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

the main thing to worry about,imo,is that whatever they eat has no substrate attached to it,
whole animals are probably better as they dont pick up the sand like animals that have been cut,eg,half a rat or a piece of chicken fillet.
i learned the hard way when i lost a young monitor to a gut impaction that was caused by sand stuck to meat.
he was dead before we got to the vet..

 

[Magpie]

I've got young ackies, they are being kept on paper at the moment.
They seem to be happy to go for crickets that are almost as big as their head and get them down easily. I'm just worried that it may cause a problem for them.

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

mags,if you worried take the back legs of them,the crix that is,
they can be quite hard to swallow as well as digest

 

[Tristis]

healthy hatchling ackies should have absolutly no problem eating or digesting crickets or pinkies even on a sand substrate, just make sure you keep there basking spot hot 55-65degrees

 

[salebrosus]

Hey Magpie,

I had a mate who had ackies and found both of them dead two weeks after he got them. I'm unsure of the exact age but they wre juveniles. His kids had fed them a heap of large crickets and after he paid for an autopsy he was told that the crickets were too big and as they had eaten so many it caused a blockage and they died. Apparently the crickets wree still in the gut and throat of the dead animals.
I don't now how true this but i suppose it's something to think about........

AND hey..Where are the pics?????

Simone.

 

[salebrosus]

healthy hatchling ackies should have absolutly no problem eating or digesting crickets or pinkies even on a sand substrate, just make sure you keep there basking spot hot 55-65degrees

That's something i forgot to add. My little guy was always kept around 32 degrees ( as this was what i was told by people at the time ) and he was going great but after talking to Hugsta and seeing his flourish under an OzBright light bulb i gave him a try. Directly under the bulb it stays over 50 degrees and even on the hottest of Sydney days he will still lie under that bulb. i took a temp reading a couple of weeks ago when we had a 37 degree day and it read at being 63 degress and the little bugger was still sitting under his bulb. I must admit he was a great animal before i was obviously doing something very wrong and he is extremely active now.

Simone.

 

[Magpie]

There's always pics, you just have to ask

 

[Magpie]

They've got a hot basking spot with a Compact max 5.0 with reflector for UV.
Very very active little fellas, watching them jump all over the cage for a moth is hilarious.
Unfortunately they're all sold and I don't have any more eggs from them

 

[salebrosus]

Thansk a million Magpie, those photo's are great. They are top looking animals. Do they ever blew with each other????? I had to separate my two female Storr's monitors recently....i have a smaller one that keeps trying to grab the throat of the other one, vicious little women they are.

My ackie though is gorgeous but i'll admit not quite as attractive as yours.

Simone.
P.S. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Magpie]

They've shown no agression to each other, nor do my adults (1.2)

 

[salebrosus]

They've got a hot basking spot with a Compact max 5.0 with reflector for UV.
Very very active little fellas, watching them jump all over the cage for a moth is hilarious.
Unfortunately they're all sold and I don't have any more eggs from them

or a christmas beetle. When i give him the occasionally pinky mouse i usually make him chase it for awhile first. One becuase it's hilarious watching him but also because he is slightly chubby. He also plays with his woodies alot. He throws his in the air but the moment he catches sight of another woodie running past him he eats that one and then chases the other.

Simone.

 

[benson]

Tristis,
My Lacey is thriving. I was told by the fellow who bred him, to CHOP adult mice. As I have a freezer FULL of rats and mice, from pinkie to adult, I COULD feed pinkies. But I was told, and it makes a lot of sense to me, the ADULT mice have more calcium in their bones, and are much better for the hatchlings!!!!!!

 

[Tristis]

this shows what they can eat

 

[Tristis]

more

 

[salebrosus]

Those pics are great Tristis. But how gross is it when they're playing tug of war and end up ripping the skin in half and then eventually the mouse? My little guy plays tug of war with me and the tweezers and once he ripped his fuzzy clean in half but the grossest moment i've had with him was when my local pet store gave me all the left over pinky heads and halves etc. So i chucked in a few of the pinky heads,he ran over grabbed one and the moment he did he squirted brain juice all over the side of my cheek and my shirt. I nearly puked.

Simone.