Food & Diet
- Insects. Live crickets, mealworms, waxworms, cockroaches, and grasshoppers are a good source of protein and other nutrients for your monitor.
- Commercial Food. There is commercially available monitor food that you can get at pet stores. ...
- Mice. Mice are readily available and can be a source of food for your companion. ...
- Other Foods. ...
- Supplements. ...
What do Nile monitors eat in the wild?
Nile Monitors are quick hunters and opportune scavengers, eating insects, mollusks, fish, amphibians, rodents, small mammals, bird eggs, and other reptiles--just about any animal they think they can swallow. Young monitors are better fed every day and do well on crickets, roaches, and other bugs.
How much should I Feed my Nile monitor?
Commercial meat-based carnivore diets can also be fed. Nile monitors should be fed every 1-2 days. Niles are almost always hungry and fare best if fed measured portions once daily, although babies can be offered as much as they will eat per feeding. For adults, I feed an amount roughly equal to the volume of the monitor’s head every 2 days.
How do you take care of a Nile monitor?
Gut-loading crickets and dusting them with calcium powder before feeding your Nile monitor is vital for a growing reptile but if you are feeding whole mice or rats it is not necessary to add anything to them. Juveniles should be fed daily and adults should be offered food a few times a week.
What can I use instead of crickets for Nile monitor?
For older juveniles, king mealworms can substitute for crickets, and larger mice can be offered. However, unlike broad-snouted monitors, the narrow-snouted Nile monitor can feed only on relatively small vertebrates (with body width less than 2/3 the width of the monitor’s head).
How often do you feed Nile monitors?
every 1-2 daysNile monitors should be fed every 1-2 days. Niles are almost always hungry and fare best if fed measured portions once daily, although babies can be offered as much as they will eat per feeding.
What should I feed my monitor lizard?
Monitor lizards may be offered a variety of insects, including gut-loaded (recently fed) crickets, mealworms, roaches, superworms, calci-worms, hornworms, earthworms and silkworms. Feed waxworms less often, as they are high in fat.
Can a Nile monitor eat fruit?
While most monitor lizards are carnivorous, eating eggs, smaller reptiles, fish, birds, insects, and small mammals, some also eat fruit and vegetation, depending on where they live.
Can I feed my Nile monitor eggs?
Adults can be fed every other day on a wider diet of pre-killed rodents, fish, birds, eggs, etc.
Do monitor lizards eat vegetables?
Can my savannah monitor eat fruits and vegetables? Given that savannah monitors are strictly insectivorous, plant matter is not a natural part of their diet and should not be offered in captivity.
How long can a Nile monitor go without eating?
Depending on the situation, house lizards with constant water sources can live between 10 to 30 days without food. However, they can only hold up to a maximum of three days with no water. Before they would even feel hunger, they would die out of dehydration.
What meat can I feed my Savannah Monitor?
This indicates that the savannah monitor's liver is not adapted to handle a large portion of fat in the diet. Whole prey such as day-old chicks are recommended over mice and rats because of their lower fat content. Whole, lean, freshwater fish are also a good food choice for savannah monitors.
How do you tame a Nile monitor?
2:4121:24How To Tame Your Monitor Lizard From Start To Finish - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipUm you kind of just want to stay around in the general area that he's in you know let him see youMoreUm you kind of just want to stay around in the general area that he's in you know let him see you let him notice you and then pretty much just let him be.
How long can monitor lizards go without food?
In simple terms, adult lizards can live longer without food than a neonate. In short, a lizard can live without food depending on its age, size, and species. The basic life span without food for a lizard is anywhere between 2 weeks to 2 months.
Do Nile monitors need calcium?
Monitor lizards are susceptible to metabolic bone disease, the result of a diet that lacks calcium. It can also occur if the lizard is not getting enough UVB lighting.
Do Nile monitors eat worms?
Nile Monitors are carnivores. Babies and juveniles will eat a variety of insects. Offer crickets, cockroaches, mealworms, waxworms, and superworms.
What do Kimberley Rock Monitors eat?
In the wild, kimberley rock monitors feed primarily on other lizards and insects, but are known to eat both reptile and bird eggs. In captivity they do well on a varied diet of insects and rodents.
How long can monitor lizards go without food?
In simple terms, adult lizards can live longer without food than a neonate. In short, a lizard can live without food depending on its age, size, and species. The basic life span without food for a lizard is anywhere between 2 weeks to 2 months.
How much do monitor lizards eat?
The amount you feed depends on the size of your lizard. On average, juveniles (up to 3 feet long) should eat about one to four fuzzy mice or one small mouse, supplemented with a few insects. Adults (larger than 3 feet long) should eat two to three adult mice per week or one rat, supplemented with some insects.
Can monitor lizards choke on food?
Given an understanding of just what size of rodent meal your monitor can swallow without choking, it is best to feed rodent prey items that just barely 'go down the hatch'. Also, it is important to have a comprehensive knowledge of your particular monitor species natural prey items.
Does monitor lizard eat chicken?
Whether their prey is already dead when they find it or they hunt it themselves, the main food for monitor lizards are birds, snakes, lizards, toads, small animals, pigs, deer, cattle and water buffalo. Depending on their location, some will also eat crustaceans and turtles.
Why is it important to treat a nile monitor?
Nile Monitors are often prone to cuts or scrapes. It is important to treat any cuts or scrapes immediately because it may be a possible cause of infection. Improper handling may also lead to broken bones and severe injuries if this happens proper support to the broken bones is needed so better seek your veterinarian.
Where are the Nile monitors found?
The Nile Monitor is a native to Africa, and their species are distributed throughout the other parts of the world, in the central and southern regions of the continents, mostly in Sudan and central Egypt along the Nile River.
Why do nile monitors live longer?
Preventing Illness. Nile Monitors can live longer because of their hardy characteristics. By proving your monitor with proper care, habitat, food, and proper handling you can be sure that you will be able to keep your pet for a long time.
Why are nile monitors important?
The economic importance of Nile Monitors to humans is that they are usually exploited species where it is used for leather and for food. In some cultures, they are often hunted to get their fat from the reproductive organs in the belief that it can cure different human illnesses.
How long do nile monitors stay in water?
They are often seen basking on the rocks, branches of a tree or near the water. Unlike other reptiles, they have the ability to breathe and stay 20-30 minutes. Nile Monitors use their sense of sight and sense of taste so that they could sense what’s the environment where they are in has to offer them.
Why is a nile monitor bad?
Metabolic Bone Disease. This health problem a Nile Monitor may encounter is a result of giving them an incorrect diet. Like humans, they also need calcium to have healthy bones. Not getting enough UVB lighting or exposure to sunlight may also lead to metabolic bone disease.
What color are nile monitors?
Both male and female Nile Monitors do not exhibit sexual dimorphism or differences when it comes to their physical appearance, weight, and size. These reptiles have a tough physique, and striking skin patterns with beady skin brown, olive green, and grayish-brown in color with greenish-yellow or rosette-like ...
Minimum enclosure size for Nile monitors
The absolute minimum enclosure size for a single Nile monitor is 12’L x 12’W x 8’H. In other words, you need at least a small room in order to house a Nile monitor adequately. This may seem huge, but keep in mind that these are very large, active lizards that need opportunities for both climbing and swimming within their enclosure.
Do Nile monitors need UVB?
Yes! Nile monitors require UVB lighting for their survival. UVB lighting helps provide a clear day/night cycle, provides all of the vitamin D that your pet needs, strengthens the immune system, facilitates better digestion, and provides other benefits. Here are the best UVB bulbs for Nile monitors housed in a 12’x12’x8’ enclosure:
Best temperature for Nile monitors
Nile monitors should have a basking surface temperature of 110-130°F, as measured by an infrared thermometer. The air temperature around the basking area should be between 88-92°F, and between 70-80°F on the cool side, as measured by a wall-mounted digital thermometer.
Best humidity levels for Nile monitors
Nile monitors are a tropical species, so the humidity inside their enclosure should be moderately high: 50-75%. Humidity should be measured via at least one wall-mounted digital hygrometer.
Best substrate for Nile monitors
Providing a layer of naturalistic substrate (“bedding”) in your Nile monitor’s enclosure will help maintain correct humidity, cushion your lizard’s body, encourage good posture, provide a digging medium, and also help make your enclosure more attractive!
How to decorate a Nile monitor enclosure
An empty enclosure makes for a bored Nile monitor, reducing its quality of life. Keep your pet entertained and engaged with its environment with the strategic use of décor items that encourage it to exercise natural behaviors!
What to feed to a Nile monitor
Nile monitors are carnivorous, which means that they require a whole animal-based diet to get the nutrition that they need. Offer food every 1-2 days, and beware of feeding too much or too often, as this leads to obesity. Each meal should be slightly smaller than the lizard’s skull.
How do nile monitors live?
They are often seen in or close to water. At night they sleep on tree branches, in burrows which they dig themselves or submerged in water. Nile monitors are highly aquatic and can remain underwater for 12-15 minutes. They are also excellent climbers and quick runners on land. In the colder parts of their range, Nile monitors hibernate, usually in burrows or in rock cracks. When they sense any danger they tend to run away or may even jump into the water from the tree branch. When threatened juvenile monitors will tail whip as a defensive measure, and as adults, they are capable of inflicting moderate to serious wounds from biting and scratching.
What is a nile monitor?
Nile monitors are large African lizards. They are the second-largest reptile in the Nile river. Nile monitors have muscular bodies, strong legs, and powerful jaws. Their teeth are sharp and pointed in juvenile animals and become blunt and peg-like in adults.
Why do people kill nile monitors?
These lizards are heavily hunted for food and leather. In some areas, local people kill Nile monitors to obtain fat from specific organs for traditional medicine.
Do nile monitors hibernate?
They are also excellent climbers and quick runners on land. In the colder parts of their range, Nile monitors hibernate, usually in burrows or in rock cracks. When they sense any danger they tend to run away or may even jump into the water from the tree branch.
How often should I feed a nile monitor?
Nile monitors should be fed every 1-2 days. Niles are almost always hungry and fare best if fed measured portions once daily, although babies can be offered as much as they will eat per feeding. For adults, I feed an amount roughly equal to the volume of the monitor’s head every 2 days.
What do nile monitors look like?
What You Need to Know About Nile Monitors. They look like dragons and behave like any other large carnivore. They’re imported indiscriminately, with thousands sold each year. They grow quickly from charmer to liability, and outgrow any habitat smaller than a room. They are Nile monitors (Varanus niloticus). Alert and intelligent, Nile monitors’ ...
What to feed a 4-week-old cricket?
Diets for juveniles can be 4-week-old crickets gut loaded with a multivitamin/ calcium/ vitamin D3 supplement. Nile monitors should be fed crickets daily and offered a pinkie mouse weekly. For older juveniles, king mealworms can substitute for crickets, and larger mice can be offered.
Do male nile monitors have curiosity?
In contrast, males generally display a much higher level of responsiveness and curiosity, but tame less readily. If kept in cages that are too small, Nile monitors usually display behavior of being cornered, manifested by frantic flight attempts and, when these fail, holding ground and tail-whipping.
Do nile monitors defecate?
Nile monitors kept singly usually defecate in their water container. If kept in groups (one male and one or more females), mating attempts by males will often cause the females to defecate on the ground as a defense. Sexing. Sexing is difficult in juveniles.
What do nile monitors eat?
Nile Monitors are quick hunters and opportune scavengers, eating insects, mollusks, fish, amphibians, rodents, small mammals, bird eggs, and other reptiles --just about any animal they think they can swallow. Young monitors are better fed every day and do well on crickets, roaches, and other bugs.
How big of a tank do nile monitors need?
They grow fast and will get quite large. We recommend starting out a baby monitor in at least a 3' x 2' x 2' tank. Exo Terra's Large lowor Zilla's 40 gal critter cageboth work.
How big of an enclosure do water monitors need?
They also need a large container of water. A good rule of thumb is to have an enclosure at least 1 1/2 times the length of your monitor, including tail. They are active and smart.
What do savannah monitors eat?
Recent studies have shown that presumed rodent eaters such as savannah monitors, actually consume mostly termites, millepedes, and scorpions. In captivity, these foods may be difficult to procure, but other insect species are readily available, and should be part of every monitor diet. Crickets, mealworms, waxworms, ...
Should you feed rodents to captive monitors?
The debate over whether or not to feed rodents to captive monitors is a heated one. In all likelihood, there is probably not a right or wrong answer. Instead, the keeper must carefully evaluate other aspects of their husbandry and from that decide to what degree rodents should contribute to their pets diets.
Do monitors eat mice?
However, most monitors only rarely eat rodents in the wild, and if fed artificially high numbers of them (as often occurs in captivity) they can quickly succumb to a variety of health problems. Mice and rats are generally considered to be too high in fat for most captive, exercise-deprived monitors.
Is monitor husbandry outdated?
While current publications on monitor husbandry tend to be quite acceptable, the data in older books is likely outdated. Additionally, monitors are a wildly diverse group of animals, with individual species having specific dietary requirements.
Behavior and Temperament
Housing
- Of course, bigger is always better when it comes to reptile housing and this is especially true for a monitor that likes to climb, swim, run, and can grow to be nine feet long. At the bare minimum, your enclosure for a Nile monitor should be twice as long as your full-grown lizard. This means your six-foot monitor would have an enclosure that is 12 feet long. The housing also needs to b…
Heating and Lighting
- Nile monitors are native to Africa (although an invasive population is thriving in Florida) where the weather is hot. A basking spot temperature should reach 120 F with a temperature gradientdown to the 80s during the day and not drop below 80 at night. A Nile monitor also requires UVB lighting. This light should be on a 12-hour cycle and the bulb should be replaced every 6 months…
Choosing Your Nile Monitor
- Nile monitors are beautiful, large, strong, and aggressive reptiles. They do not make good pets but are hardy nonetheless. If you are considering getting a pet Nile monitor make sure you have a large and safe enclosure. You should also make sure you have the regular funding to pay for all the food it will eat over the next 20 years, check to see if it is legal to own a Nile monitor where y…
Common Health Problems
- Monitor lizards are susceptible to metabolic bone disease, the result of a diet that lacks calcium. It can also occur if the lizard is not getting enough UVB lighting. These lizards are not as prone to parasitic infections as other breeds but can suffer from constipation due to impaction. They eat a lot and sometimes ingest sand or other things they can't digest. If you suspect your Nile monito…
Similar Breeds
- If you're interested in monitor lizards as pets, check out these similar breeds: 1. Black-throated monitors 2. Savannah monitors 3. Dumeril's monitors Otherwise, explore our full collection of monitor lizardprofiles.