Monkey Chow???

[Sunrunner]

I have been keeping monitors for a long time and at present I have several large ones. During all that time I have heard numerous references to feeding monitors "monkey chow". What is monkey chow made of? and is it good to feed it to monitors? Many of the instances I have heard of monitors eating this chow it was regarding some VERY large specimens which makes me think maybe this is the miracle growth formula for varanids! I want my monitors to be as big and healthy as possible so is "monkey chow" a good diet choice or not? I have also heard of ppl using dog food? What are your views on that? Most of my monitors are sustained on large bugs, ground turkey, fish, chicks and rodents.

[reverendsterlin]

this is the place I got my rodent lab blocks from and they have several mixes and give all the data on them http://www.teklad.com/standard/index.htm

[Steeve B]

Try to stick with hole foods, rodent and monkey chow is formulated for the more herbivorous digestive system, and Dog food haven’t been studied on monitors metabolism yet. tell your self if they have specific food for cats and different for dogs, there must be a serious reason, Monitors are very different then both the above (no referring to physical aspect) until we know more about there real needs, and this will be variable from one species to the next, you shod stick to hole food as much as possible, a treat once in a wile wont kill him, but it who’d do him good too, in many cases they refused other more healthy food afterwards.

Rgds