Seventy pounds and still growing

Holly diver! that is a realy FAT albigularis, you sould reduce the fod.

Are u feeding him pure Hamburger or what? That is one OBESE Lizard!

Hi Nick and Grius - Thank you for your comments. You guys are just the monitor experts I am looking for. We rescued Grover about 4 years ago - he was living in a cramped, water filled tupperware dish with red-eared sliders!

We made him a custom cage in our yard (we live in a very warm climate) and he gets daily sun, daily exercise in our large yard, and regular vet visits.

You are absolutely right. He is way too fat. However, he looks fatter than he is in real life because he is flattening himself out in the sun. In any event, I am looking for advice on how to trim him down considerably - feeding his less doesn't seem to be working so far. Fortunately, his blood work looks really good, but he is, of course, at risk of getting fatty liver disease or other illnesses.

During the last six months, I have reduced his food intake but have seen no appreciable results. In fact, over the winter, he didn't eat for five weeks but his weight still remained about the same. He is close to seven feet long and weighs about 70 pounds.

I feed him rats, quail, chicken, sometimes turkey, snails and very, very occassionally as a treat, liver, steak or other meat, and boiled eggs. Never hamburger, dog food, or canned food of any sort.

Any advice you have would be much appreciated! He is having a new custom built enclosure erected this weekend and I am excited about that.

Thanks

I have to say,I respect you very much for trying to take good care for your monitor,for taking it to the vet,and for giving a normal reply to the comments! forgive me for my "animal cruelty" comment,but unfortunately it is seen all to often that people stuff their monitors untill they explode. Good to see that you are thinking about the problem!

My advice would be; give it whole prey items only,like mice and rats,and not all kinds of meat. What is the humidity over there? Try giving him a good soak in the bath once a week! When a monitor is dehydrated he will not propely digest its food. Further more I can say that it is a though job to make a full grown adult monitor to lose weight and I wish you good luck with that!

with regards,barry

Barry - Thanks for you terrific suggestions. I really appreciate it and have already started to implement them. I'll keep you posted on Grover's progress. I'm very hopeful that he'll start slimming down soon.

Thank you again,

Taryn

I can tell you this, Do not feed your monitor strictly rodents. Stricly rodent diet will just add to it. You will never get him to lose weight that way. Maybey you can spread his feedings apart. One of the best ways to help your monitor lose weight is cut down his fatty food intake. Let me know if you have any questions. Unfortunatley it is a lot quicker to get them obese than it is to get them to lose weight. It will take time to get him to trim down. Be patient.

This is varanus albigularis,and can indeed be fed strictly rodents. The problem with any albigularis getting fat lays not in the rodents which are fed to the monitor,but in the husbandry that is given to the monitor. Any albigularis will drive on a all rodent diet,just as long as the husbandry is good. Ofcourse when one talks about varanus exanthematicus, a all rodent diet is not prefered. Varanus exanthematicus is a real insect eater,its metabolism is adjust to that. Varanus albigularis has a much higher metabolism rate,and there is a reason for that. In the wild, adult albigularis are real snake eaters,especialy venomouse snakes!Ofcourse they will also eat lizards,small mammals,bird eggs,snails etc. These prey items contain way more calories than insects. Now,any adult albigularis will eat a medium sized cobra,from the small cape banded whitethroat monitor from south-africa, to the big blackthroat monitor from tanzania,(often mistaken for v.a. microstictus) So there for,feeding rodents which are also high in calories should not be a problem as long as the husbandry is okay and one does not feed to much.

Ofourse,the problem is,this monitor is too fat. But to feed insects to lose they weight is not a good option for your wallet with a large monitor. What can be done is,feed often and very small portions. The monitor will diggest one small fuzzy mouse every day much better than one rat every 5days! (ofourse,a healty albigularis can be fed much more,but unfortunately that is not the case) With this methode one will force the metabolism of the monitor the keep continue working. But when you feed a big rat to an overweight monitor at once,his metabolism will burn a few calories and then shut down and store the rest of the rat as bodyfat.

One advice,if you want to continue keeping this monitor in the backyard,provide a big box where your monitor can hide in and fill it with sligtly moistered dirt. Make a hole on top of the box,just big enough for the monitor to crawl in,this way you will not lose humidity fast in the box. At night,the monitor will hide in the box and get hydrated! Good luck!

with regards,barry ps; my english may not be all that good,I am from holland!

Everyone's an expert.

"Everyone's an expert."

Hehe exactly, V-albigularis will eat mutch more insekts in the wild, and not so far from exanthematicus intake what i have read. So a diet consist of cockroach, snails, grasshopers, cicken instead fore mice seams better.

Good luck! and btw i am not close to an expert in varanids..

I,m sorry,have we ever met? do you know me or anything about my experience with v.albigularis? Thought not!

So try to help this guy or just shut the .... up!!

hahahahaha,, nice comeback

"This is varanus albigularis,and can indeed be fed strictly rodents"

Just giving that advice to an albi in that size is enought for me to know about your experience.

Ever heard of frank retes? take this up with him and he will tell you what I told you; the problem with a fat albigularis is not a strictly rodent diet,but its husbandry! Unfortunately a lot people have bad husbandry,and therefore a fat monitor!

I know you will not take my word for that,and further more this is not helping the person who posted the picture. So go to the biggest expert there is,frank retes,and take it up with him,because I am done with you!