Question about food source for monitor

I have a quick question, is Live Crawfish a good food source for a Savannah monitor?

They don’t eat shellfish in the wild, and shellfish (even ones in captivity) are known to carry parasites. I would also imagine they wouldn’t go down without pinching them and potentially hurting them. If you want to kill the crawfish and cook the tails up as an occasional treat it would probably be fine, but I wouldn’t risk live ones. Just stick to lean meats (like ground turkey), bugs, and the occasional rodent.

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Because there are so many packages of ground turkey roaming around in the wilds of Africa… :face_with_raised_eyebrow: :rofl:
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A crayfish is just an aquatic bug when you get down to brass tacks
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I do not see a crayfish posing any kind of hazard to a sav. The crush power of their jaws is not insignificant. They also have a pretty tough hide.
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The possibility of parasites is probably pretty low as commercial ones are farmed. It is not an impossibility, but then again, any time you are feeding raw meat of any kind you run that same risk.
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I would imagine that an occasional crayfish would be a nice addition to a diverse diet, but I would not use them as any kind of staple.

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No turkeys, but plenty of native birds with similar nutrition. If they could get hold of venison that would be good as well, but it is expensive and hard to find. It depends on the age of the monitor in question if it could hurt them or not. A baby monitor with a large crawfish wouldn’t be the best of plans. The shells on a crawfish are a lot thicker than any bugs as well. Cooking them up and removing the shell would likely be more beneficial.

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The point I was making was that you chastised the OP for asking about feeding something not found “in the wild” but then turned around and suggested something also not found “in the wild”

And yes, certainly there are native birds in their range. But they are not boneless and ground up in a nice neat package so their nutrition profile is not as similar. The wild birds also do not have added salt and preservatives.

But if we are just going with the “similar enough” argument, then as I noted above:

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One assumes the OP is not an idiot in that regard and is fully aware that you feed appropriate-sized prey to appropriate-size pet. If a keeper asked whether a fetal goat was okay to feed to his retic, would you assume he is trying to feed it to a hatchling? Why assume the OP plans to feed a 15cm crayfish to a 30cm sav?
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Depends. On both the age of the crayfish and the kind of bug we are comparing to. Smaller crayfish have thinner shells. Scarab beetles have some pretty thick shells.

And from the personal experience of actually having kept a sav, I will again attest to their bite strength. If mine could eat a chicken breast with the bones still in it then a crayfish shell would pose no real challenge.
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But why remove the shell? Extra nutrients and a little extra “roughage” are probably beneficial

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I would imagine cooking it would remove some nutritional value as well.

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While probably not what there eating in the wild. Although if an wild sav had the opportunity to eat one I bet it would :joy: I would think an occasional one would be ok best to get farmed not wild caught. variety is the key to varanus diets. don’t feed just crayfish!!

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I use to feed my dumerils crayfish and it loved them. Usually a dozen at a time cuz she was an adult. My Sav I used to offer meat and rodents of the appropriate size throughout its life and also insects. It also loved eggs. Either whole quail eggs cuz it could crush them or I would serve chicken eggs in a food dish already cracked.

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Live crawfish contain the vitamin B1 destroying enzyme, thiaminase. Feed sparingly.

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This is good to know, I was not aware of it. Reiterates the need for a diverse diet

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A lot of fish contain thiaminase including many that people often eat including catfish and loads of different shellfish. I wasn’t suggesting a diet based on crawfish just that I did offer as a food source based around that Dumerils are semi aquatic and consume shellfish in the wild. Just wanted to clear that up. Never fed them to my sav though

Cooked fish, shellfish etc. renders thiaminase inactive.

Yes it does but it also in tuna which loads of people consume raw. Moderation and variety is all I was talking about. All done now

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