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Ornate Nile Monitor Lizard

22 15:11:00

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Cece,
 If you are available, I am concerned about my lizard.  He is an Ornate Nile monitor that is 8 or so years old, 6.5' & 35Lbs or so, & otherwise healthy.  He normally eats every day(a diet of an equal amount of cat food, fish, shrimp, chicken, liver, & an extra dose of calcium).
 For the last 3 days he seems uninterested in his normal food.  Normally, he rushes to the food & consumes it within a couple of minutes.  Is this something that I should be concerned about?

 He is just too large to pick up & take to a vet - unless it is absolutely necessary.  Please advise.
 Thanks,
 Bill
Answer -
To: Bill
From: Cece Ericson

    It sounds like you need to cut back on his different food and that might help him to be more active. All that food can be over feeding him in every day in the morning or evening. Some of these Monitor lizard don't eat every day. When it comes to amount of food. they take about one whole week for them to digest. Nile Monitor in the wild, they don't eat every day to live. I mean..Once they eat one amount live animal or even fish. They take one week or two to finish digesting their food. So, I hope this helps a little bit. Wild Nile Moniors Lizard Diet: like live Rats and they will also eat eggs, Big Crickets. They are very active in the Sun.. ( So, for your lizard..Make sure his has alot of heat light on him.
 I hope this will solve your problem..But I'll be glad to research some more on this for you. If there other questions you need for anything else. I'll try my best to answer them for you.. Truly sorry for the late responed to your question here. I'll try to be on time and return your answer to you. Hope to here from you soon.

     Hope he gets better and let me know how he is doing..

         Thanks!

        Sincerely always,

         Cece Ericson
( American Inter. Rattlesnake Museum Of Albuquerque,NM & New Mexico Wildlife Rescue Clinic Of Albuquerque )

Cece,
 Thanks for the info.  I do know that this is a completely different diet & eating habit that a wild animal would have.  I also know the recommended diet - it took quite a while to find any good info. about this animal (1 yr. + of searching).  He was a gift & I knew nothing about him or how to take care of him when I got him.  
 That being said, I do not feed him that much at once.  I have given him 2 cans of cat food plus 8-12 shrimp(OR that amount of fish, or that amount of chicken etc. with the cat food(to match the flavor of the cat food)) daily.  He normally eats about 1.5 cans of the cat food & just mashes the rest in his bowl.  I believe that the cat food should be easy for him to digest & he is always hungry - the food is usually gone in less than a few min.  This is the only time I can remember that he has not been interested in his food for 3 days - this will be the 4th if he does not eat today.
 I do believe that they should eat larger whole animals by now - rats or rabbits etc. & only eat several times weekly.  However, when he was still very small, I started to feed him larger live goldfish.  He became aggressive - looking like he would snap at anything that would move - following my hand, hissing a lot at me & hitting me with his tail - even as I just tried to feed him.  I was worried that as he grew - I may be bitten.  I would hate to be bitten by him now - I would likely be on my way to the emergency room shortly after.   
 After changing to his present diet & spending alot of time with him - he is now quite docile & easy to handle.
 As of now, I will try to get him to eat something & may send out a stool sample to a local vet.  I just do not want to wait until he starts to get weak from not eating - if he is in fact sick.
 If you can offer any more advice at all, or know who/where I could find out more info. - please let me know.

Thanks again for your time,
Bill

Answer
To: Bill
From: Cece

   Thanks for letting me know about your Nile Lizard. It might be good to take a scool sample and have the vet tell you what's going on.. I hope he gets well soon. I wish you good luck. Once again thanks for letting me..

     If there any other questions you need..I'll try my best to stick to the point of the question you and anyone ask. Thanks for letting me help you and the information too.

         Sincerely always,
         Cece Ericson