Black Tree monitor

Question
QUESTION: My black tree monitor will only eat crickets and I have trying to feed it other types of food such as meal worms, raw egg, cooked turkey and chicken bits, Pinkies. What is the ideal weight for these monitors?

ANSWER: Hello JB,

Do you have any pictures of your Black tree Monitor?  How old is he & what is his size/length right now?
Your food variety sounds great if he would eat it.  I am not sure why he wont eat anything except for crickets.  Pinkies should only be fed maybe once a month, due to their high fat content.  Crickets & worms are normally the best nutrition for them.

What type of lighting are you using for him?  Do you use UVB lighting as well?  Could he not be quite warm enough?

What are the temperatures in the tank, do you use a digital probe or temp gun right now?
The weight is going to depend on their age & length.  As an adult, they can get up to 35-47 inches in length.  I would imagine their weight would probably be somewhere around 10-12 pounds full grown, but not positive on that.  
Is he relatively active right now?

Tracie

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Tree Monitor   QUESTION: She is 1yr 3ft and weight is 128g she is full grown. I have UVB light as well as infrared heat lamp. Temp during the day in basking spot 110f with humidity at 80% kind of hard to keep the humidity up since I live in Idaho and it very dry. I have a waterfall that on all day and a mister that goes on twice a day to help. Sadly my cats thought it was a great toy and it has a hole in the hose so I have to get a new one. She soaks in the pool in the tank every morning for 4 hours or so. In the evening the temp goes down to 90 as I turn off the UVB light though I keep the infrared light on otherwise the temp goes down dramatically. I have only offered a pinkie twice and she did not even look at it. She eats the crickets very well I giver her 12 or so every day.My vet thinks she is underweight so I am trying to think of how to put more weight on her. Any suggestions?

JB

Answer
Hello JB,

Yes, I would agree she does need to put on some weight.
Your setup looks good.  I am sure she loves her pool!  Cats can be way too curious!  I hope you get her hose/mister fixed soon.
Will she eat anymore than 12 crickets or does she just stop eating at that point?  At this point, a pinkie would definitely do her some good.
The silkworms, hornworms & superworms would be great additions IF she would even eat them.
There is a powdered formula called Critical Care or another one called Carnivore Care that you could feed her to try & get some weight on her.
How long have you had her?
Here is a link you can get some for her unless you can get some from your vet.

http://www.calvetsupply.com/category/s?keyword=Carnivore+Care

Which UVB are you using?  Does she like the basking temperatures?  You could give a little higher range to 120 if you wanted to.  The humidity is great.  I imagine that would be difficult to maintain that in Idaho!

I would allow the nighttime temps to lower to around 80 or so.  Too much overnight heating may cause heat stress, so that is worth a try.

Let me know how she is doing.  She is beautiful!  

Tracie