Best Ackie Monitor Food: Complete Feeding Guide

Ackie monitors are one of the best lizards you can keep. They're active, personable, and surprisingly interactive. But their diet is where a lot of owners go wrong.

Feed your ackie poorly, and you'll see sluggish behavior, metabolic issues, and a shortened lifespan. Feed them well, and you'll have an energetic, curious lizard thriving for 15–20 years. This guide breaks down the best ackie monitor food options, how often to feed, what to avoid, and which supplements actually matter.

What Ackie Monitors Eat in the Wild

Before picking feeders, it helps to understand what Varanus acanthurus eats naturally in Australia's rocky outback. Ackies are active insectivores with powerful prey drives. In the wild, they hunt:

• Insects and invertebrates — crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, cockroaches
• Small lizards and geckos
• Snails and other invertebrates
• Bird and reptile eggs (occasionally)
• Small mammals (rarely)

Their natural diet is high in protein and moderate fat, with almost no plant matter. This tells us a lot about how to feed them in captivity. According to ReptiFiles, variety is the cornerstone of a healthy ackie diet — no single feeder covers all their nutritional needs.

The Best Feeder Insects for Ackie Monitors

The goal is rotation. A diet of just one feeder type leads to nutritional gaps, boredom, and sometimes outright refusal to eat. Here are the best options, broken down by role.

Dubia Roaches — The Top Staple

Dubia roaches are widely considered the gold standard feeder for ackie monitors, and for good reason:

• Excellent protein-to-fat ratio — balanced macros for active lizards
• Gut-loadable — feed them nutritious greens before offering to your ackie
• Low odor — much easier to keep than crickets
• Soft exoskeleton — easy to digest, especially for juveniles

Size feeders appropriately. The insect shouldn't be wider than the space between your ackie's eyes. Dubia roaches come in several sizes to match your lizard's age.

Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL)

Black soldier fly larvae — sold as Nutrigrubs, Phoenix Worms, or Calciworms — are a nutritional powerhouse. They're naturally high in calcium, which means less dusting needed on feeding days. They're also soft, easy to digest, and most ackies love them.

This is the one feeder you can offer almost daily without worrying about overfeeding. Make it a rotation staple alongside dubias.

Crickets

Crickets are the most widely available reptile feeder, and ackies do love chasing them. They're cheap, come in multiple sizes, and work well for enrichment feeding. The downsides are real though — they smell, they bite, and they escape.

Gut-load crickets 24–48 hours before feeding. Offer them in a smooth-sided dish or with tongs to reduce substrate ingestion risk.

Superworms (Zophobas morio)

Superworms are high in fat, so they're not a daily feeder. But they're fantastic for underweight ackies that need to gain condition fast, and most ackies find them irresistible. They're also much easier to keep alive than crickets.

Limit superworms to 1–2 times per week at most. (Estimates only — actual prices on Amazon may vary.) Superworms are inexpensive and stay alive at room temperature for weeks.

Hornworms

Hornworms are low in fat and surprisingly high in moisture. They're an excellent choice during shedding cycles when your ackie needs extra hydration. They digest easily and come in large enough sizes to satisfy an adult ackie.

The catch: they grow fast. Buy small quantities and use them within a week.

Mealworms

Mealworms are fine as an occasional feeder. Their hard chitin shell makes them harder to digest than softer options, so they shouldn't be a staple. They're low-effort to keep, though, which makes them convenient for a treat. Once or twice a week is enough.

Waxworms

Think of waxworms as reptile candy. High fat, low nutrition, and highly palatable. They're great for encouraging a picky eater or as an occasional reward, but using them regularly causes weight gain and nutritional imbalance. Once a month is plenty.

Small Vertebrates — Occasional Treats Only

Adult ackies can handle vertebrate prey occasionally. Options include:

• Frozen/thawed pinky mice — high fat, use once a month or less
• Quail eggs — ackies love cracking them open; a great enrichment treat

Don't make vertebrate prey a regular habit. Too much high-fat prey causes fatty liver disease over time. Insects should make up 90%+ of the total diet.

Foods to Avoid

Some foods look reasonable but should never enter your ackie's enclosure:

Always use commercially bred feeders. Wild-caught insects can carry parasites and pesticide residues that are hard to detect and genuinely dangerous.

How Often Should You Feed Your Ackie Monitor?

Ackies have fast metabolisms and need regular meals, especially when young.

Watch your ackie's body condition closely. A healthy weight looks like this: visible but not sharp hip bones, a plump tail base, and good muscle definition along the back. If your ackie looks lean, feed more often. If the midsection is getting thick, pull back a bit.

Gut-Loading: Don't Skip This Step

Gut-loading means feeding your feeder insects nutritious food before offering them to your ackie. An unfed cricket is nutritionally empty — sometimes called a "gut-loaded ghost" in the hobby. You're essentially feeding your ackie whatever the feeder last ate.

Good gut-load foods:

• Collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion leaves
• Squash and sweet potato
• Carrots
• Commercial gut-load mixes

Feed insects for 24–48 hours before use. This single step has an enormous impact on the nutritional value of every meal your ackie gets.

Supplements: What Your Ackie Actually Needs

Even a varied diet falls short in captivity without supplementation. Here's the protocol:

Calcium with Vitamin D3

Calcium deficiency causes metabolic bone disease (MBD) — one of the most preventable and heartbreaking reptile health problems. Dust feeders with calcium + D3 powder 2–3 times per week.

If your ackie has strong UVB lighting, it produces some D3 naturally. Supplementing is still recommended as a safety net. Reptile calcium + D3 is inexpensive and lasts a long time.

Reptile Multivitamin

A reptile multivitamin fills micronutrient gaps that feeders can't cover consistently. Dust once a week, alternating with your calcium days.

How to Dust Properly

Put a few feeders in a small plastic bag or cup with supplement powder. Give it a light shake — just enough to coat the insects. Don't overdo it. Over-supplementing, especially with vitamin A, can cause toxicity over time. Light dusting is all you need.

Feeding Methods That Work

How you feed matters almost as much as what you feed.

Tong feeding is the most controlled method. You hand-deliver each feeder with feeding tongs. It prevents substrate ingestion, controls portion size precisely, and builds trust between you and your ackie over time.

Feeding dish works well for smaller, slower feeders like BSFL and mealworms. Use a smooth-walled dish so nothing escapes. Your ackie can hunt freely without you managing each feeder.

Scatter feeding means releasing feeders loose in the enclosure. This activates natural hunting behavior and gives great enrichment. Use this 2–3 times a week with dubias or crickets. It keeps your ackie sharp and engaged.

One thing to avoid: moving your ackie to a separate feeding container. Ackies are sensitive to changes in their environment. Disrupting their routine stresses them out and can trigger defensive biting. Feed in the main enclosure whenever possible.

Common Feeding Problems (And Solutions)

Ackie won't eat: Temperature is the first thing to check. Ackies need a basking surface of 120–150°F (49–65°C) for proper digestion. A cool enclosure means no appetite. Also consider recent stressors — new setup, handling too soon before meals, or an unfamiliar feeder.

Ackie only accepts one feeder type: This is feeder imprinting. Start mixing the new feeder in with the accepted one on the same pair of tongs. Scent transfer helps significantly. Withholding the preferred feeder for a few days also resets their willingness to try something different.

Ackie eating substrate with feeders: Switch to tong feeding or a smooth feeding dish immediately. Substrate ingestion is a genuine impaction risk. If it's happening frequently, also check for calcium deficiency — deficient reptiles sometimes eat substrate instinctively.

Ackie looks underweight despite regular feeding: Increase feeding frequency and add a superworm or two per meal. Also review your gut-loading — feeders that aren't gut-loaded properly deliver poor nutrition regardless of how many you offer.

Feeding Summary: Quick Reference

The best ackie monitor food strategy is always rotation. Dubias and BSFL as your base, with crickets, hornworms, and superworms rotated throughout the week, gives your ackie a nutritionally complete and mentally stimulating diet.

For more on reptile care fundamentals, check out our guide on Best Pet Lizards for Beginners — it covers species comparisons and core husbandry needs for monitor owners just getting started. And if you're wondering how supplementation compares across species, our Best Supplements For Bearded Dragons guide covers the same calcium and vitamin principles that apply directly to ackies.