The short answer for a savannah monitor
A savannah monitor's main everyday diet is invertebrates. Gut-loaded roaches, crickets and locusts, earthworms, snails and other whole insects should fill most of the bowl at most meals, with a light dusting of calcium powder over the feeders before they go in. Whole rodents and other vertebrate prey are occasional extras in a savannah monitor's week, never the foundation, because this stocky African species is famously prone to piling on fat when meals run rich. Think lean, crunchy and varied rather than soft, fatty and repetitive.
Why insects suit this monitor's body
A savannah monitor in the wild spends its day digging and foraging across dry grassland, and insects and other invertebrates are what it mostly finds. That foraging diet is high in effort and relatively lean, which matches a body that stores surplus energy very efficiently around its organs. In an enclosure, where the monitor walks far less, calorie-dense food catches up with it quickly. Weight that creeps on shows as a thickened tail base, a sagging belly that drags when it walks, and a lizard that stops exploring and spends its days parked under the basking light. Feeding insects as the staple keeps meals closer to what this animal is built to process.
Building the everyday feeding routine
A savannah monitor eats best on a rotating menu rather than a single feeder species. Offer a base of gut-loaded roaches or crickets on most feeding days, then rotate in locusts, earthworms, snails and silkworms across the week so nutrition and interest both stay up. Gut-load the insects on leafy greens and vegetables for a day before feeding, because the monitor ultimately eats whatever the insects ate. Dust feeders lightly with calcium powder at most meals, and keep fresh water available in a bowl sturdy enough that a strong, digging lizard cannot tip it during a post-meal stomp around the enclosure.
Portion judgement for a growing and an adult monitor
A young savannah monitor grows fast and is usually fed daily, while a settled adult does well on meals spread across the week rather than a heaped plate every day. Portions are judged on the animal in front of you: a healthy savannah monitor looks solid through the body with a tail that tapers smoothly, not pinched at the base and not bulging. If the belly starts to swing low between the front legs or the lizard loses interest in hunting moving prey, meals are running too large or too rich. Cut back the fatty extras first, keep the insect base, and let activity come back before portions creep up again.
Foods that quietly undermine this diet
A savannah monitor should not live on pet food meant for mammals, fatty meat scraps, or a standing rotation of rodents, however eagerly it takes them. Those foods deliver far more fat than an insect-based meal and crowd out the calcium and variety the staple feeders provide. Eggs and similar rich treats belong in the same rare-treat category. Wild-caught insects gathered near sprayed gardens or roadsides are another poor swap, since whatever they carry passes straight to the monitor. When a savannah monitor goes off food entirely, sheds poorly, or shows a soft, trembling jaw, those are signs to involve a reptile veterinarian rather than simply offering something tastier.
Keeping the rotation consistent between keepers
Insect rotations drift when several people feed the same lizard and nobody writes anything down, and a savannah monitor will happily let every keeper believe it has not been fed yet. Recording each meal against this monitor's profile in KinsLe's Care Teams, with the duty marked complete and timestamped, keeps the insect rotation, the calcium dusting and the rest days exactly where the plan put them.