You come across as a bit closed-minded come any papers. When you say it’s not 100% (production of opposite sexes in hatchlings raised together), there’s a chaos factor. I figure that’s where the proceeds of scientific curiosity can come in handy. More basis for certainty and less expecting the same ole.

If there is a window for monitor sex differentiation, does it occur during incubation based on temperature or does it occur after hatching when the siblings influence one another’s hormones? Is it standard genotypic 50:50 male/female and you’ve experienced some fraction of that 100% of the time?

I can appreciate your productions as being successful enough to let you ask “Who cares?” When it comes to answering questions for individuals who don’t have your track record and thus might not understand your reasoning, wouldn’t it be easier (practical) to have an answer based on more than “It’s what I’ve seen so far”, and to know when and why the truth to that answer came about? Then, you no longer have to worry about “rules” being taken out of context, even if they’re still not 100%.

Not every paper is some garbled up representation of a few wild monitors viewed with radio transmitters making for dragging a sixth track mark. You mention turtles. How useful the papers on sex determination can be. Since any (good) paper will report materials and methods, including the geographic source of the eggs, you can use inference when applying the information. When you talk to another breeder, maybe his/her snapping turtles came from Louisiana, yours come from Indiana. You go by the threshold temperature the other breeder uses, doesn’t quite measure up. Darn. If you had read a paper on incubation temps in Indiana snapping turtles vs. Louisiana snapping turtles and the difference in threshold temperatures, time and energy saved (application).

I must misunderstand your perception of scientific inquiry (curiosity) and its potential application to the hobby. If you first consider yourself a person who's fascinated by the animals you succeed with, why would curiosity (whatever kind you wish to call it) about the origins of the trends you see in your animals be of no interest, with only practical applications of interest to you? That’s a business perception, and it confuses me. Then again, a hobby that’s very big and very successful, I guess that IS just an ideal business, hey? Ben

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