Posted by:
jobi
at Sat Oct 6 12:21:11 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by jobi ]
Theirs not a big difference between waigeos and sorong behaviour wise, if one thing id say waigeo are a little more skittish, other then this they both have similar size and habits.
I sold my pair a few months ago, unfortunately the female was drowned a week after the new owner got them, this stuff happens sometimes with overzealous mating.
Hers a tip I gave to George Horn for his jobiensis, feed the feeders with high beta carotene foods (trifle, dandelions, Swiss chard, bock Choy, carrots, red peppers) and allow a significant temperature drop at night, if you don’t do this they will lose the nice rich coloration as they grow.
Yours have already started to pale, see Mike Stephanie’s pair from prior posts, they too have lost coloration, This is both preventable and reversible.
Wild Doreanus and jobiensis feed on preys witch for the most part feed on algae and other high beta-carotene foods, grass hoppers and crabs are loaded with them.
Many years ago a Japanese kio breeder explained to me how even the most colourful fishes lose color if fed the wrong diet, at the same time I was talking to FR about the possible food color relation with monitor lizards, funny because FR said to me, that if food had any significant play in the lizards coloration, his monitors would be white or grey from the mice and crickets he’s been feeding them, I ponder about this for a while, and started to believe that coloration is an inherited trait, so I stopped using the beta-carotene and chlorophyll diets, this resulted in very plain and dull colour Doreanus, jobiensis, dumerils in less then a year time.
So I phoned Denis King to see what he thought about this? He was working with Rosenberg’s at the time, he said that most species have something in common, they all show the best coloration as hatchlings, we concluded that embryo’s have the riches diet in regards to minerals and color pigmentation, this is passed on by the mothers liver, her organism process the best for her eggs, as they hatch and start to forage, they feed on what’s available, these preys are in turn dependent on the available greens, see where I am getting at?
I don’t really know why or how, but when I raise a monitor to adulthood and his colors keep improving with my above diet, I see no reasons to do otherwise, maybe some species do have inherited coloration? or maybe it’s the ingredients from the dog food or chicken mash one feeds the feeders that provides possible color pigments witch are in turn passed on to the monitors? Why knows?
The only thing I am sure is that beta carotene- chlorophyll and temperature affects color pigments, one of the first color stimuli happens at the embryo stage, when theirs a small temperature fluctuation cycle, the hypothalamus primer function is to stimulate color cells, from darker to lighter pigmentation, how simple is that.
We all understand and seen how a dark reptile turns lighter as it warms up.
Gee I must have missed posting, I could keep on and on about this.
But I think you got the idea.
cheers
ps. pleas resize your photos 
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RE: here are some of my new pics. - jobi, Sat Oct 6 12:21:11 2007