Reptile & Amphibian Forums

From the post below....
The goal is breeding. "Keep'em hot and feed'em a lot". For breeding purposes, what should the temperature range be? What should be the lowest temps on the cool side? Thanks

Also, see looks quite large already, she may already be gravid. I don't know. What are typical behaviors of ackies that are about to lay eggs? Should I offer a seperate nesting container, or keep on eye in the dirt of the enclosure?

So many questions,,,,such little time.....

Thanks

Finally good questions, hahahahahahaha thanks

A good temp range for all monitors is, 65F to 135F give or take 10F degrees(or even 15F degrees). Whats important to know and understand is, its not the 65F or the 135F that are important, whats important is all the temps between them. The use the high temps for certain things and the low temps for certain things. But most often they use the middle ranges. To be accurate, all the temps in that range have important uses.

About breeding and reproductive behavior. You ask about typical, our typical is not your or others typical. So thats hard to say.

Our typical is, a female gets heavy(in condition) emitts pheromones and the male mates her for 3 to 5 days on the first clutch, and as short as one day on the successive clutches. At about the time of mating the female chooses the area she will nest in. She digs a burrow and then covers the entrance, she will redig it over and over. Sometimes looking at other areas by mostly works over days on her nesting burrow. Then she will go down and come up from a few hours to overnight. The telltale behavior is, when she lays, shes covers all the holes and divits in the cage, getting rid of all signs of nesting. Whereas, when she is working on her nesting burrow, she only covers her burrow.

When allowed to nest at her leisure, They do not lose any body weight, and will breed fairly soon after egg laying, we have had several species breed the day they laid.

With supportive care, ackies can have many many clutches a year. Or record for a single females we are experiencing now. I have two ackies that are gravid on their 12th clutch in 12 months. I admit to losing track, so it could be 13 or 11, I think its 12. The truth is, it doesn't matter, its a lot. And they are done yet.

The average is much lower, 3 to 6 clutches is fairly normal for 12 months.

In my opinion(i could be wrong) nest boxes suck, because they do not allow the above behaviors. And in most cases, forces them to nest there, not asks them if they want to nest there. An example is several others that use nest boxes, keep the cage very dry in order to force the females to nest in boxes.

Remember, those folks are successful to a point. But after I see mine nest like they do, I feel its torture to give them a next box. Our nesting area is the entire cage.

Remember, we are talking about little monitors, ackies, its not all that much work.

Oh I forgot, Robert Bushner send me those ackies and they laid lots of clutches for him. So the real number could be more.

Back to typical, typical is determined by what we allow them to do, If i change substrate, it changes what is typical. If I change diet, or lite bulbs or put them on a diet. Or change males. In reality, typical is something you strive to allow the monitors to do, its not something that just happens if you give them a hot spot. Cheers

Thanks for you reply.
I was thinking of changing the bulb, because I thought my cool end was too low. But after reading you reply, it should be fine: 128 basking to 78 cool end. Thanks...
I noticed the male started a burrow, then the female took it over and made it hers. I will keep on eye on the condition of the substrate for any indications of egg laying.
Also, your reply made me think of the gradual temperature changes in my enclosure. For every inch of surface area, the temp's change at approx 1.4 degress from one end to the other. My enclosure measures 36 inches long and the ranges are 128 to 78, a 50 degree difference. Is this similar or different to what you have? Just something I thought about.
Thanks.......