Reptile & Amphibian Forums

While those odd fellas are trying to determine how backwards I am. Life at Goanna Ranch goes on. By the way, if they are forward, then I REALLY REALLY want to be backward.

In our discussion below, I mentioned a gouldi female was down nesting. She came up today and looked like heck. The night she went down it rained a lot. The gilleni that was also down nesting, came up after the rain and I took her whole group inside. Will keep you updated on how that move worked out. I really hate moving them when they are near nesting.

Anyway, heres the series,

As you can see, she is covered in wet substrate.



I have consistantly seen, the wetter the substrate, the larger the cave they put the eggs in. If its dry, they cover the eggs in dirt. Those are the two extremes. How much the eggs are covered and the size of the cave is directly relate to wettness.

Also have some ackies hatching, these are from three days ago.

These are hatching right now. Cheers

Frank the things Iv learn from you are undisputable, you have provided me the keys to obtaining good eggs, proper female conditioning and good nesting options.

For this I thank you!

I am having more fun then ever, sure hope bob is having such fun too, or maybe not!

these are hatching now!

Hey there FR, I love the pics of the Ackies hatching! I think that it is great that you are continuously posting updates with pictures, its fun to see whats going on around there! Personally I have enjoyed reading the posts in the last few weeks between you and various other people on here reguarding monitor socialiaty.

I am like you, in that I would rather see successful results any day, than arguing over theories which would be of no use to keepers in captivity. All anyone has to look at is the results of their testings (or the results presented by others) and determine which is the better plan of action in captivity. I have yet to see anything good come out of discusing whether or not monitors are social in the wild. So in my opinion, it is a no-brainer to choose to take advice from people like yourself that continue to post great results!

Like you said previously many times; this forum is about monitors in captivity not in the wild.

Cheers, Lance

a lot of good can come from listening to Michael, Bob, and Sam. try asking them questions. it's good to hear about wild monitors from different points of view. you'll be better off if you don't choose sides. there's plenty to learn from FR, and from the scientists.
cheers

Frank, due you think the bigger hole when the soil is wet is because it's so much easier to dig. i would imagine if the earth is really hard they would make the hole just big enough to acomplish their mission. what do you think.

by the way, what kind of dirt is that gouldii nesting in. it looks like sand to me, but maybe it's a mix of something.

cheers

I would theorize the larger hole is to allow air around the eggs instead of wet soil. As I mentioned, when the is dry, they bury the eggs and collaspe the cave and tunnels.

To think its about the dirt is not understanding monitors. They can dig in very very very hard dirt. This stuff is soft(for them)

When I first started with monitors, I used my skid steer to fill the cages with our natural desert soil. The monitors loved it, it was full of rocks and boulders. They would burrow all around that stuff, no problems. In fact, I think roots, rocks and such in nature are used to make it difficult for predators to get to them. Back to here, it worked, it killed me trying to dig up the eggs. So now I use soft stuff, not for them, but for my little fingers. Its desert dirt. Heck if I know a name for it. Cheers

FR-

I was going to ask you about the dirt. I noticed in your pictures that the dirt looks dry/loose with large and small pieces in it. I've tried dirt that looks like it, but it doesn't hold burrows well. If I add too much water, it's like freshly mixed cement for weeks and doesn't dry quickly. If it does dry out, it's one big solid rock that has to be chipped apart.

Do you use the same dirt in the whole cage? Does it not matter that much?

Thanks-
Kakes

Yes, dirt is very important. Species often only live where there is dirt perferred by that species. There does seem to be a fairly wide range. This is particularly true for the smaller ground dwelling species. Of course, not so important for tree dwellers, they need the right kind of tree.

Your dirt sounds like it has clay in it. Clay seals the dirt and makes it useless. If your look around washes and dry creeks, the organic matter and clay is washed out of it. Cheers

I'm confused about how to tell if clay is in the dirt. I know of clay as large solid chunks. Wet or dry- chunks.

In the dirt that I explained in the above post and another type I am using which shows in the picture, there is not any clay chunks. Wet or dry- no chunks of clay.

Can clay be in powder form??

The dirt in the picture is fine and has very little amount of pebbles/stone/rock. It's soft to the touch and not gritty like sand. It stays wet, but not muddy wet. It holds burrows when moist and dry. I've raised a few lone monitors on it. I don't have any pairs yet, so I haven't had a female nest in it.

What am I over looking?

Nice Frank!

Every time I see some more of those red's I just can't help but smile. Hey, at least I raise them well!

--Robert

They are great. I am having lots of fun with them. You did a great job. Cheers

those posts may not have been directly about monitors, but i thought it was worth people reading and thinking about. for a moment there i thought progress was being made between team red and team blue. maybe not. please stop deleting posts

my question to Michael was deleted as well. so i'll ask again. why is V.S.Cumingi losing its salvator name. i keep Cumingi so this bit of info really interests me. what kind of differences between asian waters and cumingi exist to give cimingi full species status? how about other Philippine waters?

cheers

When work is completed on the Salvator Complex, some of the subspecies will be elevated to species status and at least one will go from subspecies status to being grouped together with the nominate form. Elevation of status or change of status will be on the basis of mDNA evidence along with other evidence.

If you are interested in how most of this may work out from what the mDNA shows, I suggest that you read: Mitochondrial DNA Evidence and Evolution in Varanoidea (Squamata) (Ast 2001). Even if you do not understand the content of the paper, the mapping of the phylogenetic relationships is easy to understand, but it does not show all the salvator types. Keep in mind there are other forms of salvator that are known, but not yet officially described.

Cheers,
Michael

mrcota, thanks for the reference, however where do i find Varanoidea (Squamata) (Ast 2001). is this one of those papers i need to go to a university to get? or do you have a soft copy that you can e-mail.

cheers
shay

Follow the link..

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ap/cl/2001/00000017/00000003/art00169

If you dig deep enough on the web you may be able to find it for free =)

wow, they want $57 for that article. i have a hard time paying that amount for a whole book.
thanks for the link

cheers