It seems your interested in working with some monitors. But are not sure which ones. You have niles and like them, that means your easy to please, like me. I like them all. Then you get a Timor and like it. Eventually You will like some more then others, but still like them all.
I do not go by species specific information. In fact, I breed all monitors(over 20 species) the same way. With about the same husbandry and without question, the same base temps and humidity.
I do not go for that country thing. You know, this is and indo and that is an african, and this is a Ozzie monitor, and they are all different. To me, they are monitors and monitors are very very much the same. They are a strong family of lizards.
There major difference is size, and in that I treat them differently.
They all eat the same type prey, you know, anything they can get in their mouth, mostly anything along the crustation, insect, mammal, bird, rodent, fish, line. But not restricted to that. I have had about all species consume plants at some time or another. Again, size controls what they eat more then species.
You can breed all monitors in the same conditions, a very loose temp range from 60F to 130F, or up to 200F works for all. Of course the 200 is a bit of a waste of energy, but they will use it.(mainly smaller ones) All species need the same humidity. Not so dry that it dehydrates them, and very few species like to be wet or real humid all the time. But most all the species like to pick from fairly dry to very humid. With some species being semi aquatic. So again, if you offer places from 25% to 80% humidity, they will be fine.
Consider, I have never measured humdity in my life, so that is a guess, an educationed guess, but a guess just the same.
What makes monitors so hard, is what makes monitor keepers the biggist bunch of boneheads on the planet. Ok, not the biggist, but up there just the same, IS. Monitors are a very very very very behavioral group of lizards. And when I say behavior, I am not exactly sure what that means.
For instance many lizards have very refined behaviors, they are so refined that it then becomes very restrictive. Like green anoles live in small bushes, with particular favorites, like cycads, they like bushes over water. They do not like tree tops. And they do not like the ground, but of course will do both those things. Brown anoles, like the ground, but must have tree trunks and bushes to run into. These are examples of habitat behaviors. It makes them easy.
Well monitors have those, but not all that restrictive or very loose. But what they do have is very very keen social behaviors. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm this is where I leave the academic world as they are in firm believe that monitors are not social. So I asked them to come up with a word thats just like social, has the same meanings, and be different so it can be used on monitors. They have not yet.
I use the word social, because how it works for us is, its all about how they get along. To be social or become social. To get along with others and form bonds. This they do in such a keen way, I believe they are social specialists.
I allow them to get along and live in pairs and groups. With no more then that and the above base conditions, monitors throw eggs at you like pez despencers. And no, that is not an exzaggeration. They rarely have a single clutch in a year, in 17 years and over 20 species, I have never had any female lay one clutch. And up to 15 clutches in a year, with many species over 10. Normally three to five a year. I have not figured out how to stop that.
I do not hibernate them or photoperiod, or raincycle, or do anything other then tend to behavior. I also do not use UV or pay any attention to that in any way. And I only suppliment(add vitamins and calicum) to crickets and nothing else.
The major restricting factor is nesting. Monitors appear to be birds in this manner, If they have proper nesting(their perferred choice) They lay eggs like that old pez despencer. If they don't, they normally give an effort of some sort and die of reproductive failures. That is, they hold ovum, or eggs, and become sick or get tumors, or all such failures(reproductive complications). Of course the males do not, so you see lots of males around. They do not die from sperm retention, hahahahahahahahahaha. Lucky males.
So as you go on your search, you will find lots of males, but very few females. On the otherhand, in my years of hatching monitors, many thousands, I see a higher percentage of females. Good thing too.
Now why I mention all the above. Monitors are very easy to keep and breed(your stated goal) The base requirements are about the same, except for size. The nesting requirements are simple, ground nesters and then the others, Tree hollows, leaflitter nesters. Many species do both. Not so complicated as birds. BEHAVIOR, is what you look for and how you manage your monitors. They are a very visual group. You can tell what there doing, by seeing it. You cannot be blind(which most keepers are)(blind is refusing to take into consideration what you see).
Again back to you and your choice. Amoung behavior, some monitor species are very very shy, that is, doing all important behaviors out of sight, out of your sight. As with all behaviors, not all individuals are the same. There are always degrees. Again, How you gain insight to what your monitor is doing is by watching them and recognizing their progress.
Timors are the queen of the empty cage syndrone. That is, they like to hide from predators, all the time. Again, not all of them, just most of them. Even the bold ones will hide at important times. Nothing wrong with that. But one thing. You have to know what monitors are doing. Because you will not see it. So they are not the best beginers monitors. Once you gain experience, then it makes it easy to tolerate this empty cage stuff. Several people here have provided decent conditions, without any luck, I then recomend digging up the cage. They often find several clutches of eggs. All done out of sight.
Other species like ackies, storrs, tristis, are exactly like timors, except they will do all important behaviors on your forehead, if you want. So, you can see what they are doing, not predict what they are doing. This is important.
Take tristis and glauerti(kimberlys) they appear to be direct desendants of Timors. In fact, the first kimberly was preserved in a jar, labelled as a timor type(v.scalaris)
So if your partial to timors, these two species are nearly the same. As with timors, who are combo nesters, both ground and tree nesters, these two also understand both.
Of course I understand if you still want to start with timors(the complex) As I am a firm believer of keeping what blows your skirt up(what you like) But that will be taking the hard road, with more work, you will eventually get there even taking the hard road.
So all and all, don't go by species specific stuff, if you do, you will only get confused. Go by behavioral results, I do the least and get the most. But then, as my opponents often say, I must just be lucky, decades of lucky. If so, I will take that luck and keep applying it. Cheers
