This is for those of you who have successfully raised up groups of monitors from birth. Alrighty, I recently acquired a second group (trio this time, rather than a pair) of hatchling ackies. I've had them for about a month and a half without any health problems. They have eaten like pigs and grown like weeds, as they should. My question, however, is regarding one of the individuals being noticably smaller than the other two. I often see this individual being chased around by one of the other two. When the chaser catches up to our mentioned individual, he pokes his nose into his neck and mounts him out of dominance. There is no biting, so this in itself does not bother me. In fact, I think this is normal for a group developing its social structure. What does bother me, however, is this smaller animal's size and weight.
With my other pair, I just allowed them to work it out on their own. This resulted in my smaller animal (now my male) being the size that it is and losing many of its toenails and being slightly dehydrated from my female (the one I posted a clutch of bad eggs from about a month ago; by the way, one of those eggs is still chugging along in the incubator, I think it could be a result of parthenogenesis) not allowing it to remain in or near the burrow(s). Now they reside together peacefully and have "bred" for me before (about five days straight), although this yielded no eggs.
Anyway, before I lead to the demise of this smaller juvie's health, I figure I should ask. Should I separate this smaller animal and reintroduce it after the sizes balance out? Or would this disrupt the developing social structure of the group? Should I just let them figure it out on their own? Sorry, this feels like I'm asking one of the most basic monitor questions. But, having only my adult pair, I have limited experience rasing monitors.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Ryan
-----
There are three kinds of people in this world: people who can count and people who can't.
