Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently hooked a friend of mine up with these. My daughter filmed this fascinating part of Varanid behaviour. The lizards aren't bad either.....TC

Cummingi? I can't tell

You're absolutely correct....TC

I know its fun watching the boys play, but are they're any Females in the big picture?

Fabulous looking monitors!!! What's the story here? Are these in a zoo in indo or something? Thanks.

Actually their about 5 miles west of me here in ft. Lauderdale, Fl. A friend in Tampa had raised these since babies. They were in 8' long cattle tanks and he knew they needed a TON more space so I put Eric and he together. Both monitors were very fat making it a bit hard to sex them with 100% accurracy. I believed them to be a pair and we decided to introduce them to their new home and observe. My daughter filmed this with a PHONE camera believe it or not..I still think they might be a pair even though they engaged in this typical male behaviour. For those of you in the know observe the head motions toward the end and at a few other times during the clip. He's doing the typical side to side motion of a male in contact with a female. I guess my question would be can or has anyone seen females act like that? I have with Iguanids but as I've only bred 3 species of Varanids and only for a few years my experience level with behaviours is probably more limited than some of you folks. By the way the cage is outdoors and is L shaped roughly 23' x 12' with a pool and a den inside the rocks for shelter. This is how I wish ALL captive Monitors could live. For those of you thinking on buying a baby Savannah think again they need an enclosure at least half this size. Thats pretty hard to do in a house.......TC

Can you get some close ups of the enclosure, I want to make something like that for my Sav. I just wasnt sure how to do the door and the ceiling and worried about sun going through glass getting to hot as the glass magnifies
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1.0.0 YBS
1.3.0 RES
1.0.0 red belly cooter
1.0.0 Fire belly toad
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor
0.1.0 Leopard Gecko
cats, dog, ferret, rats, mice and hamsters

Thanks for the info. Great enclosure indeed. That would be great to get some breeding!

Nice animals. A few years ago, I kept some of those.

To me, those appear to be two males. Cumingi as with other large monitors, the females are very very very different. All you have to do is look at their eyes. I am sure you will understand that, while most here will not. The females are also very very very different behaviorally then males. If you can call them anything that pertains to humans, they are sweet and loving. This has been my experience with all the large species I have worked with.

As with many indo species, the total tail shape is way different on females. Males have a much Stronger and higher tail. As one pic indicateds.

I lost my female to a nasty outdoor cage accident. She normally cycled in the winter here, and when gravid, had to find a better nest, so she broke out into the outdoor part of the cage and went swimming in the pool. The only problem was, it was freezing outside. So she submerged and drowned. Of course, I have metal doors and locks. So she simply broke off the metal hinges. These lizards are very strong.

Of course if I lived in S. Fla, she would have only been uncomfortable and not dead.

This problem is pretty much across the board for me. All the larger monitors WANT to reproduce in the winter, when outdoors is not supportive to those needs.

Anyway, I hope these pics help. Cheers

I understand now. After seeing the pics they're definitely both males. Now I have to find a female or two for him. It almost makes we want to get some. Both lizards are extremely personable, in fact as personable as I've had. Their personality reminds me a bit of an extra nice V. bengalensis I had back in the day...Thanks again....TC

hey tom, where in lauderdale do you live. I'm in west palm. Would love to see your varanids.

Kevin

You're welcome to come visit but I have mostly Iguanids. I do have some spectacular Iguanids, however the only Varanids I have are surplus. I'm not breeding any right now. I have a few nice surplus lizards however. Call me at 239-645-9661...TC

Hi,

I had upright wrestling in my home between male sulfur water monitors 2 years ago. They were 6.5 feet and 5.5 feet long. I tried to intervene when the biting started but they were so strong and determined that nothing was going to get between them until business was finished. when all was said and done, the larger wound up with the better of the two cages forcing the other into an adjoining enclosure. There was no female present. I was surprised they were biting so much. the wounds were deep and bloody but healed in days. both had scraped the other back real good during the clench.

Regards,

John

Those look like they were beautiful....TC

Man I would sure love to check that cage out someday!! I'm about 1 1/2 hours north of you in Vero Beach. I have an outdoor also with my blackthroat. Beautiful animals man.