Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went into my reptile room this morning and found my argus with 3 eggs in the water tub. She's almost 2 years old 3 feet long. I didn't think they would be ready to breed at this young age.I wasn't even sure she was female until now. The search is on for a male!

Two years old is plenty old. My female had laid three clutches by the time she was 1.5 years old. I am worried about your argus laying eggs in the water, and that she only laid three. I hope she does not have more in her that she is is not passing. That has led to many dead females.

The reason the three eggs concern me is that argus usually have larger clutches. If you want to be safe, x-rays will show if she is retaining any.

I hope all is well and I wish you good luck in breeding her in the future.
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Ed

She probably laid the eggs in the water bowl because there was not a burrow or nest box humid enough for her to lay. If you can give her something like that she will probably lay whatever remainder of eggs she has left. Good luck

Anything resembling nesting options, or live on newspaper, or solid floors, wood chips, etc., will lay eggs in a water dish or where ever they can to prevent themselves from becoming sick in the process.
Its not about a nest at that point in time, the nesting material has to be in place a long time before the egg laying to prevent stress from harming them. They hold the eggs as long as they can and will lay them in a water dish or on the surface in a wet spot if their health condition does not permit them to nest normally (caused by complete lack of proper nesting).
Nest boxes wont help them at that point in time, chances are the eggs are dead, and infertile at that point in time.

What would it hurt to put a nest box in there anyway? Nothing. You cant say for certain that the eggs are dead. Anyways if it were me I would try most anything to help her get the eggs out. Good luck man. Hope all goes well.

From what I understand through reading for many hours on this subject is that once a Monitor deposits eggs anywhere but a suitable nest with the right humidity and temperature (not a water bowl) the chances of hatching them vurtually non-existent.

Goodluck,
Mike.

I got nine eggs from the dumeril I posted in this thread. One egg hatched, some went full term but died fully developed, and the others dries out. This shows that it is possible for some poorly nested eggs to hatch.

That was my first foray in breeding monitors and I screwed most everything up and still got one to hatch.

Ed
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Ed