It has been a long time since I've come to this forum (A big "Hi" to anyone who remembers me). Moving across the country once per year for four years plus a divorce managed to divest me of all my monitor lizards. However, having been relatively stable for the last three years, I thought I'd start again with these fascinating lizards. Unfortunately, I don't have the room for the argus monitors I love, so I thought I'd work with something smaller. The timor complex is graceful and beautiful, so I figured I'd try my hand at raising some of these reclusive yet attractive animals.
Several weeks ago I ordered four timor monitors from a local pet store. They had one timor in stock, but I wanted a fresh batch all from one shipment, to maximize the chances of getting a compatible breeding group (there are so many species, subspecies, and isolated populations in this complex that if I assembled the group piecemeal, who knows if they would even recognize each other as potential mates). The lizards arrived in a timely manner. I was impressed by the quality of the animals I received - I was expecting scrawny, dehydrated lizards I would have to nurse back to health, instead I got four squirmy, healthy, vibrant and very fast specimens. They were all juveniles - a bit more than hatchlings but with a lot more growing still to do, and all the same size. I anxiously took them home and put them in the enclosure I had prepared for them.
That is the last time I saw all four together. During the day, I often see one or more basking in/on the Rete's stack. I've seen up to three at one time, but that is rare. Since it is in my nature to worry, I wonder if the fourth one died and is mouldering down in the dirt somewhere, but I don't want to disturb the others by digging up the cage. One is fairly bold, and will remain out and basking in full view even when I am in the room. The rest will retreat when they see me, but often leave a head sticking out of the stack to keep an eye on me. I am taking it slow and easy with these guys. I'm not going to handle them until they come to trust me. In the mean time, I enjoy the time I spend worrying about them - checking temperatures, making sure they have healthy nutritious crickets to much on, cleaning the cage of the copious evidence they leave of a healthy metabolism, changing the water, keeping the humidity up, and the like.
Cheers!
Luke
