Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The Blue Tree's are my favorite and I have 2 lg groups of them. Here's a pic of a pair in the small group [1.2] and a female in the lg group [2.4] I'm pretty sure is already gravid. She now eats springly if at all and bask a lot...SHE IS NOT SPREAD OUT BASKING BUT LOOKS LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME...

I'm also quite fond of my one pair of Prasinus that are copulating regularly now....

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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Those Prasinus are incredibe1!

Tom, gorgeous looking trees there. I always liked the blues but never owned any. That girl does look a bit thick and hope you get some eggs soon. My only experiance with the trees are Kordensis and GTM,I had a female that looked like a blue spruce tree, when she was gravid in the latter stages her tail would get real thin but she would only lay 1-2 eggs? I only had them for about 2 years and they were neat species to work with. One thing that amazed me is how aggressive the female would get at the ordinarily dominant male after she laid eggs. The one day I heard alot of action in the cage and she had the male cornered under some cork bark. I soon found out it is a good idea to pull the male [in my situation with smaller cages] for about 2 weeks. That female was meaner then a scorned woman at that poor male.
I have seen some mild post egg laying protection from V. Pilbarensis but nothing in comparison to that Kordensis Gal. She was really outright mean. Have you ever seen this in your experiances with some of the trees? I heard the black trees were even worse but that is second hand info. Im sure with larger caging the male may find a safehaven in your cages, mine were just to small. All of your monitors really look very healthy, nice color and robust but not overweight. Thanks for posting the pics.
Bob

I don't have any experience in aggression with Tree Monitors as I've only been working with them since Jan of 09. While I've had and sold hundreds I never tried to breed them before now. I know for sure that Cyclura females kick the crap out of the males if they approach even near the nest area. My guess is the female Blue Tree is still a fairly long time away from laying by looking at her pelvic girdle. In Iguanids, Heloderma, and the 3 species of Varanus I have bred the pelvic girdle will become almost bony looking near the time of egg laying. She is JUST beginning to cannibalize her own muscle and tissue now to facilitate the final result of producing fertile eggs. I've found that the worse a female lizard looks the more likely you are to have good viable eggs. Again for me this is my first attempt and I've only had them about 10 months now. Last Christmas they were wild Lizards living in Indonesia...
THIS GUY BEGINNING TO GET HIS BREEDING COLORS NOW. Although this is my third year of producing these these will be the FIRST albino to albino breeding attempt..

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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Wow Tom, he almost looks sureal, what a looker! I bet if you sent that pic into National Geographic it would make the magazine? Not to many people have seen something so neat. Well I guess you will be posting your results with the trees soon, From the looks of your cages they look large enough for the male to retreat somewhere, maybe being in the Great outdoors will give them less stress and you will not have this problem? It will be interesting to see how it goes. Please keep us updated.
Bob

Stunning lizards you've got there.