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My female prasinus continued to get fuller in the lower belly. She got 2-3 times thicker than the male I have. Today this morning I noticed she was thinner and her tail base was dented. I thought maybe she laid eggs but when I checked the nest box there was nothing. She was also very thirsty this morning too. She drank when I misted as usual but then she went down and drank from her water dish which she never does. These things make me think she laid eggs today or last night and since I can't find any I think she may have eaten them. What does anyone else think? Is this a good guess?

If this is what has happened, is it most likely the eaten eggs were unfertile? I never saw my prasinus mating, only observed her sudden attitude change towards the male and not letting him near the nest box.

Thanks

If one of them did eat the eggs they will crap them out,monitors can not digest there own eggs.

greg

Females won't eat their fertile eggs. Some oddball ones will eat infertiles though and it's possible.

For your lizard to have been plumping up for weeks and then one day emerge from nesting thin in the belly and tail base, very thirsty, etc certainly sounds like the egg story. Any possibility the eggs are somewhere else in the cage? Did you remove the male or could he be the culprit?

You will likely find brown flattened shells in the skat if one of them did eat the eggs too. Like mentioned above, the shells are indigestable.

I'm with Justin...got to be somewhere else in the cage...tear that sucker apart and find em

Thanks. I'm going to look through the rest of the cage today. It's possible she might have laid them somewhere else. The whole bottom is covered in moss about 4 in deep. There are also lots of plants and branches I can look under too. I should be able to see if she ate them then fairly soon as they deficate 1-2 times a day.

I seperated the male after she kept trying to chase him off so he didn't eat them.

I'll keep you guys posted!

We have had prasinus eat their eggs plenty of times...
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robyn@proexotics.com

ShipYourReptiles.com
Pro Exotics Reptiles

Well I looked through everything yesterday and found 2 eggs on the cool side of the enclousure in a fake plant. The eggs both look well calcified and are white BUT one is really dented and the other slightly dented. I don't think it's because of humidity because the moss was damp around the eggs. I think I may have not found the eggs in time and they got too cold. My cool side is 75 degrees at night and around 78 degrees during the day.

I put them in the incubator and we will see what happens. This is also another issue I have. Since I read that prasinus does not reach sexual maturity till 2 yrs of age I am not prepared(Both are barely a year old). The incubator I have is a cheap hovabator that only gets 10 degrees higher than room temps. Works fine for my other lizard eggs but I'm afraid it's not going to stay hot enough to incubate prasinus eggs. I can barely get it to 29.5 C which is what I read is ideal.

I'm really kicking myself in the butt about this. The female is acting weird today. She keeps going in the plant I found them in and staring at me. I walk over to the cage and she still sits in there and does not come over or try to get out like she normally does. I think shes pissed I took her eggs.

BTW I measured the male 2 days ago. Last time was a little over a month ago and he was 18 in total length. This time he was 20 1/2 in! Now he is the same length as the female.

Can't belive how much he has grown since I've had him. In April when I got him he was around 6 in total length! In 10 months he has over tripled in size! He will be a year old in Feb. Time flies! It seems like it wasn't too long ago he was a tiny little baby

I don't think a day or so at 78*F and on moist moss would kill viable eggs. Ideally, yes about 84-86*F seems to work for most Monitor eggs.

She most certainly will notice that you took her eggs and a lot of species, to some degree, nest guard their eggs. It's weird that she laid them on a plant on moss w/o digging and burying them somehow - but everything about your lizards is a bit weird. A couple other folks have had eggs laid balanced up on items instead of the Monitors hiding them within some form of a nest. Eggs laid on the surface are a death sentence and it's not 'natural' to just drop them without digging a hole in something and depositing them. Good luck incubating them!

There is no "set in stone" timeframe a Monitor reaches sexual maturity. I believe it is a size along with age type of scenario and you'll see some laying eggs at 10 months of age and some take 2.5 years. You just have to have things ready when they get close and sexual maturity is not anywhere close to adult size. They start at like 2/3 of an adult very commonly. Probably your male (never seen mating) is not there yet, but your girl is and these eggs are infertile --- but never say never and incubate them to see how they behave.

Ha Ha yeah they are both not the norm for sure,lol!

Thanks for letting me know it's normal for her to be acting this way. She just keeps staring up at me and gives me a look.

I think you are right about her being mature, the male being immature still and the eggs being infertile. I'll let you know how the eggs turn out.

Congratulations. Do you have any pics of the eggs and good luck on incubating them

greg

This was when I first took them out. I took a pic before I put them in the incubator in case someone wanted to see them The one on the left is really dented, the one on the right is just a little dented near the end of the egg. They still look the same today and are still dented. I think they are infertile but I'll keep incubating till they look nasty and grow mold, lol!

I wouldnt disregaurd the eggs as being bad, normally when laid in any fashion other then a typical nesting site is an indicator of something went wrong. I had 21 Rio Fuerte beaded lizard eggs that were all indented when laid and after about a week or so they rehydrated themselves without any extra moisture [which kills eggs if you try it] and lead to the new world record of 20 beadeds hatched from one clutch. I recall emailing a pic of the eggs to a self proclaimed expert who told me they were no good. Here is a picture of the end result from those eggs.
Bob

Congrats Kathy, no matter what happens with the eggs, you know you have a female that lays good eggs.
Joe

Yeah at least I know she is getting adaquate calcium, etc to produce good looking (calcified) eggs. You know you always wonder and worry if you did everything right as far as supplements and nutrition. Well at least I do, lol! So now I know for sure I'm on the right track!

Thanks for sharing I'll keep that in mind with these. I plan on keeping them until I know for sure one way or the other.

Those babies are sooo cute!

Kathy, sounds like she may have laid infertile eggs and either her or the male ate them or she could have just been ovulating and now looks small again [which I have seen many times in the dwarfs]. Keep a close eye on her as she may plump up again soon but based on the behavior of her aggression toward the male it sounds like she laid them already. For the first time of alot of monitors laying eggs it is not uncommon to get dud eggs as their cyclying is in its first time mode and they are a little out of timing with the breeding window of acceptable fertilization. I would just maintain the egg box with good moisture levels and temps and be patient in waiting for another clutch [good ones] in the near future. A good guy to talk to is Dustin or Rustin? Hartigan or the Dallas zoo herp dept. as they have had success in breeding gtm a few times already and have hatched eggs. Back when I spoke to them years ago they said they get 2 clutches per year, one in the fall and one in the spring when the local weather patterns make big changes. I have seen this many times living in the north, when their are tornado warnings my kordensis would be courting or copulating. Im sure you will eventually succeed with them, it can be frusterating but you have to have good patience.
Bob