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Maybe some one with experience can tell.Just got this female Ackie she is a beautiful monitor but im just wondering can any body tell if she has eggs inside by the look of her, she is kind of big and fat, she is walking funny and is constantly digging around the enclosure.she is 2 1/2 years old and does sit under the spot lamp alot.

heres another photo.

Looks like you should have listened to Roger.I cant tell if she looks gravid or not,but good luck with getting her to nest in that bedding you are using.Egg retention is a common problem among varanids,they can be very picky about what they nest in.But that is right,your set up is fine,and you don't need the 12 inches of dirt.You dint want to listen to anyone and you where calling for them to ban Roger and now it has come back to bite you in the a$$

Greg
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1.1 Varanus Rudicollis(Black roughneck monitor)
1.2 Tokay gecko
0.0.1 Ornate box turtle

First of all nothing is bitting me in the a$$! Second of all there is for your infomation and knowledge of what sorts ill never know, there is twelve inches of dirt in that set up now and thats where she has been digging. so just just slap me on the back and wish for me a happy wonderful days to come.

Will this come back to bite me in the bum?

The other person is kinda right, the setup in your pic is beyond horrible for nesting. Ackies perfer arid soils, silty sand etc, with no plant matter.

After that you are going to have to get lucky and yes luck does happen, so I hope you have some. Also 12 inches is MINIMUM at best. And if its in only part of the cage, your toast and so is she.

Ackies are not beardeds, that is, they dig a burrow, then nest at the end of the burrow. The burrows in nature can be 30 or more feet long. But that is not needed in captivity. But they do make burrows. A burrow must be longer then the lizard. Several times longer.

Also consider, 99% of all healthy female varanids posted on this board, DIE from reproductive complications. And that includes females kept by experienced breeders.

So take advice and do not expect success because you have a gravid female. With monitors, that is the easy part, its the rest where the problems occur. Cheers and I hope your monitor gets a pat on the back, if fact, I hope she survives. Cheers

thanx FR, manchild, and who ever eles wants to intervine congratulations you sure make this hobby a pleasuarable one to have with all the thinking and words of negative exspressions you soly exspress through out these boards no wonder the hobby is under fire and there so many bands happening with reptiles now, boy! what a big disappointment in this reptile generation we have.

This board isn't underfire. In fact it is fine. Just accept a simple fact, that your enclosure is addequet to allow a male to survive. Do not force a female to live an environment she can not have reproductive success in; she simply will not live long.

And no one is attacking you either, you need to stop thinking along those lines. We all mistakes with enclosures; I have spent thousands of dollars making mistakes. Sometimes you just have to scrap it and start over.

Cheers,
Mike.

Spyder(mike)and for who ever Else is deeply concerned you do not know what my enclosure is like, you use to know what my enclosure was like but now you don't any more so step off,,, the question i posted is about, Does my ackie look pregnant? that's it. so for all of you that want to know the well being of my female ackie especially mike who thinks she going to die,its none of your god Dame business.mike ill make sure to invite you to the funeral if the time ever comes

Of course your Ackie looks gravid. And of course she is going to have reproductive issues in the enclosure.

Just as Mike (Spyder6) said, you made a mistake and you can at least attempt to fix it before she dies instead of flying into a hissy fit.

At this point, why don't you just politely ask for some help/advice/pointers?

I am just offering up some objectivity. For I have no idea what you enclosure is like; personally, I dont care. I am simply saying, sometimes WE MAKE MISTAKES. And honestly, if your going to work (breed, as in you purchased a female) with monitors the first thing you need to do is be able to accept that you will make mistakes, of ALL sorts. I make them everyday, infact I killed a hatchling ackie last week because of my mistake. But I learned from it.

Please know, I am not even directing this at you, its simply the post I replyed to. It concerns anyone in a position similar to yours. Also, if I was replying to your original post it wouldn't be in this position. I replyed to a post that you posted, albiet not your original question.

If you have read over the years from FR's posts, there is one main key to succesfully getting your female to give you good eggs over and over again and that is nesting.

Ehhh.
Mike.

understanderable, thank you. you know i was just telling a friend on another post that people seem to critize other peoples set ups but they dont relize that in this country and other places ackies and other monitors are breed and born to be sold and its done on news paper, hard to believe but its true, i have read it they are so lazy they keep them in large groups and take the eggs when they are laid and incubate them to sell more.those are the people that should be judged, not some one like me who has a good thing going for my animals.

"ackies and other monitors are breed and born to be sold and its done on news paper, hard to believe but its true, i have read it they are so lazy they keep them in large groups and take the eggs when they are laid and incubate them to sell more"

That is a blatant lie.

And how can you honestly tell everybody that you have a good thing going for your female ackie? Far from it...

Just man up and figure out what you have to do keep a female monitor from either dying from reproductive issues or scattering eggs all over the top of your substrate.

oh no, sombody blew a fuse, its not a lie when i find the artical ill post it then well see what a blant lie it was did i pronounce that right blantent, i dont know your probly from some off distant country any way

why is it that every time i post on here it becomes the longest thread and dam its always negative feed back does any body love me out there, im becoming kinda famous in this forum. he he and for you WRC1228 you have never seen my set up so you should not critize you dont no what i have my substrait is 12" deep but if she wants to drop the eggs on the top like you said she could thats fine i wont have to dig for them that would be nice.

WRC1228 you stated: (or scattering eggs all over the top of your substrate.) if what i read was such a lie then why would you make this statement you know as well as i do it is true it can happen and has. you said it for yourself in your last reply to me, yes i am mocking your words.

Hello Grogansilver,
You speak of egg scattering as though it is an method of egg deposition for your lizards. It is the exact opposite. The result of the complete failure of the keeper to provide an acceptable enclosure to allow the animals to complete the most basic life processes.
You mention fame... Why is that? Are you seeking acceptance? You will find it, maybe not on a monitor husbandry forum. Do you seek confrontation? You will find lots of that, especially when you perpetuate photos of a failing hamster run with monitor lizards trapped inside.
As Greg said, "man up", quit the games... People take time to write you the replies because they are trying to help better the lives of the animals that you are obviously clueless about. Noone comes here to argue. You, Me and everyone else is here to communicate necessary information that will improve monitor husbandry. You're up...- Mike S

Hello to You Both,
I apologize for mixing up your names in my post... I guess I am not paying enough attention to successfully mock your words. Maybe it is because you are sending the words from far away countries. Maybe when my croc monitors finish successfully nesting(with the great advice that I get from forum info)I will spend more time perfecting my mocking of words from far away countries here... Anyhow, Greg, I have been watching those black roughneck photos since you posted them... Great lizards- They were one of the very first monitors to attract me to monitor keeping. I have seen a large wild import pushing 5 feet! Beautiful shiny face, talon claws and that long "beaklike" snout. I was too "young" yet in monitors to have known the sex of that lizard. All of mine tong fed well on fuzzies and mice, never ever bit and were just a real joy to keep. Everyday was great working them. I can see you enjoy them much. I will enjoy reading more about your experiences. I found them to be more like their bengal relatives than the dumerils lizards. Again, my apologees and best to the both of you- Mike S

Hey Mike,this is nothing new for grog.I have seen this very same secinaro played out many time before by him.He posts pics of his set up and any time someone offers him advice,he takes it as an attack.This is why I will rarely offer advice to him

Grog,these are your animals and if you wish to kill them That is fine,but please stop posting it here or on any forums.There are many new keeps who look for the easy answers and when they read posts like yours they will think it is OK to follow your example.

Greg
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1.1 Varanus Rudicollis(Black roughneck monitor)
1.2 Tokay gecko
0.0.1 Ornate box turtle

manchild pppplllleeeaaasssee for give me and believe me any new comers that read these post are going to see one guy (me) being picked on by a bunch of bullys there not going to take any thing serious trust me, thanks to you.

OK so I have been following what you (grogan) have been doing and saying since you started. You need to actually go through the acrchives of this forum and see that poeple on here care about the animals....not your feelings!!!!.....You put a picture up of your enclosure and when they tell you its all wrong although cute,.or just isnt right for a monitor..You care more about your feelings than you aniamls that could be suffering....And now you have someone like FR that come and and give you some advice and you throw it away?...are you kidding me? do you actually know who some of these poeple are?....They are poeple on here that are pioneers and have produced GENERATIONS upond GENERATIONS of not just ackies but many Varanid speices...ANd you turn around and throw thier advice away?... They dont want to see your aniamls suffer...and so should you!.....

I myself have put pics up of some recents cages that i have designed or built and I am building upon peoples advice...thus my aniamls are healthier and happier....I am not ready to breed or even take that on at this time...I can admit that..but I take what people say to heart...I am not perfect and neither are you....you really need to start thinking about your animals and not YOU!!
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Scott
"The most powerful person never has to use it"

Its so very easy to tell if an ackie is gravid and/or ready to lay. All you have to do is flip her over and look at her belly.

They are very much like a gecko, you can see the eggs, not so easy as a gecko, but you can see them.

When they first swell up, you can see the lateral fat bodies. Once the ovum enlarges, you can see each egg. Also you can see they move around as each day, they will be in a different place. The closer she is to laying the easier they are to see.

Then at the time and past, the skin loses its fat layer and the enlarged ovum are very very easy to see. If this lasts more then a day or two, your/she is in trouble. As your percentages of a successful clutch drops quickly after each day.

Small monitors like V.kingorum, gilleni, caudolineatus, etc, are much easier to see but Storrs and ackies are not a problem.

Even some medium sized monitors like V.flavirufus can exhibit their eggs in this manner. Cheers

Grogan, What you're not understanding is that when the female doesn't nest (Lay the eggs in a burrow) it's a bad thing. As FR said the biggest failure for captive breeding efforts is in females. Monitors will hang on to their eggs as long as they can to find a sutiable place to lay. When they finally get to the point of laying them strewn across the cage the female is in bad shape and usually the egss are not any good. Yes it is possible that every now and again some of those eggs are incubated to the point of hatching but it is not something that happens regularly or is healthy for the female. If this was the norm, and didn't wreck havock on the female there would be ackies everywhere.

A female can only take so much of this before she will die. It is really only a matter of time. Sometimes it will be the first time sometimes more. Also the sad thing is, once she starts digging around and doing "test" digs it's already too late. Monitors with good options for nesting don't "test".

Good luck, I hope you can stop worrying about percieved personal attacks and maybe actually learn. You don't think we know anything about your setup but you did post a pic...believe me those snapshots tell us alot about your setup. You are not the first person to come on here and try to tell people that you're different and know what your doing despite going against all established varanid husbandry practices.

To add to the overwhelming chorus here, proper nesting is critical for a females well being. I can attest personally to FR statement of mortality related to reproductive problems having lost two prize girls one a V.jobiensis and one a V.acanthurus. As he said sure you can get lucky but why take that risk? The OP may chose to do as he/she pleases but, new keepers beware and heed the mountain of experience being offered here. Nesting is not something you can slack on with monitors and expect your female to make do and you certainly won't receive viable eggs.
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Steve

okay it was a close call people, i checked my female ackie out again today and i took a closer look at her like how FR stated and described how too and saw no eggs. wow every body can calm down now, wow what a relief it must be Ha. but that still does not mean she wont become pregnant again. i would post new photos of my redone encloser but it seams that it makes every body crazy on here so i wont due that. well thank you for all you help and feed back through out this forum its been a pleasure talking to you all Bye, grogansilver.