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It's been a couple weeks. How are your prasinus doing?

Steve - sdi

this is a very interesting species! I'm curious! How are you breeding them?

Do you introduce a particular male to a particular female during their mating season? I know species like this tends to be sensitive to their surrounding and probably don't venture much outside the established home if they don't have to, and every little thing that is out of the ordinary, that happens, stressed them out a great deal. Do they like to live alone?

During the time that I kept some (8 months) they were housed together and had been for 4 years. I received 2 clutches of eggs from them but the eggs died. They were fertile eggs but they died sometime during development. They really aren't all that different to keep than any other monitor. Heat em and feed em. The biggest problem with prasinus is they don't do well with keeper error. Other monitors give you plenty of time to fix mistakes but prasinus don't. You really have to be experienced enough to know the subtle signs that something is wrong and adjust quickly. I loved caring for that pair and someday when finances allow I will get them.

Steve,

Unfortunatelly only the biggest survived. Despite every effort, I guess everyone was right, not much time to loose with these.
I did every modification as advised, including the retes stacks, which didn't seem to be very useful for this species.

The bigger one is very active and I saw feces 3-4 times this week, although I never see it eating, and it doesn't seem to be eating a lot. But I think I can consider it out of danger.

Unfortunatelly they died because of my mistakes. I have learned a lot about them since they arrived.

I plan to try again, starting the right way now. Will need some time to find a couple more, since there aren't any available in my country. I'm sure they'll do better than these.

The baby that died was doing somewhat well, so I decided to leave it in peace for 3-4 days. I guess it didn't eat or drink during this period, so when I decided to check, he was already dehydrated. I took it to the vet, gave some hydration, vitamin B12 and flagyl. It resisted for around a week but ended up dieing. Very sad.

I've been posting at varanus.net during these couple weeks.

Do you house them together? I know some species are very, very sensitive and stressed out very easily. If you give the animals space to get away from each other, like several hiding spots and basking spots, sometimes they do better and get along fine. A bigger cage is better for housing a couple. Sometime even a look and dominant gestures from the other one is enough to sent the submissive one downhill. Some species like to live alone and don't like disturbances that are out of the ordinary. Establishing a routine is a great way to reduce stress in captive animals, reptiles in particular. Reptiles in particular have a ritual, a routine, that they do the same day after day, year after year. Like feeding it at the same time each day and changing the water the same time and days can significantly reduce stress. Learn during what time of the day these animals like to feed in the wild is very crucial, so you can feed it accordingly; thus, you can reduce captive stress.

I don't know...! I'm just putting it out there! [chuckle]

Sorry to hear that you lost them. Better luck next go around.

Yes and not only were they housed individually, but I also covered the cages with dark cardboard.

The one that is left seems to be eating and is not shy at all. When he/she's warm after basking, if I put my hand in from of it, it will readily climb on me, although Im avoiding to mess with it before it really kicks in.
I only don't see it eating. But it does it, from the feces I have found.
It just still didn't turn to be the eating machine it was supposed to. I hope it happens soon.

Sometime the wild caught do go downhill pretty quickly! That's why you got to keep an eye on them and try to reduce as much stress as possible by not bothering them too much and stick with the routine.

sorry for your loss. My bet is the two smaller ones were female. Did you check them after they died.

That is a good way to learn what the sexes look like. The whole event even dying is something to learn from. Good luck

The one with blueish back I didn't check, but it had somewhat bigger spurs lateraly to the base of the tail, compared to the other 2.
The smallest one I gave to my friend (veterinarian) and he later told me it was a male, although I didn't see it.

The one that is left I'd say it has a thin tail base for a male. It seems to be fine but still doesn't eat a lot. Today, for instance, I left 4 crickets in the morning and just arrived from work, they are still there.

But I have absolutely no experience in sexing these animals.

I do not agree with this being an expert specie, it has diferrent needs then land lumbers but they arent any more specialised then most tropical arborial agamids.
if you want a real challenge try some draco's or hypsilurus and some gonocephalus.

in fact I strongly sugest to anyone interested in prasinus to try keeping gonocephalus chameleontinus beforhand, they have exactly the same environamental needs. only diet differs.

let me share a story of my first enconter with prasinus, I was in my late teens and walked inn a pet shop, the guy in charge of the reptiles (guy named Husky) just recieved a shipment of monitors and chameleons, many salvators and chameleons where dieng alredy and 4 prasinus out of 12, I gave him a few pointers and in desperation he asked me to take charge of his 8 remaining prasinus, I agreed and took them home.
now understand this is a guy that dont know me and never seen me before, he did not ask my name nor my phone he simply did the right thing for the animals out of good will.

so I got home and placed all 8 monitors in a 55gal aquarium, the time I needed to set up properly, my reptile room was aboute 9 by 11ft had 5 large ficus trees with held my colection of condro pythons, the sun shined thru the window and allowed each tree sume sun exposure, this was it no other heat or light provided.
I set the condros in smaller tanks in my own bedroom and alowed all monitors full use of these trees, halfe started feeding the day after and all fed befor the week was over, this meant that something was right?

this is my point!! when your husbandry is good monitors feed volontarly shy or not, take this has your only guidline.

cheers

gonocephalus

Do you use a UVB light on your other species of lizards? Just wondering.