Please understand, I too am "uncomfortable" with a female that size. But heres the ABSOLUTE truth. ITs not my call. And its not your call and no friggin care sheets call either.
The reproductive biology of varanids, has a sequence. That is, the female must produce ovum, then release those ovum, that signals the female to emitt pheromones which attacts the/a male.
Males normally are not attracted to non cycled females.
Which means the female dictates the chain of events. Not a male.
So, if a female cycles, in nature, that means she is ready, and she will emitt pheromones. Which will attract males. No care sheet in the world will stop that from happening. hahahahahahahahaha When they are ready they are ready, its not our call. In fact, its much harder on a female to have a non successful reproductive event, then a successful event.
So, who the heck are we to say what is normal or not. We actually know nothing about these animals. So when one cycles, its fact, she is large enough and old enough. That is how animals work. Again, they are not humans. We avoid, medicate, change, and use local customs, to predict when humans breed.
Monitors have thousands of years of culling(phenotypic pressures) to determine the right size and age. Its not our call. With wild animals, we are not suppose to judge, we are suppose to record the event and include it as part of our knowledge base.
So with ackies, our data base is, they can produce viable eggs from 11 inches total lenght, to 18 inches total lenght, depending on conditions, on their first clutch. Its what they do, not what we think about that they do.
But of course, I worry when an edge event occurs, not just too small but also with older animals. as in too old. We humans do worry.
About caresheets, who writes these dumb things, hahahaha and who reads them?????? OK, they are not dumb, well some are. Some are not. Which one did you read???? this is the point, anyone can write anything, and they do. In fact, if you watch these forums(observe) its common to see a person who read something on their first day or two here, become the teacher on the following day. Which is where and how BAD information is created. You do not learn from reading, you are made aware of something by reading. In the case of husbandry, you learn from successfully applying techiques that you have read, not reading about them, applying them. Its simple and common sense. learning is from doing. The test is, how the animals performs. Not a pop quiz at the end of the week on what you read here or on a caresheet, or from reading this reply.
This is a sensitive area for me. Its about people thinking they are the center of all things. So we judge everything from a human standpoint. In the cases of monitors, thats not working so well.
