Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thirty three, she laid twenty the first night another ten yesterday and three more this morning. So first time female sav about 3.5 years old maybe four and 33 eggs. Now she is eating so much to get her self back into shape. I guess now its 160 days wait.

Just wanted to let everyone know the total outcome.

Thanks,
JC

Hi JC, I did not want to burst your bubble when you first posted, but with the rest of the information, I feel you should be aware of this.

If you can see a monitor laying its eggs, its normally not good. They normally burrow down a couple of feet. Remember, for your sav, thats not even the lenght of the female. Please put that into perspective. A burrow means to disappear in a hole. Not be sticking out.

With the addition of laying over three days, that confirms that its not a good nesting. Why I mention this is. The harder(worse) the nesting, the poorer the hatchrate. Even with fertile eggs.

We have seen, the better the nesting the better the hatchrate. A good nesting is this,
The female nestings quickly, without fuss and lots of digging.
All the eggs are deposited in one nest.
The females quickly covers the nest and hides it. packing the dirt with the head is common in ground nesters.
The female resumes feeding with gusto. Which normally means all eggs are out of her.

The better the nesting the stronger the babies and higher hatchrate. Good nesting is our main concern with monitors.

That your female did not nest well, does not mean the eggs will not hatch. Its common with poor nestings to hatch a poor percentage. So even if they all don't hatch, you should hatch some. But once I had a real poor nesting and all hatched, so don't give up hope.

We have had over two thousand nestings and of course had our share of poor ones. Nesting is a constant concern, even if you know how to allow it well, you still make mistakes. I know I do.

The reason to bring this up is, if you feed your female, she will lay again in 30 to 60 days. That means you get another chance. Thats why i love monitors, they give lots of chances to fix what I do wrong.

With that in mind, my main concern with poor nestings is not the eggs, but the female, make sure she is hydrated and then fed. Remember, you only fail if you lose the adults, They can always make more eggs. So please consider giving her better choices. FR