Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking into red ackie breeding and i was wondering if anyone knew any websites or information about red ackie breeding. like do they need to be cooled etc. also, how old do they have to be to breed and if two males can be in the same cage.

Thanks,
Nathan

Hi there,

I am not aware of any websites that give "instructions" on breeding ackies, however, there are a few sites that describe husbandry conditions implemented by the keepers... If the husbandry is correct, and they are content, and, of course, if you have a boy and a girl, they will breed in time.. but like I said, if the conditions are right... I have not heard of anybody having to cool their animals to induce breeding behavior.. Females will cycle several times a year, and that is when successful copulation/fertilization occurs. So, there is no set standard, as long as you work on the husbandry and get your husbandry to where your animals are content, they will do everything else... Good luck, here's my site, where I describe my yellow ackies' husbandry(same as for reds). Take care,

bob
The Odatriad

Mimicking ackies natural habitat by cooling them in the 'winter'
will help stimulate breeding, but it's not really necessary with ackies.

Sometimes the dominate male will beat up the subordinate males a bit,
but they often do fine in groups.

No one cools them that Ive ever heard of.
In fact page 90 Bennetts monitor lizard book it states they are found in northern Australia where they experience low temperatures of 14c (about 60f although Im sure it goes lower for short times), it also mentions hot and dry seasons no winter. If you want to cool your animals by all means go ahead but dont suggest to cool a tropical species to someone else as it can kill some by suffocation as proven by FR.

They are a species from Australia near the equator, therefore they dont naturally experience brumation. If I remember right FR stated he had some species of monitors found near the equator suffocate from being below freezing (after all to brumate cold temps are needed, if not cool enough the animal is just wasting energy inactive), in fact its proven that to breed no cooling is needed for reptiles but its probably a way to make keeping them cheaper and a bandaid to cover another husbandry problem. Remember that area of Aussie they have dry and wet seasons not winter summer.

The microclimate that ackies inhabit is NOT tropical. Please study
the climate of inland northern Australia. I was breeding ackies more than
a decade ago when they were $1000 apiece. I have also spent
a good deal of time in that part of the world. Cooling them has
nothing to do with keeping them 'cheaper or a band-aid for husbandry
probs' (think before you post, kids).

I have allowed Ausrailian desert species, ackies included, to experience
night time lows of 50 F., no feeding for signifigant periods, and
removal of the water dish with only positive effects on their health. That
region of Australia has winter, as well as a dry season. I DO NOT
RECOMMEND THIS! But it can be done with healthy ackies, as this
mimics there natural habitat.

Many captive monitors are a bit overweight and this helps to keep them
healthy and fit like they would be in nature. I do not recommend this to
inexperienced keepers (if you've never heard of cooling you are not
experienced, or at least not well read).

When I retrieve my tons of obscure monitor literature from storage I will quote
this to death. I have many old papers translated from German. For those
who don't know, Germans pioneered Australian dwarf monitor breeding.

Decades ago when monitor breeding was more uncommon, and before
most of you had ever heard of 'ackies', 'winter' cooling was a popular
notion. As I said in my first post, cooling is NOT NECESSARY to get
ackies to breed.

Please try to keep an open mind people, you don't know everything, and
with such closed minds you will never learn. I only post when I know what
I'm talking about from firsthand experience.

Yet nobody cools them, why??? Anyways temps do drop a bit but never for long in Northern Australia where the seasons are Dry and Wet. I myself have seen 40f in the middle east more than a few times, yes it cools down but it doesnt get below freezing for long if it does.
Kids, hmm, oh well believe as you will.
Yes its known that years and years ago Europeans started captive breeding of many monitors but in the last 15 years or abouts, they have turned to the US for obtaining CBB monitors where all of the best advancements have come from.
Hey, how about that you realize that monitors can survive temps below 50f, mine see temps from 40f to 90 outdoors here as much as I get the chance to. No, not just anyone should expose their monitors to lower temps because so many have problems with respiratory infections because of improper husbandry. And yes breeding does not follow a sudden warm up, it follows abundance of food, and other usable resources. If usable resources are available they should breed with consistant usable temps constantly. I know and here of so many who cool reptiles of all kinds to TRY to get them to breed, but why is it that everyone else breeds without cooling periods? Anyways as far as overweight captives, if the animal is kept properly it doesnt get overweight now does it? That includes access to proper basking temps, proper usable ambient temps, usable substrate, and a broad choice of nesting areas, secure hiding places that allow thermoregulation etc. You can quote alot of old outdated books all you want yet those books are examples of a few scattered instances of captive breeding with one or a few females, not consistant regular breeding with multiple animals. I can find many old sources and read them also, but I would laugh at some of the info contained as concrete hard fact compared to whats been learned in the last 15 years.
Back to cooling overweight reptiles to thin them down, so many obese animals die from fatty liver disorder from sudden stops in their feeding regimen, when they mobilize their fat reserves, not adjustments in it. The simple fact that in order to use fat reserves a reptile must have proper temps, so cooling them to a wasteful temp of 50-60f for long periods is not brumation, its a man made bandaid. Brumation occurs in lower temps because the animal brumates to survive those temps, not to signal mating. Usually the term tropical refers to found near the equator. So many species are found where brumation is needed yet the same species are also found where its not needed, so its a low temperature survival adaptation, many species cannot survive below freezing temps, but so many can with no problems, if somewhat healthy.
Some of us have been raising and dealing with reptiles in captivity a bit longer than you might think.

Look SHvar, I don't care if you have read one book on monitors,
if you sleep with monitors, or if you actually own one ackie yourself,
you are not master of all things varanid.

Please stop spreading nonsense. "Brumation is a man made bandaid"?
You have no idea what you are talking about.

Did you even read my post?

What does the middle east have to do with Australian monitors? Let me
guess... you were in the military?

Who mentioned freezing temps? Not me.

I was breeding ackies in the US nearly 15 years ago, you were not.

I never said anyone SHOULD cool there lizards to combat obesitity so
don't put words in my mouth. I clearly said I DO NOT RECOMMEND
cooling at all!!!!!!!. I only explained what cooling is because thats
what the question is about. I said, COOLING IS UNECESSARY FOR
BREEDING ACKIES.

If one was to cool their animals, temps and food should be slowly
decreased along with the photo period. Obviously the artificial winter
should not last overly long so as to jeopardize the monitors health.
Temps, food and photo period should then be slowly increased.

As I clearly indicated earlier, cooling is a rather outdated concept,
BUT the native natural habitat of ackies has a winter, a mild winter,
but winter nonetheless. If you dispute this, it is out of ignorance of
geography and weather. You can argue that replicating nature is
unatural all you want but I am getting bored with you.

End of subject.

I dont claim to be any expert but I do know proper care for my monitors and other reptiles, yes including my red ackie. Ive read more than a few books on them and 75% of them are junk, theres a short list of any monitor books that are of any use but pictures.
You have disputed proven fact,
then say you didnt, and point the finger at others, well heres the finger back at ya with your own words to chew on...

"Please stop spreading nonsense. "Brumation is a man made bandaid"?
You have no idea what you are talking about. "

If you check I said cooling reptiles in captivity is a man made bandaid for other husbandry problems and a way to save money during winter. After all in captivity we strive to get rid of the problems with the wildereness, right, and brumation is a SURVIVAL adaptaption in the wild, in captivity it serves no purpose, like natural predators, I wouldnt keep a raptor in my monitor cages to make it more natural.

"What does the middle east have to do with Australian monitors? Let me
guess... you were in the military?
Who mentioned freezing temps? Not me."

What does it have to do with this, simple its right there on the equator, its more consistantly hot and yes it gets cold on occaision also. Freezing temps were given as an example, yes it gets cold there but the reptiles again go underground. Yes, I was in the military years ago, and proud of it. they have what you and I would call a winter but its again not near the same.

You may have been breeding some ackies 15 years ago but 15 years ago some people were breeding bearded dragons and still to this day so many do some of the dumbest things because it was quoted back then in a junk petstore carebook or by someone who stated it was fact, and ya know some of them think that cooling their animals signals breeding and does some good in captivity.

"I never said anyone SHOULD cool there lizards to combat obesitity so
don't put words in my mouth. I clearly said I DO NOT RECOMMEND
cooling at all!!!!!!!. I only explained what cooling is because thats
what the question is about. I said, COOLING IS UNECESSARY FOR
BREEDING ACKIES. "

Really, heres your words right back in your mouth they go.

"Many captive monitors are a bit overweight and this helps to keep them
healthy and fit like they would be in nature."

Not trying to argue with you but your finger is pointed at someone else, then you want to misquote them, I simply put your own statements back on the grill. No you said its not needed but was popular for a few reasons back then, its still suposedly popular and serves no purpose in captivity.

Both of you take a chill pill. hahahahahahahahahaha

First off, V.acanthurus, occurs over a wide range of habitats, from central oz to the extreme north. They live in many different miro-habitats, like salt flats, rocky areas, sand dunes(blows), etc. all to way to tropical(tree ferns, boabs, etc) Kimberlys.

I get the feeling both of you are missing the boat. Please do not confuse, "not hibernating" with not allowing cool temps. We always recomend cool temps, I don't care what season you think it is.

While the germans started breeding ackies, they did not achieve great results. Please do not be insulted, how could the first to do something ever be the best forever. The building blocks the germans started were indeed a base to improve upon.

In my opinion, what the germans did was great, but, it was not asking the monitors what they do, it was telling them what they do. Again Please, there is nothing wrong with that. It was great for its time.

We changed the landscape of breeding monitors, by asking them what they did. Not telling them what to do. By allowing a wide range of temps year around, they indeed told us, there was more to them, then hibernating in the winter and not in the summer.

I too, have spend lots of time in oz. And indeed in areas the winter has cool nights, but indeed the intense sun allows them to achieve any temperature they want in the day. Yes they used these temps. If you look closely, they do not occur in areas, that have lots of cloud cover in the winter(east coast). They occur in areas that have lots of sun and storm fronts are indeed short in time. They also, occur within the tropics, for obvious reasons.

If you want to look at the records, what was missing with German husbandry was. Not allowing monitors to achieve large adult size, or breed within a year, or multi-clutch. Have you ever seen a german ackie over 24 inches, or over one meter. Well they do get that size. With the methods developed here, they achieved 30 inches. Maybe some day someone will come along and improve the methods to alow ackies to grow in excess of a meter, you know, like they do in nature.

FYI, I still have a german Ackie that I recieved in 91, and it has laid 6 or so clutches for many years, of course now its old, but alive.

The point is, what do you and I know? not alot when it comes to what, V.acanthurus, really do. We are only expressing different parts of their abilities. In other words, there are many ways to skin a cat, and I believe reptiles are not suck with one method. They do the most the conditions allow, not the least or what is consistant. In nature, there is no retirement plan. They try to recruit the most they can, grow the most they can, and achieve the most they can, and only hope that next year they will still be alive. Good luck FR