" The petstore said they were about a year and a half, however i hear their size is wrong for that. They are both about three feet long. Any assumptions on age? "
Never assume on age for any monitor unless its a CBB example that someone can prove, they can grow at varying rates and petstores are lousey places for proper care. First example, I have an Albigularis that was a Rob Faust baby, she was 5ft long at a year old, yet one I ordered for a good friend that is a Goannaranch banded WT was 18.5 inches at 18 months old, this was from improper husbandry. First to consider improper husbandry on one makes improper husbandry of 2 together even worse. If caring for one monitor alone is hard enough or confusing enough you should not keep 2 together.
"Also, i was wondering if you could tell male and female apart, without looking at the hemipenis, or whatever its called."
If youve seen enough of the 2, males and females you can recognize them sometimes, unless you have experience popping a monitor you should never try it. Never get a monitor probed, they are different than a snake. 2 things, if you see a hemipene its a male, if you see a hemiclitori its a female, if you only see a partial eversion it could be both, never assume unless you see an entirely everted animal. The sure method is through husbandry that is somewhat close to proper, females lay eggs, males dont, not to say that many many females in captivity will never lay eggs as they are kept improperly.
"I notice that one lizard (My lizard) is definately darker, more agressive tword humans, and seemingly dominant in the cage in general. they lay together, and mine is usually on top of the other one. Steroetypically, i would say mine is the male, and the other probably female, but there is a slight possibility they are both males and mine jsut happens to be alpha.. However they get along too well to be males i think.. I would see them as getting territorial, or something."
Color is no indication of sex, only sometimes origin of capture as to elevation from sea level. Aggression or dominance has nothing to do with sex as Ive personally seen a female almost kill a male and she indicated a dominant animal upon sight of each other, females will mount and rape males, males will mount and rape males, females will mount and rape females, and so on, no indicator of sex.
"And on that note, if we do have a male and female, how old/big would you say they have to be to mate? I was thinking of seperating the two and only handling one, but not if they will be able to mate soon..."
If you do not properly care for them they could live together for ever or for one day, they may not mate ever also you must keep them close to correctly not to complicate matters and allow for reproduction. They can reproduce from the age of 6 months old on if kept close to properly.
"Also, regarding feeding. The pet store told us that they feed them 6 dead mice in a bowl once a week. each get three, and they dont ever fight. they were getting aggressive, he said, when the food was live. rather then seperating them, they tried the 6 dead mice in a bowl thing. Works good, id say. So, does that sound about right? id say its possible that theyy could eat more.... they are pretty big. Anyhow, i would jsut like to have some questions answered, thanks alot. "
It all depends on conditions but 3 mice a week is not enough food for one, at that size 1 a day is not enough. At 3 feet my female was eating 6-9 adult mice a day, or 3 day old chicken peeps a day she was only a 5.5 months old. They only do what your husbandry and resourses allow for them to do, if they are underfed they can be easier going, calmer, easier to handle, but they can be the total opposite, and be better to handle when full. Aggression has nothing to do with feeding live food, some prefer fresher live food, as you can raise and gut load your own for days beforehand some dont prefer them live and prefer them frozen to thaw and easier to keep.
"And on a side note... My BT is a bit of an escape artist, anyone else notice that with a BT, or is mine just mental? lol.. He has escaped twice, into my buddies shop. Last time he tore the place up, knocked a bunch of stuff over, etc. Oh well, cage is fixed now, so no worries."
Thats any monitor they escape, if improperly caged, they escape if they want to get out. You should have 2 cages to keep those 2 separated as proper care of one you must learn long before proper care of 2 which is only much much more complicated. Albigs are notorious cannibals if not fed enough, warning. Also 2 albigs 3 feet long each should have at least a 10ft by 6ft by 5ft cage with 2 separate basking spots, 2-3 ft od dirt in depth evenly and multiple hides, water sources, etc. These are large monitors, they are a large monitor sepecies, they grow from 5-7ft plus and 15-35lb or more. I have a female BT/WT/WT cross thats only 2 yrs 8 months and was 6ft 2 inches and 27lbs 3 months ago. I figured out that I spent $265 in the first 10 months on bulk rodents, bulk crickets, bulk roaches, bulk chicken peeps, and other foods alone for her, it gets very expesive. Ive heard of a male albig that supposedly in Europe grew from hatching to 6ft at 1 yr old. These are animals that need huge space, big basking spots that can evenly warm their entire bodies, and are from 130-170f surface temps, they need 68f air temps to 86f air temps, they need to get their entire body into each area and many areas in between to choose what temps they need. They need fresh water for drinking, and usually frequent water soaking is an indication that there vast improvments needed. Id be doing alot of research in the archieves from the last 3 of so years to absorb as much info on albigs as possible. Actually you should have done that long before buying them.
