Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have what I believe to be a female argus. She is roughly 1 yr old and about 2.5 ft in length. Assuming that the monitor is female, is this size about what you would expect for the age? When should I see a clucth of eggs? I'd like to at some point start to breed (e.g. see some eggs), but need to be sure of what I have before buying a mate. Any input would be appreciated.

Hello, Actually I hope I can allow you to understand, that argus are reptiles, and reptiles are ectotherms. Which means, they raise and lower their metabolism using external conditions.

Even more, they are dependant on external conditions for all of their needs, food, energy, moisture, security(peace of mind), etc.

Which means, please follow me, You should not expect anything from reptiles. Its your input that allow them to succeed.

They can reproduce, in under six months of age or they may never produce, it depends on conditions, and in captivity, your conditions, and your continued applied conditions. Which means, if you let up and are incosistant, they will respond with the same.

Ok, thats over.

For us, argus females will lay eggs anywhere from 18 inches TL(have one gravid now) to the lenght of yours, 30 inchesTL.

Normally if you have a female and it grows over 30 inches, and shows no sign of cycling, getting fat, then losing it, doing it over and over, Big changes in feeding pattern or drops infertile eggs, then you most likely have a male.

If you posted pic. Some of us could give a guess, but thats only accurate if your monitor displays real defined sexual characteristics and if it did, you most likely wouldn't be asking that question. Good Luck FR

Well I was going to get a full length pic and a hind quater shot, but the brat went into his/her burrow. I wish I had more time to observe, but I think that the monitor is cycling. I have yet to see any eggs, so I may be wrong. Here are the present conditions. The enclosure for the monitor is 4Lx2Wx2H. The basking temp is @130F(surface temp) and average humidity is about 60%. The substate is a combination of cypres on one side and topsoil on the other(about 6" deep). The monitor only has one hide spot, but has multiple entrences and is able to get to it quite quickly. I'm feeding about 3 hoppers every other day. I hope to post some pics after he/she comes back out. I don't handle my monitor unless I have to, nor do I believe in "pulling" one out of it's burrow .

J.R. Bailey

0.1 V. Savator
1.1 Butterfly agamas
1.0.0 Argus

Do you have a pair, or just the one? (just curious)

I don't schedule feedings, but three fuzzies is barely a snack for an argus. If I recall correctly I was feeding mine adult mice when they were less than two months old. Right now my female is about 30" and has dumped two clutches (I have a bunch of issues to work out). When she is cycling she will easily down 5-6 mice and be ready for more in a day or two. I don't usually feed her that much, only when she's cycling because she wants the food badly (argus can be very convincing).

I'm not sure why you would want her to cycle without a mate, that can lead to some very nasty bad things. But I don't see that you could prevent it from happening either.

The thing with argus is, the little 30" female can pound down adult mice, much faster than a large three foot male peachie which is easily three times her size (in mass).

Good Luck,

--Robert

Just one at the moment. I don't know what sex I have, so I don't know what I need. I was told it was about 4 months old and eating on fuzzies. I'm not feeding fuzzies, I am feeding what is labled as hoppers, but some are close to adult size. He/she usually eats about 3-4 every other day. After reading some of the replies, I tried to feed today, and the monitor wasn't really interested in eating. She's out for a bit and right back into the burrow. I just re-measured and get 22-23 inches (they don't really hold still long enough to be accurate). The monitor was about 14"-15" when I recieved it last December. I'm assuming the information on the age is accurate, who knows it may be younger... I took a temp reading and got 127F in the bask 79F ambient.

is this a problem? lol. typo (desert rat phenom).

cheers, andrew

but funny to say the least. We're not all experts here. I've remeasured my monitor at I estimated wrong. The monitor is right at 22" and 1 yr old. With that said, I'm having problems ascertaining the sex of my monitor. Perhaps you can help me with me with my other problem...my Rooster has yet to lay any eggs...lol

part of what frank was getting at was that the size of your monitor is not necessarily sex determinate. the sizes of our monitors is partly due to support.

we do not know anything about your husbandry. you may say i keep them hot and feed them a lot. to me (in my thinking) you are saying i keep them at 88 with a 145 degree basking and feed him 20 mice a week. but in fact you may keep him/her much differently.

i have raised argus monitors out of the egg. they do grow quickly and can display secondary sexual characteristics at a young age.

from what you keep on saying (it is only 22" after a year)you must know that females stay fairly small. side by side they are incomparable and not just in length but in bulk in different areas of their body. female monitors stomaches are different at different times of the year (ovulation, just laid, gravid, full, inbetween any of these times). healthy males have two stomache looks (full and hungry). keeping monitors is fun for these reasons, you learn a lot of different things others won't tell you. there is more but that is for you to find out.

and like frank said, post a pic then we can try and help you out more. the gouldi complex is fairly easy to sex.

all the best,

andrew

First, thank you. I will take a picture and post as soon as I take one. My most recent ones are fairly old. I do see your point about size. Should I be concerened though about size is the monitor is male? Seems a little small for a male from what I have read. As for husbandry, your right about the fact you can only assume that what I'm telling you is indeed how the monitor is being kept.
I would like to try my hand at breeding and need to determine what I have now, so that I know what to buy. I would love to be able to buy a breeding pair, but my wife has a problem with me spending $700.00 on getting 2 more monitors (don't know why ;p ).
I do appreciate your input though and I'm haveing fun observing, learning, and improving as a monitor owner.

Pic as soon as I take it.

dad grew up in the south, i used that word a lot growing up, i guess it stuck, lol.

no problem btw. just keep it fun and try to appease your wife at the same time . i will post some new pics of a male for you in a few days.

in all honesty i would buy a couple of baby argus and try from scratch. nothing cuter than a tripoding baby argus.

ps: sorry for the poor pic.

the reason it is best to raise up babies is that they become used to your husbandry. you can ask the person over the phone what they do all day long and you can't duplicate it. you learn everything about the specific monitoralities by raising them up. you know when things are right and when they are wrong.

andrew