Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I believe my monitors gravid. Has not been interested in food for 4 days now (food offered daily) and is getting larger around the belly. Here's a pic I scored yesterday.

dude, lay off the whatever you are on, lol (funny).

again, your monitor is not of sexual age. it is not ovulating. why don't you tell us what is going on with your husbandry and we can tell you what is going on with your monitor?
andrew

ok....laying down the crack pipe.

I concede that was dumb, and that I just made a complete a$$ of myself.

Basically my husbendry:

-Temps have been rechecked and on taget with a good gradient in the cage. She has to burrows now one on the "hot" end and one on the "cool" end.
-Humidity is around 60%? Don't know about this on, I've noticed the monitor recently sleeping in water dish. Something I would expect out of my water monitor, but a first for my argus.
-Substrate is a mix of topsoil and cypress mulch about 8"-1' in depth.
-Feeding was changed from every other to everyday after reading some of the responses from the previous posts. I feed primarily hoppers to adult sized mice. I've never seen her take out more than 4 at any one time. The monitor hasn't eaten in 5 days and not showing interest in mice,supers, or roaches. Sometimes "she" almost seems scared of her food and takes a threat posture to it. She will smack the food, but not eat it. Don't know why. From what I've read, she should always be hungry like a "garbage disposal" and aggressivly go for the food.
-Cage is 4x2x2 which I see as large enough for a 22" long monitor.

-Lighting - I normally let the light go 24x7

OK, crack pipes aside...and you didn't make an a$$ out of yourself, well we all do from time to time....

First, what exactly are your temps?
Second, sleeping in water typically means there is no where else to hide, the substrate is inadequate.

What kind of hides does the argus have? is it stressed from handling?

lets go from here,

andrew

Temps are 130 in the bask, and 80 ambient.

Substate is a cypress/topsoil. I just added the topsoil 2 weeks ago and she started digging right away. I've been thinking of making it all dirt/sand mix. As for hide spots, she has one on the warm side and one on the cool side. Neither are disturbed. Might add one to the center?

That was the last time I handled her. No one disturbs her cage while I'm at work. Would a pic of the enclosure help?

Also, would leaving the light on 24/7 add to the stress?

Thank you btw for helping out. I'd hate to think that my ignorance is hurting my monitor.

yes, posting a pic would be helpful. everything sounds pretty good. it never hurts to add hides, but running around room is important too.

andrew