Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any info out there on Timor monitors as I sort of fell into a pair, The female is yellow spotted and the male is more bluish yellow
Thanx in advance

V. timorensis & V. auffenbergi (timorensis being the yellow spotted and auffenbergi being the blue spotted) are members of the sub genus odatria (dwarf monitors), according to D. Bennet they require an enclosure as small as 0.5 meters squared, which is about 18x18 inches is big enough for a pair. With ample climbing space provided as they are arboreal. For minimum cage size I would go with 2x2x5 (LWH) but that is just me you could do what D. Bennet said also if you want. You should have 120-130 degree (F) basking spot with an ambient temp of about 85 degrees (F). Have the cage around 60-70% humidity. Have a rather large water pan, large enough for the animals to soak at least their SVT (snout to vent) length in. I have herd of many keepers using cypress mulch that is about 6 inches to 1 foot deep. As far as feeding goes I would feed crickets and dusted crickets, roaches, dusted superworms, and an occasional pinky. I have found that most odatria don't do extremely well on a rodent based diet, a pinky to most odatria is like us eating a stick of butter. High in fat low in nutrition. Adults hover around the 2 foot mark. Will you be breeding? Do you know the sex of your monitors?

I have had a blue spot and I have a yellow spot now. They are very cool but are shy. The yellow spot that I have now is a lot more tollerant of people than my old blue spot. They will hide alot and are not really holdable, but they are very fun to watch. If you have 2, that will be a lot of fun for you. I wish I had more so I could watch them intermingle. They love to climb, and mine seem to like the water. Make sure they have plenty of hide spots at different temperatures.
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Ed

There are water dragons, chameleons, frilled dragons, pythons, and monitors in my jungle room.

I could always take them off your hands for ya....looking to start a breeding project....I just have a single sub adult blue spot, was working on a pair that fell out so still looking for some......if u want to sell let me know.....

j

Timors.

I have kept a pair of the Roti Island form( V. auffenbergi) for the past 2 years.

I can tell you the right way to keep them, BUT I can tell you how I care for mine.

My enclosure is 47"Lx60"Hx28"deep., I have equipped their enclosure with 2 spots with temp. 122-125F and an ambient temp. ranging between 82-86F.
The enclosure is equipped with branches and cork-tupes and both artificial and natural plants.

My humid. is ranging from 60-80% depending on season.

Their diet exist mainly of insects(well fed) and occational pinkies and lizards.

I have not yet hatched any eggs from this species, but I did recieve a clutch in january, but unfortunately all 16 eggs went bad.
I have heard about multiclutching in this species, but I have yet tried this.
From what I have observed this species mostly breed accordingly to natural breeding season, which means breeding occurs in mid november-mid december and eggdepositing in mid january to beg. og february.

eggs take about 124 days to hatch according to A.Kirschner(bemerkungen zur pflege und zucht vom Timorwaran der Insel Roti, Indonesien)

I keep my pair together in same enclosure all year, exept from when trying to introduce breeding behavior, I seperate for about 2-4weeks.

I am still experimenting with many different things, because I believe that this species will also multiclutch if kept under right circumstances, and so I am always trying to improve my care.

This is a lovely sp. of varanus, though very shy. Mine tend to hide much, and only come out to bask and eat.
Even mating have taken place inside a cork-tube. They tend to settle down a bit after a while, but they are definately not handable. If you can live with all this, then you will have much joy from this species.

good luck with them.

kind regards
Rasmus
Denmark, Europe

photos of my pair, plus eggs and enclosure

enclosure photo:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/145865749/145866869onDYDZ
photos of my pair