While its great fun to discuss the theory of multiclutching, I am not sure, theres a reason to discuss such a thing.
During the time we have been discussing this very matter, our monitors have been going ahead, without permission and actually doing it.
This is an easy example, because they are small and are easy to keep track of. The species here is, V.gilleni. The pygmy mulga monitor. They occur in central Oz. Its published that they occur in groups, and yes, they do. But thats another story.
This case is a one year old female, that was put outside in the spring, she had no lites of any type to assist in heating. That means, she was on a totally natural photoperiod(for tucson az.) The temps were whatever nature provided, ranging from above freezing to really friggin hot.
She started laying eggs and produced four clutches, she produced ovum for a fifth, but the weather turned cold and she absorbed them. He clutchs ranged from about, 2 to 3 weeks apart. After her third clutch, she actually cycled the next day. Each clutch was 3 eggs, and I hatched all but three. Of interest, these eggs were laid in very wet ground, to a point of saturation.
The picture is of one example from each of her four clutches, The smallest was hatched on Turkey day, and I hope someone from varanus.net, comes up with a name. The egg laying and nesting was posted on .net, as it occurred and was updated thru out the summer.
Whats interesting is, she did this in natural conditions, and did this in a period of time thats suitable for their home turf. Its also of interest, that the conditions around tucson are very similar to that of central oz. only we are farther from the equator and have longer winters and longer cold fronts.
Next thing of interest is growth, you can see doubling and tripling of mass in a matter of weeks. The age difference between the youngest and oldest is about 10 weeks. These babies are not raised with any sort of intentional UV. they have 25W incandesent bulbs, on in the day, sorta. And a heat strip at night(actually on 24/7) I say sorta, as I forget to set the time clock and its a bit off.
I do apologise for the poor pics, I will take some better ones soon and post them of .net.
They are numbered, 1, is the youngest(two days old) and four, the oldest, about 10 weeks. 2 and 3 were evenly spaced in the middle.
I hope you enjoy, but better yet, i hope you think. FR
