Reptile & Amphibian Forums

couple of questions to yellow monitors cant seem to find any info on them,
whats the size to expect for these guys anyone breed them what kind of success and how many keeped together in an cage pairs trios im guesing about 3ft as adult from pic ive seen cause never seen any larger hows there temperment.
clutch size can us say same for any monitor of that adult size, last when is sexual maturity at what age ?
last anyone have pic of theres in setups
thanks

To my knowledge, there have only been two or three people who have hatched out V. melinus outside their natural range/country of origin. There have been several people who have gotten eggs from them, however all but only a very few have hatched any eggs, even in those cases, I believe it was only one or two at a time..

I have seen male V. melinus become very aggressive when in the vicinity of a cycling female, and can be extremely rough where they can actually seriously injure the female.

All of the babies that you see for sale at the moment, are all farm bred in Indo, and then shipped over here..No US Captive Bred and Born babies, despite what some dealers might say.

As for how many can be kept in a cage together... I think that a lot of people are disillusioned into thinking that more animals in a cage(more females) the more babies you will have, or the better chances you will have at breeding them is... I simply do not believe this, especially high strung animals, such as all of the indonesian species...

By keeping just a pair, it is much easier to observe each individual's behaviors, watch for changes in behavior, and cues which might help you understand more about their reproductive cycling... Plus, by having fewer animals, you have less food competion. In a trio or larger, you will most certainly run into a problem(especially with highly strung, skittish species such as melinus-who won't feed from tongs) where one or more animals are dominated, or do not come out to eat food left for them, where the male usually consumes the other animal's food items...
Not to mention, with more animals, you create a more complex social structure, where there is a greater chance of an animal not getting along with other members of the group...more chances for problems/complications with multiple animals.

In my honest opinion, if you are serious in working with this fascinating species(not a good starter species to plan on breeding), I recommend you get a pair, not a group.. It is sad, but I see many people buy into trios of animals(tree monitors for example). Two of the animals do well, and the extra female gets dominated, or does not get enough food/access to hides/basking spots, etc., and dies... this is seen all too frequently, because people think that these animals will breed better if there are more females.... While perhaps this may work with captive bred animals, raised up together, this will not work(in 99% of cases) with wild caught animals who are not accustomed to one another's presence...

As for # of eggs laid, I am not sure what has been documented for this species, however I would look into the number of eggs that V. doreanus or V. indicus lay, as their numbers should not vary greatly, as they all belong to the same closely related group of monitors(Euprepiosaurus)...

I hope this helps a bit... Most people's complaints of V. melinus in captivity, is that they are extremely illusive, you never see them, they stay buried beneath their substrate all the time, and are only active for a few hours in the morning. Not exactly the characteristics that most people seek in a captive... But not everyone is the same, I admire their beauty, and find them a great species, regardless of whether I ever see them or not..

Cheers,

Bob
TREEMONITORS.COM

as far as age of sexual maturity, age is irrelevant... Monitors do not celebrate birthdays. Sexual maturity deals with whether or not the animal is physiologically ready and capable of breeding. With males, this does not seem to be a problem in captivity, as they are not the ones doing the cycling. Females on the other hand, are the ones responsible in initiating reproduction. If a female is not healthy enough, her physical condition is not optimal for reproduction, or of right age, she will not cycle, and you will not see any successful reproductions, regardless of whether or not the male attempts to mate with her... A successful reproduction will never result from rape.

People can have female monitors that are 6 or 7 years old, and are not able to reproduce, as their husbandry is incorrect and does not allow them to physiologically get to the point of where their bodies are ready and capable of reproducing...

So it's all about when the female is ready, she's ready... Don't necessarily go by age or size, as those are almost irrelevant. Of course a hatchling is not going to be able to lay eggs... It's all about the female... By not letting her get what she needs to be healthy, you will never get any breeding.

Cheers,

Bob
TREEMONITORS.COM

thanks for you info funny you responded i was just finishing reading you site great site by the way. ive keeped and breed several types of monitors,snakes but never trees i see you never got an good hatch yet why do you think it may be not enough info on them to incubation guess were all still trying to devolope info our selves to see what works ha
well thanks again for your responce and site helped clear alot up for me

one other question are you referring to yellow green tree monitors or yellow monitors ive got talk that yellow monitors get about 3ft and are quite toliable i seen some pic further down on this forum which one are you talking about
thanks

I had a 4.5' female, and have seen a male V. melinus around 5'. This was back when only WC adults were being imported, long before any CH babies were being farmed in Indo... Nevertheless,I have seen several individuals that are over 4'.

The monitor that I am referring to is Varanus melinus, the Quince Monitor, or Yellow Monitor- quite erroneously referred to as the "Yellow Tree Monitor". Not a tree monitor by any means... a member of the V. doreanus/indicus group which include V. doreanus, indicus, jobiensis, juxtindicus, finschi, yuwonoi, and semiremix.

The true yellow tree monitors- a newly discovered variant of V. prasinus have only just been imported into the country, and captive bred individuals or farm hatched individuals simply do not exist as of yet....

Cheers mate,

Take care,

Bob
TREEMONITORS.COM

Hello,
Are you talking about Varanus melinus yellow monitors? Or perhaps those so-called yellow V. prasinus that came in recently - there are real yellow V. prasinus out there but those recent imports are not them....

As for V. melinus: check out the June-July Vivarium 1999 issue - I wrote an article about them there; they have been bred several times since their discovery. They are dawn/dusk animals rarely coming out in the middday, as V. jobiensis is too... Their natural diet is fish/molluscs.

good luck,
mbayless

how can i read about it online where do i go to rea it
thanks

where can i find this to read it online
thanks

Hi,
I don't know where you go to read it online? Sometimes only the hard copy is available - try good pet shops - maybe they have back issues of that Vivarium? Perhaps www.cybersalvator.com has it online, as the co-author of this paper owns that V. salvator web page. If your serious about getting a copy, email me directly and we can see what we can do about getting you a copy of it...
mbayless