Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This animal was one of the prised specimen I sold last year, I can’t believe it lost all its colors in a year time. Those I kept have retained or improved there colors, I am posting this photo because I believe this monitor will eventually regain its coloration.
Rgds

Frank have your doreanus kept there colors?

Its how it looked a year ago.

and you made no mention at all of it being another animal. The second picture is very much a different animal... the base colors of a pattern may change, but a lot of the pattern usually stays the same....especially in a lot of monitors. The second animal pictured is much "cleaner" in its patterning... none of the areas and shapes match what they should...

I don't see the sense in this one.. its completely immature.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 2.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystic))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"

this is how it should look, means this is how it looked last year, NO ITS NOT THE SAME MONITOR but its the same specie from the same locality and was colected at the same time on the same expedition by the same trapper. is this clear enough?
dont bother me with such futile things

perfect time to use a uv-light just to see whats happens to its color if you dont allready use one, could be intresting.....

Just needs to shed, have a good diet,better choice of basking temps., and correct its lack of being able to retain moisture.

My yellow nile everyone likes so much was dumped off at my doorstep in a box. I darn near stepped on the box on my way out. It started out very normal looking blue gray colored. It wasn't long though before it started showing signs of yellow colors showing up. Now she is covered in yellow and looks nothing like the little nile that was dumped here.

No need for smoke and mirrors or as some call it UV light bulbs.

No UVA-UVB is out and over for me, as Frank said HEAT is the key to metabolism!
However I agree with Jody about the husbandry part, but theirs more! Diets rich in beta carotene may be important in retaining these red-pink colors, as for Koi and zoo flamingos. Lately iv seen many species including ornate uromastyx and Saharan red uromastyx witch have shown this problem with LT captives and CBB, I wonder why this don’t happen to snakes such as kings-milks and corn?
Yellow, green, blue colors don’t seem to fade in most lizards (exception to day geckos) but orange, pink, red in monitors seem like the first colors to fade out.
Its not obligatory as iv seen WC jobiensis, doreanus adults with vivid colors even in species like dumeril’s.

vit d and a will help the red and orange color in most lizard prob snakes also just my 2 cents.

When they are fired up it really shows in the color. The things I stated to contribute to a colorful monitor also go hand in hand with a healthy monitor. If your monitor is not healthy and happy then it will not color up.

As for heat it plays a big role in the color reptiles choose to wear. Put an iguana in the cold he will turn very dark almost black. Put a red or yellow niger uromastyx in the cold they also will dull out in color and darken up, the same goes for monitors. Now simply add heat and they will lighten up and show more instense colors. Offer all the elements that make a healthy reptile and it will show even better colors.

I have red and yellow niger uromastyx they have never had any UV. But yet they show more color then any I have seen elswhere. This to me is proof anyways.

Good luck with that doreanus I am sure you'll have it turned around and looking great in no time.

Those animals look to be two separate animals, when you closely look at the patterning. Especially the fleckling on the arms and neck area. I understand that patterning does change with age, but in the pictures shown, it appears that melanin vanished in some areas, and developed in other areas, which is not something that typically does not occur in varanid ontogeny. There is typically either an increase in melanin with age(V. boehmei), or a decrease in melanin with age(V. melinus). Developmentally speaking, you really don't see a combination of both processes occurring at the same time as an individual ages.

Again, I can be mistaken, but I think that those are two separate animals. If you look closely, you'll probably agree.

yes they are, I said this is a male I sold last year, I am showing one I kept for comparaison. my ? is why this male lost its colors. and hopfully it can be reversed.

ok, from the way the posts were worded, it sounded as if you were saying they were the same animals, as you said "this is how it looked last year". My mistake. Nevertheless, that is a gorgeous doreanus... Best of luck with the ones you kept.

CHeers

My beautiful Orange doreanus, grew up to be both males and alsolutely lost their beautiful color. To a point they were very normal.

Also, they were a bit different then yours, they did not have bluetails not even when young.

About monitors and other reptiles changing colors, such as heck they do. This commonly occurs with many snakes and other reptiles. It occurs both otogenetically(as they age) and with either a day/night or temperature change.

As you mentioned, many pythons, particularly ozzie pythons have a huge day/night change. It was published with Omppelli(sorry for the spelling) pythons. We seen it occur with both childrens pythons and Olive pythons, at night, they appear translucent. In the day, their pigment appears much denser.

Here in Arizona, we have a species of rattlesnake, C.cereberus, Ariz Black rattlesnake, that does this very dramatically. In the day, they can be jet black with some yellow bars or X's. At night, an individual that was totally black in the day, with turn a very lite grey. Other species of rattlesnake do this much less dramatically. This also occurs with many of our lizard species, with Yarrows spinys, S.yarrowi, being very good at this. Only with them its about temperature. When cold, they are very black and when warmed up, they exhibit blues and golds on a lite grey animal.

As to your species of python, I have no experience with. I have seen several scrubbies in nature. But not in enough different conditions to see anything useful. Thanks FR

WOW what a clean up!
Iv read this nice post the minute you have posted, wanted to reply but I didn’t know how? Without any disruption that is. Thanks for the info