Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do unmated females still develop and lay eggs? I know some other lizard species do (Green Iguanas, Veiled Chameleons).

They sure do, they don't have to come in contact with a male (much less mate) to produce and lay/dump/absorb eggs.

--Robert

When they are capable of laying eggs.
Most cases where people believe they need a male to produce eggs demonstrates their basic care is very wrong, because they just dont have the ability to produce eggs. Ive had tokay geckos, flying geckos, and others lay eggs with no male within miles, they just do it. A good friend has had many species of lizard suddenly lay eggs regularly with no male around.

I'm wondering if this happens in nature or if it is a "side effect" of captivity. It seems to be a tremendous waste of energy (and calcium) for the female. What are the chances that a female lizard would not be able to find a mate in the wild?

It is their basic design, to reproduce. That is what they are suppose to do. Period.

Everything happens in nature, many do not find mates, many do, their social design(ack, I used the word social) their behavioral designs, insure that success happens. Understand, because they are there, it does work.

About calicum, hmmmmmmmm thats not a problem. Unfertilized eggs are not calcified. Also, laying good eggs does not cause a calicum problem with normal monitors. Not in the least. If you experience calcium problems with any captives, it simply means, your conditions are not right. Understand, to reproduce is normal. In animals that reproduce on a yearly or more basis, the act of reproduction should not cause harm. If its harmful, then thats a sign that something is wrong. With captives, its our fault because we supply the conditions(the harm). With wild animals, its that dang natures fault, she keeps offerring good years, and bad years and floods and drought and such. Which in turn cause an abundance of food, then a lack of food, The poor monitors just try to keep up. FR

Thanks Frank. A couple more questions to clarify...

So, egg laying would be an automatic thing? Even if conditions were poor (drought, limited food supply) the monitor would not conserve its reproductive energies? Do monitors reabsorbe eggs?

Thanks for helping me understand.

They start with signs of egg production then in a few days they are back to normal. They get fat, dont eat as much then they are gone. If your husbandry is off when this happens they can have difficulties and not lay or absorb them, for this they need surgery to remove them. I found this with Sobek the hard way, make sure you have the right substrate before they are start this process, Sobek absorbed 2 times then when she was switched between 2 cages (smaller to larger), when I switched her to another larger cage I experimented with dirt types at the wrong time. None the less she cycled, the dirt was wrong, she wouldnt dig in it, became internally dehydrated, I started to switch out that dirt (stuff from the store, organic topsoil) to dirt from a creek bank, at that point it doesnt matter, the nesting and substrate have to be right before it happens.
Luckily I found a good vet that has corrected this problem before, she came out of surgery with flying colors and ate daily starting the morning after surgery, a testament to her health and very strong physical condition. She has no ovaries now so this is not a problem for her.

Hmmmmm your making it difficult. Nothing is automatic, not in captivity or in nature.

In captivity, if barely tolarable conditions are met, then females lay eggs, you do not have to do anything, like hibernate or photoperiod or apply anything in any way. If the energy and the conditions are barely acceptable, they can lay.

Now for the funny part. We have discussed why and how some people have what appears to be a healthy fat female, that never lays. That does seem to exsist. I am not sure how that happens.

As I have said a billion times, yes I know thats more then a million. Monitors lay eggs like pez despencers. But getting hatchable eggs is difficult.

If you follow KS, and keep any sort of track of how many eggs are laid and how many actually hatch, then you will get some idea of what I am talking about.

Back to nature, nature does not care if eggs are laid or not, nature only cares about hatching, then surviving. You must understand, eggs and babies feed the eco-system, and surviving hatchlings support the population. Both must happen.

I do not think wild monitors go around laying lots of infertile eggs, but I do not it does happen(seen it, many times) I think they absorb ripe ovum, if a male is not found. This also happens in captivity. But for some reason in captivity, laying infertile eggs is common, with or without males.

What that means is very clear, we do not meet their basic requirememts or a regular basis. People forget monitors are reptiles, they the monitors, do not form their own metabolism, they aquire their metabolism from their enviornment. If we do not give them the tools to aquire their needs, they, the inmates, will show a wide range of success and failure. Depending on what was provided and how consistant it was provided.

Where I fall away from many scientists and MS's as I like to say. Monitors are exactly the same in nature or captivity. The difference lays in the tools for them to acquire their needs. The the MS's somehow think a Sav that was caught one week then exported the next will magically change to something else, once in captivity. It does not change, its enviornment does.

Hmmmmm what I am trying to say is, in nature, there are surely no guarantees, the wild monitors can only strive to succeed. In captivity, there also is no guarantees and no expectations, only here, its the keepers that must strive to allow the monitors to succeed. The captives are now under our control, wishes, and whims. They are no longer in natures. FR

haha was there a pun intended with that one?

It happens in reptiles, birds, mammals, etc.

It may happen in a different form but it does happen. If your not seeing it happen then the conditions are not allowing it.