Reptile & Amphibian Forums

FR,

I was reading a transcript from a talk you gave in 1989 on reptile reproduction. The Q&A seemed to be focused primarily on snakes, but you mentioned something that I found interesting, and wondered if it translated to monitors as well:

Q: Do you leave pairs together for extended periods of time or should you separate them after a while?

FR: "It's interesting to note that if you put a male into a female's cage where he is in her territory, the male is going to roam quite a bit before he becomes attracted to the female. But when you put the female in with him in his cage, he's going to react to her immediately. Whenever some new factor is introduced into the male's territory, he's going to react. If it's food, he's going to eat it. If it's a male, he's going to combat it. And if it's a female, he's going to breed it. Putting a female in a male's cage is one easy and quick way to see if a female is cycling or not. The male will immediately respond if she is."

Generally speaking, does this hold true with monitors?

Sam
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To me, it's a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody asks, "Hey, can you give me a hand?" you can say, "Sorry, got these sacks." -JH

Hmmmmmmmm, Snakes and monitors are simply not in the same ballpark.

Two things, first, With snakes, Seeing them breed is only a convience for impatient keepers. It really is not necessary to see them breed.

Second, its the same for monitors. There is no reason to see them breed. Seeing them breed, does not make the eggs better.

Consider, behavior is not a single event. It contains, all percentages of events. Some good, some not. How that applies to monitors is. The highest percentage of success is to keep the pair familiar with eachother. Best way to do that is to raised them together from as young as possible. Remember I said best, of course there are no guarantees, as its behavior.

The most likely outcome of introducing two monitors that have not been with eachother is fighting. With all degrees of severity. Sometimes it works itself out, sometimes not. Sometimes, they pair up without incident. With all pairings, a keeper should not consider anything permanet. The reason is, its behavior, and due to change for many reasons.

So no, they are a different animal. FR