The point I was trying to make, even if a little exaggerated. The desert monitors in the U.S. are not from Russia or any of the nothern extremes of their range. They are from the southern parts of their range. What this means is, it would be better if you actually checked out the yearly temps of where "yours" are from, then comparing or treating them like desert monitors from the extreme north. Consider, desert monitors, have a huge range.
If Bob really wanted to be helpful, he could have found and posted the average yearly temps from different extremes of their range. But I guess being helpful is not his purpose.
Also, In my opinion, I take this hibernation thing with a grain of salt. I was told I "had" to hibernate ackies, when I started(1991) and Lacies, and tristis and all the others I do not hibernate. Do people hibernate ackies now? So does your desert monitors fall into that, I don't know. But I would treat them as I do all my monitors. I would respond to them.
Many, in fact most species of monitors, tropical or not, respond the same way to dropping mass temps. To do down or in(trees). In most cases, they go down for short periods. Then come up and become active again. I would imagine that monitors from the extremes of north or south, these times may be longer. But I do wonder why some folks like to dwell on extremes when they are not called for.
You do understand, hibernation is a behavior to avoid and survive untolerable conditions. It is not a reproductive behavior or a chosen behavior, In other words, all the monitors I work with will avoid hibernation if givin the oppertunity.
As far as history goes, there is very little continued success, with desert monitors, whether you hibernate them or not. So why would anyone follow a regime of non continued success. In other words, I see no one breeding them thru generations. It seems very hit and miss(except for Terry's private source)hahahahahaha.
I recomend going down to mriswith's post about their timor and it becoming inactive. I recomended they check the mass temps and see it they are the same as they were in summer. They did and found them to be lower. This is common. The temps drop outside and it does effect cages inside. You have two options, to increase temps(to compensate) or let the monitors become inactive. The choice is yours to make and only yours to make. Good luck FR
