Heres the point Crocdoc, I do allow our lacies a choice. Which is what i find as the funny part.

I find it funny as, its us keepers that are not quite so smart.

For instance, your box IS NOT A TERMITE MOUNT. It is the most suitable place in your setup, as she lays her eggs there.

Here, we have different problems and as such have different results.

For instance, I have always offerred hollow logs, and did recieve an amazing nesting, the time when the female covered her eggs with sawdust she created by scratching it off the inside of the log. And we provide, deep leaflitter, which is what was picked the most often here. Including nesting in a ant nest with no ill effects, except to my hands. Whats odd is, that species if ant is what eats all our other species of varanid eggs.

Or the time a female was nesting in deep leaflitter and then came back out and started digging right above the nest, she dug until she located something odd. A dead rotting mouse, she then threw the mouse out of the nesting area and laid two eggs on the surface, then carried the eggs into the nest(I have pics of the whole sequence) Then finished laying IN THE NEST and covered it up normally. If you did not see what occurred, you would think it was a normal nesting.

Whats odd is, I have tried deep soil and never had a lacie nest or attempt to nest in soil. Only to have one of the females I hatched(our bloodline) Successfully deposit eggs in deep soil, and have them hatch there for John Egan. A dirt nesting no different from perenties or gouldi types, etc.

So to invent new ways, no I do not think they can do that. But to have an inventory of methods to nest, yes they do have that. And its no surprise to me, as so do all the other reptiles I work with.

All of the reptiles I watch deposit eggs or babies, based on the type of year/s we are having, in most cases, they place them on hillsides with certain conditions, except when its drought, then they place them right next to washes where there is enough moisture to hatch the eggs. Live bearers are pretty much the same, they have a number of methods to secure success, depending on prevailing conditions.

And while you are not wrong, termite nests are a good place to hatch eggs, surely they are not the only place or these animals would not have developed the ability to lay in other conditions.

Your success truely makes that point, your box is NOT a termite mound. Its a box in a cage. Does that box have termites living and working in it?????? If not, then what makes you think the monitor is fooled into thinking its a termite mound?

I am not trying to argue but the point is clear, a next box is not a termite mound. its just a box.

I asked you a question about how many clutches your female lays a year. I ask that because the answer reflects support and stress levels. But you will not address that.

Any person with some understanding of biology, knows that there is range of reproductive effort, that effort is judged by level of recruitment. Level of recruitment is based on enviornmental conditions, which include naturalsupport and stress.

We also understand that each species moves to the least supportive conditions. that is, they fill their nitches until support is at a minimum, both in prey and shelter.

Sorry, I am wandering, the point is, lacies in captivity have proved they have a range of methods to nest, Now as humans, we can discuss which method fits in what conditions.

Also I would appreciate not isolating paragraphs, as it takes away from the meaning of the whole post. doing that can easily missdirect the overall intent of the reply,

overall, you seem to be stating that lacies can and will use tight spaces, as they have done so in nature, such spaces are termite mounds and limb hollows/trunks hollows etc. In this I agree.

But they have also shown the ability to use such things as leaflitter and dirt burrows as well.

As in nature, this makes it a situational problem. For you, you live in a cool place, your mass temps in house is cool in the spring. So you can easily use a box above mass level. Here in the states, in the hot arse desert, we have no such luxury, anything above substrate level is hot as heck, much to hot to nest in. So our situation is much different. I wonder, what would you do if you lived in Marble Bar?

As you should know, most of us are not fortunate to live with Lacies outside our door. Most of us have to use conditions foreign to natural lacie conditions. Its here that this question becomes very very important.

You see, we have reverse seasons, and totally different conditions, yet have succeeded with lacies. I do think its the same lacies.

YOu said, why force them to do something, to me, your the one applying recipe conditions, that is, cooling them at X time, raising them temps at X time, and then having the cop at X time, then laying at X time and X place. Again to me, thats boring, of course they can and will follow that regime. But what are they capable of, what is their genetic potential, Whats the max, whats the minimum?

All in all, I think you love to repeat the same thing over and over, just to prove a point, and I do not know who your proving it to.

I on the otherhand, am not that kind of person, I explore. So I explore the range of what they do. And surely they do have a range.

So what has your female(one or more females) reproductive effort/s been like. Number of clutches per year, number of eggs etc.

And please sir, this is not a pissing contest, its the only way to compare methods, and that is to compare results. Thanks

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