Ackie breeding

[V.hb]

Well, after recieving my pair of ackies ive noticed some wierd things... As soon as i placed them into a custom enclosure (pefect temps) The female has been aggressing the male!! it looks as if shes trying to do his role... Trying to flip the tail, the whole shibang.. Ive seen this with other varanids, I do know the females will occasionally aggress males, but this is really odd.. Anyone seen this happen with ackies?

[NiagaraReptiles]

I'm not sure what exactly "perfect temps" means, but that is a whole other conversation it itself and not related to the behaviors you are seeing.

Females "mounting" males is very common place with monitors and can mean several things depending on many variables. Age, individuality and even cage design/setup can have an effect on behaviors and social structures. Of all the species I have experience with, however, I've seen this type of behavior much more often with <i>V. a. acanthurus</i> and <i>V. a. brachyurus</i> than any others. Ackies seem to be really good at giving signs to problems within their world. It's up to you as a keeper to learn what they are trying to tell you and provide for them what it is that they require. Other species aren't so good at warnings and sometimes this sort of thing can end in tragedy.

If i recall correctly, your varanid experience has been limited to primarily wild caught monitors. Natural/normal behaviors are very difficult to observe with w/c's and in a lot of cases w/c's don't act "normal" anyway. This is one of the reasons Ackies have been labelled as a "learning" monitor. Their needs are much easier to provide for in captivity and they are very well established captives (for obvious reasons) which makes natural behavior (breeding included) much more common place.

There is so much we don't know about monitors. This is why they were thought to be such poor captives for so many years. Now, in this day and age, captive varanid reproduction is much more common place and hopefully this will continue in the future.

Best wishes,

[V.hb]

I see what you're saying. Like you said, my varanids are wild caught.. However they're not WC adults, they're farm raised babies. Luckily enough to be a pair... So iam hoping for the best with them. I've seen like behavior with them, just not as noticable as with ackies... Unfortunatly nobody offers CB albigs up here.

Ah well, enough rambling thanks for your input.

[V.hb]

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[Jeff_Favelle]

Like Kendrick said, I have no idea what a "perfect temp" is for a monitor. And my female Ackies mount the males (and other females) more than my actual breeder male does. Mounting and tail lifting and nipping means so much more to monitors than copulating.

And now you're seeing why we have said all along that Ackies make the best first monitor and NOT wild-caught Savannahs or Niles or White/Black Throats etc etc etc.

[markb]

JonK pretty much sized it up; varanids exhibiting female to male aggression is still behaviors and as long as they do this, its good, as they are establishing territory, dominance and so on in their new environment. Give them plenty of room, numerous basking sites, numerous feeding sights (bowls etc) and this will lessen the stress between the animals. Do you have more than 2? Are they all from from same clutch? Could be sibbling rivalry you know? Could be alot of things causing them to react this way, but reduce their stress by aforementioned may help, and other behaviors will (hopefully) emerge; my friend in Florida with albigularis has observed tick removal behavior, sibbling hierarchy, female - female combat, and whose right to perch atop his head when he sits in their outdoor enclosure reading the newspapers...
great fun these monitors!
cheers,
markb

[V.hb]

I'll elaborate on "perfect temps" First off, these are sub adults, and were kept for a couple of months by another guy in a glass tank with to much ventilation. Ive since transfered them to a custom enclosure where they recieve more humidity, and higher basking temperatures, I usually go with recommended conditions, read from numorous care sheets and then narrow down the selection, I then observe the lizards to make sure the conditions are as right as I can observe IE: they maintain activity, eat, burrow.