varanus melinus Breeding

rullom · 05-03-12, 05:20 PM

Hi all, i am not sure where to post this so I will post in a couple places. I wanted to gather anyone's experience with this monitor's breeding. I am very concerned with how to prepare suitable egg laying grounds whether it is a basket or the entire cage etc. What worries me is 'egg bounding' females due to unsuitable deposition spots. Please comment in any direction. I have much to learn.
Thanks
Mike

infernalis · 05-03-12, 05:26 PM

I didn't know you already had an account.

Cool. Good to see you here.

No need to post multiple times, Our Monitor guys check in frequently.

BarelyBreathing · 05-03-12, 05:26 PM

How do you have them set up?

infernalis · 05-03-12, 05:28 PM

Moving to Varanids.

jarich · 05-03-12, 05:40 PM

Wow, youre breeding melinus?! Good job. How long have you had them? Who did you get them from? I think there is only one guy here in North America that breeds them, though Im not sure how many in Europe have. There is a guy called Mikes Monitors on a few forums who knows a breeder that has had pretty good success with melinus.

Crocdoc hasnt been on in awhile, but Im sure he can also help. Gregg, do you have any input?

rullom · 05-03-12, 08:15 PM

Sorry didn't want to get your hopes up.....I have not started breeding them but I am up to breeding challenges as I was able to overcome with chams back when nobody was breeding those. Right now I am just working on housing the little guy/gal.

I picked him(i refer to him form now on but i don't know sex) up at port credit....I'll post picks when he gets properly acclimatized. He is about 6in plus tail i would say. I think he's eating about 10+ large crux that I have watched. I will also send picks of the cage. The first day I had him in my modified screen cage that was 48Lx30Hx16W but I couldn't get the ambient temps to a proper state so I went out and bought an exoterra glass 36Hx24Lx18W. This is much better although the hight still prevents me from getting the gradient I am happy with. I know I discussed this with many others about the bulb wattages etc but we must be using different companies or something. Before all of you freak out because you use 1/4 of the wattage and get the same or better results, know that I am obsessed with perfection and check the temperature every hr to half hr until bed time even now 3 days later.

I have 1 100w "intense" exoterra, 1 100w "daylight" exoterra, 1 75w "rainforest" exoterra bulb, and 1 5% UBV cooly strip or what ever....each of these take up one quadrant of the top screening. Now temperature wise I have anywhere from 130 to 80ish along the top perching areas and it falls to around 72 to the ground. I would rather the ground be 80 but I cannot get this unless I get a bulb shining on the glass near the bottom of the cage BUT I don't want to do this since the glass heats up quite a bit. Please critique on.... I am open to suggestions. To let you know I have already been told to use 2 50W bulbs but that is obviously not going to work considering the wattage I am using with the above results. Note this is pretty consistent for the the last 2 days. I am using a professional thermal sensor gun for cooking so my temps are pretty accurate.

Also I have a repti fogger to help with humidity and a sprinkler misting line I rigged up to the top of the cage.

So any how, I wanted to know about the probability of egg bounding (if that applies) and how to prevent it because I do not know the sex yet. I'll post full picks soon...maybe tomorrow if I get a chance. I'm avoiding holding him until he gets more used to the cage.

Also btw does anyone think it weird that he sleeps a lot during the day? He moves around too but I catch him with his eyes closed. Could this be due to lack of comfort where they pretend "they can't see u so u can't see them". I heard of this before. He usually packs it in for the night around 6pm where he is up at 7-730am.

Gregg M · 05-03-12, 08:45 PM

I have 0 experience with melinus. I do know they are not easy to breed in captivity. The only advice I can offer you is to give your female plenty of laying options. Like all varanids, I would offer a nest box or two at the same time offering them deep substrate as well. You want your nesting temps to be in the mid 80's. You can achieve this by heating the bottom of your cage with a radient heat pannel or pig blanket heater.

BarelyBreathing · 05-03-12, 08:51 PM

You will need to re-work your set up a bit before you consider breeding. First off, instead of a bunch of high wattage bulbs, get a few 45-60 watt flood lights. That allows for a still high basking area without drying out the air. We're not freaking out about temperature. We freak out because high wattages dry out the air.

Second, you mentioned screen. This is inappropriate for monitors because it lets out humidity. You need stable humidity. Using a fogger only results in a fluccuation in humidity, and the exchange between wet and dry air is almost as bad as a humidity that is constantly too low. You will need a fully sealed (no screen, no vent) enclosure very soon.

He sleeps a lot during the day because he is unhealthy. This is due to the fact that your enclosure isn't set up properly.

infernalis · 05-03-12, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarich

Crocdoc hasnt been on in awhile, but Im sure he can also help. Gregg, do you have any input?

Crocdoc is on vacation at the moment, He will be back with stories to tell.

Mike is a member here, I will see if I can get him to post on this thread.

I think John Light (JPL reptiles) could have some good input too.

bushsnake · 05-03-12, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarich

Wow, youre breeding melinus?! Good job. How long have you had them? Who did you get them from? I think there is only one guy here in North America that breeds them, though Im not sure how many in Europe have. There is a guy called Mikes Monitors on a few forums who knows a breeder that has had pretty good success with melinus.

Crocdoc hasnt been on in awhile, but Im sure he can also help. Gregg, do you have any input?

hey ive met Mike...we seem to know the same people from the chicago area, his cousin was am short term partner of mine (partnerships hardly work lol)but if i got into monitors mike would be my go-to guy!!

rullom · 05-03-12, 10:48 PM

now without custom how do you get a fully enclosed top? Maybe I can rig something that seals over the top... This will take some constructing....I don't know if I'm even that good lol. I can try the "few" lower wattages...I don't have 45/65 where i live so I will have to use 40 or 75....40s won't work. for sure so i'll try 75s.
Well now you got me worried. How else can I tell if he's not doing well....I usually gauge based on eating habits and obviously body tone. This seems fine. I thought he was just nervous due to new surroundings. I was not making up that eye closed thing. Apparently they will do that when they are nervous to cope. I just want to add that he was "doing fine" apparently at port credit with half the size tank and one bulb. Maybe the temp was more stable?
Please continue with advise. We are going off topic but this is fine with me. If you could add at what age I have to be conscious about the egg deposition.

mo9e64 · 05-04-12, 06:25 AM

You might have picked an animal in poor health,your animal should be vigorous when handled and normally hiding.
Cover the top with plastic and rig it so you have a bare low wattage bulb within the cage,the size of cage you mentioned on another forum(100 gallon) you should use two 40w floodlights mounted as close to the substrate 6" roughly so you get a basking spot at least 130F-coolend low eighties.Substrate at least 8"-coconut husk mixed with sand covered in leaf litter.Tight hiding spaces.
If he is out in the open,sleeping with one eye shut alot that is not normal-this group of monitors by nature are very shy.Though i heard Melinus are a bit more outgoing,for your monitor to recover if it's compromised you need to give it as stress free environment as possible.
If you have a female there are issues egglaying-you need like others say experienced advice.I know it's just a question about egglaying but getting setup properly should be your main objective.From my experience so far,if you start with healthy babies that's the easy part.Keep them hydrated with a proper heat gradient ,security,lots of food, they grow like weeds.

rullom · 05-04-12, 08:57 AM

Ok here are some pics...I may exaggerate the "health" issues we speak of. He may be basking and then shut his eyes which I think is normal. He does go sleep in the top left corner or insider one of the logs on occasion. When he wants his food he runs around the cage. But we can discuss that further. So in this I rigged the top cover last night in a panic lol until 230am after reading some of these posts. The humidity levels are now staying 80% and that was within 2hrs or less since the lights went on this morning. For bulbs I have reduced them to see how the temp is going. Currently temp in basking ranges 125ish to low 90s or high 80s (using one 50 and one 75w).....falling to low 70s at the bottom. Right now I going to buy a heating mat for under the cage to fix the low 70s problem and a 50w bulb (i made a mistake in my last post...they sell 50w or 75w). I will try 2 50s to see how that does for the basking spots replacing the current 75w.

rullom · 05-04-12, 09:00 AM

heres some other picks

BarelyBreathing · 05-04-12, 11:39 AM

Oh! It's the same kind of enclosure I use for my cresties, and used to use for darts! Quick fix: Cut a piece of glass for the top of the screen, and make a hole to fit the lights. Simple, simple, simple. For some reason I thought you were talking about an all screen enclosure. Whew!

One more suggestion, can you add more clutter to it? Perhaps leaf litter on the bottom?