Steeve B
05-08-03, 03:27 AM
Breeding ground varanids
This is specifically aimed at albigularis niloticus Ornatus and exantematicus, these monitors most often prefer nesting in ground hollows, making the choice of dirt we provide to captive significantly important. Therefore dirt will be the major issue on this post, I will not tell you what as already been said about the dirt issue and add to this eternal debate.
As you know not all dirt’s are created equal, dirt is the direct result of everything decomposing in a given environment, and therefore impossible to duplicate in countries where monitors do not live. So the next best thing is to understand its use, and try to find a type of dirt that will adequately fill the need of captive varanids.
The best way to do this is to follow nature! Find a place where borrowing animals lives (ground hugs) they don’t borrow just anywhere, the type of dirt they use has many properties not fully understood by us, but we can safely say this dirt holds borrow has ant fugal and parasite properties, first forget about any dirt with clay! For all others do the test yourself put black dirt, brown dirt (agriculture), top soil, sandy dirt and dirt from animals borrows, put these in plastic containers under light and see what happens, black, brown, top soil will grow fungus rapidly, so forget about these as substrata. This leave you 2 choice sandy and dirt from animal borrows, sand is unstable for borrowing, its much affected by water when spraying you encloses, also it doesn’t hold moisture as it evaporate easily, in nature its draws humidity by the bottom from rivers and lakes, this why its good for croc and turtles . Obviously 2 feet of dirt is a good start for allowing your female to nest. The next important thing is to have floor heating under this dirt, let me explain why, such an amount of dirt will ultimately be on the floor witch will be affected by temperature variation we experience in winter, even a ten degree variation will affect females egg production, especially if this temp drop coincide with your female cycling, this is enough to make her reabsorb follicles, therefore she may never complete a full cycle. Again my minimal temperature is 80f at the coldest even in winter 85f ambient and 140f basking. As I said for indo varanids restrict ventilation to preserve heat and humidity 50-70% ambient remembers it will be much dryer near basking site. A slight temperature reduction in winter for varanids with range away from the equator 70f ambient but keep the basking and the floor heat, you can achieve this by increasing ventilation, but always monitor the dirt humidity as it will dry rapidly in winter. Large cages are important for land monitors. Also I did not talk about termites nesting for obvious reasons. I feed these monitors large amounts of food every few days, I always powder there enclosure with bone meal, when needed they wipe food in it. Kind regards
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/502/959copie_de_de12_003-med.jpg
This is specifically aimed at albigularis niloticus Ornatus and exantematicus, these monitors most often prefer nesting in ground hollows, making the choice of dirt we provide to captive significantly important. Therefore dirt will be the major issue on this post, I will not tell you what as already been said about the dirt issue and add to this eternal debate.
As you know not all dirt’s are created equal, dirt is the direct result of everything decomposing in a given environment, and therefore impossible to duplicate in countries where monitors do not live. So the next best thing is to understand its use, and try to find a type of dirt that will adequately fill the need of captive varanids.
The best way to do this is to follow nature! Find a place where borrowing animals lives (ground hugs) they don’t borrow just anywhere, the type of dirt they use has many properties not fully understood by us, but we can safely say this dirt holds borrow has ant fugal and parasite properties, first forget about any dirt with clay! For all others do the test yourself put black dirt, brown dirt (agriculture), top soil, sandy dirt and dirt from animals borrows, put these in plastic containers under light and see what happens, black, brown, top soil will grow fungus rapidly, so forget about these as substrata. This leave you 2 choice sandy and dirt from animal borrows, sand is unstable for borrowing, its much affected by water when spraying you encloses, also it doesn’t hold moisture as it evaporate easily, in nature its draws humidity by the bottom from rivers and lakes, this why its good for croc and turtles . Obviously 2 feet of dirt is a good start for allowing your female to nest. The next important thing is to have floor heating under this dirt, let me explain why, such an amount of dirt will ultimately be on the floor witch will be affected by temperature variation we experience in winter, even a ten degree variation will affect females egg production, especially if this temp drop coincide with your female cycling, this is enough to make her reabsorb follicles, therefore she may never complete a full cycle. Again my minimal temperature is 80f at the coldest even in winter 85f ambient and 140f basking. As I said for indo varanids restrict ventilation to preserve heat and humidity 50-70% ambient remembers it will be much dryer near basking site. A slight temperature reduction in winter for varanids with range away from the equator 70f ambient but keep the basking and the floor heat, you can achieve this by increasing ventilation, but always monitor the dirt humidity as it will dry rapidly in winter. Large cages are important for land monitors. Also I did not talk about termites nesting for obvious reasons. I feed these monitors large amounts of food every few days, I always powder there enclosure with bone meal, when needed they wipe food in it. Kind regards
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/502/959copie_de_de12_003-med.jpg