# Green Tree Monitor (prasinus) breeding in the U.S.



## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

An RFUK member asked me to share some of the info on our recent prasinus success.

We have hatched three clutches now since our facility fire in September 2011. 

This is the first hatching egg of the most recent clutch. Once they are poking their heads out, we move the egg into the hatchling cage (2ft Neodesha cube). 

Some quick info: 

5 eggs per clutch, once had 6. 

cook at 86F, in vermiculite, 150-155 day hatch, we don't slit them, takes 1-4 days to come out of the egg. 

setup in 8 ft troughs, split in half, so only 4 ft per cage. Swapping males. Using a large nest box with a 50/25/25 mix of Coir/sand/vermiculite. 

Feeding insects, turkey mix, rodents. I would rather not use the turkey, or a nest box, but it is working, so I am banned from making adjustments : ) 










More eggs hatching in that clutch. They have all since hatched out.










We use some old 2 ft cube Neodesha cages for hatchlings and juvies. Until all yolks are fully absorbed, and bellies closed up, we swap out paper towels daily.










Lift up the top cork bark and you will often find a hiding baby.










Same type of cage setup, but for juvies. Now using cypress as the substrate.










A clutch pictured together.










Adults getting busy.










Some confusion about what goes where.


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## Tombo46 (Aug 5, 2010)

Massive congrats Robyn! absolutely love the picture of them all together. I'd love to keep something like this (I like V. beccari) but all my time is taken up by Tokays! Keep up the good work, both with the green tree's and TRR, it's a cracking website!


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

The cage is a bit over 4 ft long, 4 ft high, and is a bit over 3 ft wide. 

 The adults are not big lizards at all, maybe 13-14" on the body? They don't bang around the cage knocking into walls. They have basking areas, cooler dark areas, quote a bit of drift wood and cork, the large laybox... 

Temps range from high 70's to 130F or so. They don't often bask dead center, more off center, as seen in some of the adult pics.

 We used to do setups in the full 8 ft trough, but they would always stay on one side, not really using the full length of the cage, so we tightened it up. 

 Frank Retes made his classic point about "arboreal" cages years ago, and it stuck with me. If it isn't 10+ ft high, it isn't very arboreal. Short is working well in this setup.

 As for cover, they don't hide that often, or else we would have provided more visual barriers. There is glass (acrylic) only on the top of the cage, the sides are wood, so they have a visually protected environment. There are doors in the sides of the cages, above the trough line, that allow easy access for feeding and care. 

 As for the babies, the 2 ft cube is also a good amount of space, and they thrive in it. We have done hatchling Ackies for years in 10G and 20Glong tanks with great success, up to 4 months of age. I have long been a fan of a smaller, tighter cage for babies. Larger cages with smaller animals make the problems, and variables, exponentially more difficult to deal with. 

 That said, back to KISS, we have tried any number of setups and cages for prasinus over the years, some I thought were brilliant, and others, in hindsight, were just dumb. 

 As long as you learn from it and move forward... 

 I am glad that we have at least the key pieces in place right now to hatch healthy babies. I don't want to mess with things too much, even though I look at aspects and say "not ideal". 

 I am scared enough of raising our captive bred babies to replace the adults in our group, as there are assumptions being made there about "babies hatched and raised at PE to breeding adults will obviously be the best choice". That SEEMS very sensible, and indeed a strong choice, but at the same time, I don't want to tip the apple cart! : ) 

 I have limited forum posting time these days, but I am certainly open to discussion and feedback on what you guys think is "good" and "bad" about our monitor approach.​


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## Chris18 (Mar 22, 2009)

This post is full of extreme beauty. Very jealous.. The hatchling's colour is amazing!
Thank you very much for posting.


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## azza23 (May 4, 2011)

wow!!! I'm sure the info youve posted will come in useful for people this side of the pond, those babys are something else, :no1::no1::no1:


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## Ker (Feb 8, 2012)

thanks for sharing, great pictures and info!


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## monitor mad (Jun 16, 2008)

Great post and explanations , thanks for posting this will help a lot of people looking to breed.

Steve


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## SuperSpeedyWheels (Jun 23, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> An RFUK member asked me to share some of the info on our recent prasinus success.
> 
> We have hatched three clutches now since our facility fire in September 2011.
> 
> ...


These pictures have made my day. Awesome :2thumb:


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## philipniceguy (Mar 31, 2008)

monitor mad said:


> Great post and explanations , thanks for posting this will help a lot of people looking to breed.
> 
> Steve


I second the above:2thumb:


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## AOTP (Mar 22, 2012)

those are fantastic, such a long time incubating but worth the wait!


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## Dean Cheetham (Jun 1, 2009)

Cheers for posting this Robyn : victory:


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## MP reptiles (Dec 30, 2010)

Very very nice monitors! The hatchlings look amazing!

Thanks for sharing this with us.


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## varanus87 (Jan 30, 2012)

That is awesome ..... thank u 4 the info that will b a great help for many including myself .......: victory:


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## Barlow (Sep 23, 2010)

Thank you for Sharing Robyn. I completely agree with the views on what makes a cage arboreal. Some people (mostly water dragon keepers) have become quite defensive when I have suggested a 6 feet high cage is no more arboreal than a 2 feet high cage. As long as the cage provides the options the lizards need then size is secondary.


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## Jolio (Sep 8, 2009)

monitor mad said:


> Great post and explanations , thanks for posting this will help a lot of people looking to breed.
> 
> Steve


 
So errr, Steve, do you come here often........??





OH!! ......... you mean breed monitors? :lol2::lol2:


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## varanus87 (Jan 30, 2012)

Jolio said:


> So errr, Steve, do you come here often........??
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Hey .... how u doooeeen ...


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## Jolio (Sep 8, 2009)

Robyn, 

Stunners. What colouration.

And as you stated, a fully well equipped viv that covers all aspects of husbandry far out weighs a vast open space that provides barely even the essentials. 
The success in breeding, and reproduction surely shows this to be the case. 

Now, what will you be breeding next...........?


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

Working on seeing success with some Banded Cape Albigs, and a captive hatched Spinulosis group : )


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## JakeCornford (Apr 16, 2012)

They look awesome mate!


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## jarich (Mar 23, 2012)

That shot of you with four babies in your hand is one of the coolest lizard photos ever.


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

Chad took that one, his hand, and I agree : )


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

Some pics from today. These are cell phone pics, so not the best quality, but interesting nonetheless.

First is some new copulation:










And a gravid female, hanging her belly for some relief:



















Expecting eggs from a couple of females very soon. Clutch #5 is cooking now, heading into the home stretch on it.


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## Dean Cheetham (Jun 1, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> Some pics from today. These are cell phone pics, so not the best quality, but interesting nonetheless.
> 
> First is some new copulation:
> 
> ...


 
Thats great news mate, congrats :2thumb:
Wish mine would breed for me :devil::lol2:


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## Metzger (Oct 18, 2009)

Beautiful animals and conratulations on the success!

Would you mind telling us a little more about the nest box please?
Depth of substrate, if/how its heated, location etc.

Thanks :2thumb:

-Chris


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

Five new eggs today.

These are laid in a large Rubbermaid laybox. 2"x3" footprint, 2' tall box with a lid and a hole for access, about 14" of substrate. Mix is 50/25/25 of coir/playsand/vermiculite, which is what we have been using for all of our successful prasinus pairings. Temp at the egg location was 84F.


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## patterson1980 (Apr 23, 2011)

amazing work :flrt:


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## ShaneLuvsMonitors (Sep 27, 2008)

Im loving this matey seems like youve got these guys sussed :no1:


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## KarlHowells (Jan 19, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> An RFUK member asked me to share some of the info on our recent prasinus success.
> 
> We have hatched three clutches now since our facility fire in September 2011.
> 
> ...


I am so jealous it's crazy. They are my dream pet! Amazing pictures, thank you for sharing them!


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

A member asked me for more details about the breeding by PM, including 

"How long did you have your first pair before they bred for you?"

I don't know of any experts with tree monitors. It's exciting to hatch GTM, for sure, but it is also very humbling. My PM reply : )



First pair before breeding? ROTFLMAO.

15 years? We have tried these a few different times. We got eggs any number of times, they would always go bad. Back in 1998 we had a clutch go to full term in the egg, but dead. That was the closest thing to breeding success until September 2011.

I have been ready to give up on this group for 3 years. My partner Chad Brown insisted on staying with it. We started them up again from captive hatched babies a few years ago, and in the current setups, got some eggs, and to my surprise, they hatched. 

I do NOT know what the secret is/was. I know that we have had 10 times as many unsuccessful prasinus groupings as we have had successful prasinus groupings. 

I am sharing our success as an FYI for those that are interested in stumbling on their own success, but I don't consider us experts, and I wouldn't even say we "know" what we are doing. We have a long way to go for that : )


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

Even given this current successful group, we tossed out 7 or 8 bad clutches before the first one went full term and hatched.

We tried leaving the eggs to cook in the laybox, we incubated on perlite, vermiculite, SIM containers, our own no substrate setup, everything we could think off. 

The first two successful clutches ended up hatching in a vermiculite box, on a shelf in the roach breeding room. Slightly fluctuating room temps, about 85/86F.

Seemed as sensible as letting them go bad in an incubator...

Now we are hatching them in the incubators, in the same vermiculite box setup that was successful. We have had a clutch go bad in that setup again though, so something is still not right. Animal/setup/husbandry/diet/pairings/incubation, could be any number of variables.

I am anxious for a couple of groups that we are raising, our own c.b. stock, see if there is more predictability in those animals : )


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## Metzger (Oct 18, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> Five new eggs today.
> 
> These are laid in a large Rubbermaid laybox. 2"x3" footprint, 2' tall box with a lid and a hole for access, about 14" of substrate. Mix is 50/25/25 of coir/playsand/vermiculite, which is what we have been using for all of our successful prasinus pairings. Temp at the egg location was 84F.
> 
> image


Thanks ever so much for all the info in this post, it really is a testament to you for persevering with these guys and having some success through trial and error, all the best for future clutches! I hope I can try some day too (given space and money, it is a bit of a dream of mine to try and breed Monitors!) : victory:


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## bill33 (Aug 13, 2009)

Great post Thanks


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## Dave1986123 (Oct 11, 2014)

Have you bed blue trees ? 2014 now lol


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