# Varanus Auffenbergi (Peacock monitors)



## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Hi. 

Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of my monitors.
I'm pretty stoked on them, as I do believe I am the only one in my country who has a breeding pair of these. I've never even heard about ONE specimen of these around my location. Enjoy the photos! :mf_dribble:

For now, I'm trying to make them a bit more 'tame', so I can at least handle them when I need to. They tailwhip and hiss alot, so they're not the easiest to work with, but still love 'em. They are about 5 years old now. 

(ANY good information about these in the wild, articles etc. will be higly appreciated! As I struggle to find any information on these monitors in the wild. The closest I get is timors)


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## Barlow (Sep 23, 2010)

Christoffer90 said:


> Hi.
> 
> Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of my monitors.
> I'm pretty stoked on them, as I do believe I am the only one in my country who has a breeding pair of these. I've never even heard about ONE specimen of these around my location. Enjoy the photos! :mf_dribble:
> ...


Hi mate. I keep and breed these so fire away with any questions you may have. I wouldn't handle them. They will always be shy and hiss and whip. No amount of handling will change that, it will just stress them out. I handle mine only when absolutely nesseccary.


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Very nice looking monitors you got there!
And as for the hatching pictures, I fall on my knees in the shadow! Lol


Well, I do have alot of questions, or I might just let you explain the best ways to make these guys breed, because I cant find anything on Google about breeding these monitors. Timors are the closest I can get to anything about Peacocks, and that is a shame 

So, I need to know anything from when the season for them starts/ends, to incubation issues like temp, humidity and so on.
Should they stay together all the time, or should I put them together as the breeding season kicks in?
What are the ideal weight for them to breed?

Also, I would love some articles on these in the wild, if there are any out there! :mf_dribble:

I got more questions, but I'll start with the ones I just asked. 
Cheers!


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## Barlow (Sep 23, 2010)

Christoffer90 said:


> Very nice looking monitors you got there!
> And as for the hatching pictures, I fall on my knees in the shadow! Lol
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks mate. Pretty much anything that works with timors will work with auffenbergi. There is no breeding season as such, but mine copulated in July, and the female looks like she is cycling again now. I keep my pair housed together pemenantly. I couldn't tell you on the weights as I don't weigh them. I haven't found any articles on them breeding. Just make sure you feed them loads, provide them with lots of hiding places all throughout the enclosure (cork tubes are what I find best for this). Give them a good hot basking spot and spray the enclosure daily.

My female nested in a large hollow cork tube that I capped off at both ends and added an entrance hole. I filled this with leaf litter.


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Barlow said:


> Thanks mate. Pretty much anything that works with timors will work with auffenbergi. There is no breeding season as such, but mine copulated in July, and the female looks like she is cycling again now. I keep my pair housed together pemenantly. I couldn't tell you on the weights as I don't weigh them. I haven't found any articles on them breeding. Just make sure you feed them loads, provide them with lots of hiding places all throughout the enclosure (cork tubes are what I find best for this). Give them a good hot basking spot and spray the enclosure daily.
> 
> My female nested in a large hollow cork tube that I capped off at both ends and added an entrance hole. I filled this with leaf litter.
> image
> image


Thanks for the quick reply. 
All right, that is what i've been told from the guy who sold me these as well, so I will read up on timors a bit more. 

Should I dust the feeders with calcium or anything of that sort?
And what would a nice diet be for them? Anything special that makes them get a bit more into ''lovemood''?  Right now I have them on pinkies, but as soon as the stores open again (Easter holidays now) I will get some big locusts, and I was thinking maybe give them locust as the main diet and offer mice and pinkies every 3 days or so. That sound good?

And, do you know of any good timor caresheets/and breeding information?

As for the hides, I now use big PVC pipes that they usually will be inside all day long untill the house is silent at night. I use two very strong spotlights on 2/3 part of the terrarium, and under the spotlights I got a big log for them to sit on top of. The heat in the terrarium is about 29-32 degrees celsius. 
A bit hotter underneath the spotlights, I guess about 5-6 degrees hotter. 

The whole set up right now is temporary untill the stores open again, as I said. :blush: Reason for getting the animals before the set up was complete, is that the seller lives very far from me, and he was going through my city so we just made the deal happen when he got here, so we wouldnt have any troubles getting the animals to me, and the cash to him at a later time.


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## Barlow (Sep 23, 2010)

Christoffer90 said:


> Thanks for the quick reply.
> All right, that is what i've been told from the guy who sold me these as well, so I will read up on timors a bit more.
> 
> Should I dust the feeders with calcium or anything of that sort?
> ...


 I dust with calcium on every feed, adding a multivitimen supplement 2X a week. The diet I give them consists of crickets, locusts and cockroaches. They have these at all times within the enclosure. In fact crickets breed in the enclosure. I also give them small adult mice once a week and chopped day old chicks once a week. Try and get them on to fuzzy mice rather than pinkies as they are better nutritionally. I am not aware of any good care sheets, however I am currently writing a breeding report so if you PM me your email adress I can send you a pdf version once I complete it.

About temps, make sure you have an infra red temp gun to measure the basking site temps as surface temps are what is important, not the air temps. I have 2 X 60W halogen spotlight directed on to a branch for a 150F basking spot.


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## monitor mad (Jun 16, 2008)

Barlow said:


> I dust with calcium on every feed, adding a multivitimen supplement 2X a week. The diet I give them consists of crickets, locusts and cockroaches. They have these at all times within the enclosure. In fact crickets breed in the enclosure. I also give them small adult mice once a week and chopped day old chicks once a week. Try and get them on to fuzzy mice rather than pinkies as they are better nutritionally. I am not aware of any good care sheets, however I am currently writing a breeding report so if you PM me your email adress I can send you a pdf version once I complete it.
> 
> About temps, make sure you have an infra red temp gun to measure the basking site temps as surface temps are what is important, not the air temps. I have 2 X 60W halogen spotlight directed on to a branch for a 150F basking spot.


Mr Barlow brilliant information and i would agree 100% , i also used to keep these although they were younger and very shy.
Follow his advice and you wont go wrong. :no1:


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Barlow said:


> I dust with calcium on every feed, adding a multivitimen supplement 2X a week. The diet I give them consists of crickets, locusts and cockroaches. They have these at all times within the enclosure. In fact crickets breed in the enclosure. I also give them small adult mice once a week and chopped day old chicks once a week. Try and get them on to fuzzy mice rather than pinkies as they are better nutritionally. I am not aware of any good care sheets, however I am currently writing a breeding report so if you PM me your email adress I can send you a pdf version once I complete it.
> 
> About temps, make sure you have an infra red temp gun to measure the basking site temps as surface temps are what is important, not the air temps. I have 2 X 60W halogen spotlight directed on to a branch for a 150F basking spot.


All right. 
But if the crickets breed in the enclousure, how do you dust them?
You just dust them while they run around in the enclousure?
Thats not a bad idea though, keeping the feeders in the enclousure at all times. 

I cant get my hands on an infrared temp gun, I've tried to find it, but I fail to find anything useable!
I have 2 X 60W halogen spotlights directed to the log as well, so I guess this is a good basking spot, then!

I recon I should give them frozen/thawed mice, and not alive? 
Anything that would trigger a breeding response! I know that I have snakes that gets more into breeding when being fed live prey, but the danger of the rodent hurting the reptile is always there 

I will send you my email adress in PM right away! 
Thanks


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## Barlow (Sep 23, 2010)

Christoffer90 said:


> All right.
> But if the crickets breed in the enclousure, how do you dust them?
> You just dust them while they run around in the enclousure?
> Thats not a bad idea though, keeping the feeders in the enclousure at all times.
> ...


 The crix breed in there but they rarely make it to adults. I suspect they are eated by the adults. I toss adult crix and locusts in there daily, and they are dusted. I don't feed live mice, they are all F/T. As long as you feed them loads, heat them and provide them with a good place to nest their egss then you don't need a breeding trigger. As long as you definately have 1:1 of course.

I would keep searching for an IR gun. They are the most important tool for any monitor keeper IMO.


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Barlow said:


> The crix breed in there but they rarely make it to adults. I suspect they are eated by the adults. I toss adult crix and locusts in there daily, and they are dusted. I don't feed live mice, they are all F/T. As long as you feed them loads, heat them and provide them with a good place to nest their egss then you don't need a breeding trigger. As long as you definately have 1:1 of course.
> 
> I would keep searching for an IR gun. They are the most important tool for any monitor keeper IMO.


Well, they are bought as 1.1, but I'm not sure, and I would love to get that confirmed for sure, so that I know what I'm working with. Gonna be hard to make 0.2 breed, lol!

I have no experience with popping and probing so I dont wanna do that on them, I'd rather try finding someone with the knowledge. 
The suspected 0.1 is way bigger in lenght and width than the 1.0, I dont know if this is a secure way to know the sexes, though. 
As I said, I would love to have someone with the knowledge to sex them, and I will put out an advert, searching for someone who knows how to probe.

The temps have ALOT to say when it comes to breeding these?
Hrmpf, might have to go back to searching for an IR gun then.. Hard to find at a decent cost in this country, mate :whip:


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## Whosthedaddy (Nov 29, 2009)

Lovely looking monitors, the best dwarf there is in my eyes.


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Whosthedaddy said:


> Lovely looking monitors, the best dwarf there is in my eyes.


Thanks for that 
Yeah, they are GREAT! :flrt:


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## [email protected] (Nov 26, 2011)

Christoffer90 said:


> I cant get my hands on an infrared temp gun, I've tried to find it, but I fail to find anything useable!


We are having a sale on our PE-2 laser infrared thermometer units right now, new in the metal case for $35us with free shipping in the U.S.

Drop me an email and you can get the same deal, with $5 off whatever the international shipping is. Retail value is $65 for the PE-2 and case, with international shipping it should be about $45us total.

Anyone at RFUK is welcome to take advantage...

[email protected]


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> We are having a sale on our PE-2 laser infrared thermometer units right now, new in the metal case for $35us with free shipping in the U.S.
> 
> Drop me an email and you can get the same deal, with $5 off whatever the international shipping is. Retail value is $65 for the PE-2 and case, with international shipping it should be about $45us total.
> 
> ...


Thanks!
I'll be sure to check that out! :2thumb:


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## Infernalis (Jul 14, 2010)

Absolutely brilliant Lizards.


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Infernalis said:


> Absolutely brilliant Lizards.


Indeed they are :mf_dribble:


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## Christoffer90 (Jan 3, 2010)

Here's some other pictures of the auffie monitors I have. *(Well, my 1.0, anyway)*
All ready posted them on the dwarf monitor thread, but I'll put 'em out here as well. Enjoy!




























Only photos of the male, because the female is way too shy yet! :blush:
I also encourage other Auffie keepers to post photos and/or discussions on this thread!


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## Avimius (Mar 9, 2016)

*Peacock monitors*

I myself have considered buying a pair, less of for breeding and more so just so i can have them. As for feeding i would like to feed live insect prey and/or prepared balls made of the listed ingredients both to quivkly feed and to make it easy if friend or family has to feed them while I'm away:
-turkey
-eggs (chicken, quail, etc)
-fish (salmon,tilapia, catfish etc)
-mixed fruits and veggies (recommendations are appreciated)
-freeze dried insects (mealworm, cricket, locust etc)
-shrimp(?)
-calcium powder
-multi vitamin powder such as vionate

Along with live feeders such as roaches (dubia and hissing), crickets, superworms, and frozen/thawed mice one or two times a month. I read on a forum somewhere that the best way to feed a monitor was small daily feedings with one big feeding once a week. If anyone could tell me, would balls of said ingredients about the size of a regular meatball or slightly larger suffice for a small daily feeding or would that be enough to feed 1 ball every other day?


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