The female usually lays them in a burrow dug into a hillside or in the sand. Females rarely guard the nests and, if so, only for a short amount of time. The eggs incubate for eight to nine months, and hatch at the beginning of the dry season in April. Life Cycle Hatchlings are multicolored, with different parts of their body in brown, yellow, orange and red, covered by a pattern of black and white speckles, stripes and bands. This coloration camouflages them in trees.
Young dragons remain arboreal for a few years, eating bird eggs, insects and small mammals.
As they grow larger, juveniles eat rats, mice or birds. Komodos are solitary, but will gather in groups to rapidly consume large prey, or to breed. Younger dragons sometime circle a group of feeding adults waiting for a chance at some leftover food. They do so cautiously, as they can easily be mauled to death by the dominant male. Smaller dragons are forced to roam over large areas in search of food and potential mates, sharing their space with other subordinate lizards.