BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I use to think I was good at getting blue tongues to breed. My attempt at breeding Kei Islands has quickly made me realize I am not. Despite brumating them and doing all the other things we are suppose to do, these animals just want to kill each other. I can't believe how much they hate each other. I know the animals being introduced are of opposite sex so I'm not mistakenly putting 2 males together. I've had other species fight before but with these guys it seems hopeless. It has to be something to do with proper timing but I don't know is what the proper timing is for them. I've tried doing what I do for Australian species and that is cool them down for about 10 weeks, warm up the males first, once males start going into the blue then warm up females. Once the males are done shedding I then introduce the females. First, the male keis don't seem to follow the pattern of shedding after about 20 days of being warmed up like the other types do. It's been almost a month since warming them and still no shedding. So now I find myself guessing when to put females in. Since Keis come from areas similar to Irian Jayas and other Indonesian species, how is everyone else breeding those species? It has to be somewhat similar. I've never tried breeding Indonesian bt species before. It seems like those few people who have bred Keis have kept them together for a couple of weeks during breeding season. I can't imagine doing that with my animals as I'll probably just find body parts after a few days. Anybody have any ideas?

KL

Try introducing them this fall. They may breed during the dry season (fall) to give birth during the wet season (spring).

It would be interesting to look at issues associated with reproduction in more depth in other types of reptiles - such as body condition affecting fecundity - maybe there are other clues for potential stimulation of breeding. eg. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... 803888.pdf

also look into timing of introductions,and have they been cycled to there liking,something i noticed with my kimberleys northerns last season,the male got cooled with no heat,the females got the hot days but cool nights treatment,though cooler temps during the day due to way lower room temp over winter,the male whos an aggressive breeder was chased off by the females,one more than the other,this season they all got the same cooling ritual,they had day heat still,but cool no heat nights,they shut down for 4 to 6 weeks,then august all started to become active again,i thoght id try introductions again and it was the dead oppasite of the norm,the male was doin all the chasing and was quite aggressive,but eventually serviced both the females

i didnt notice males being active before females,was the first time ive bred a more tropical ranging tiliqua,is it just males being aggressive,or females to,maybe persevere ,in case the females need more time,one thing ive noted with some of mine,indoors and out is they can be active and eating for quite some time before any mating attempts,my stumpies are shocking for it,they are warmed in early to mid july,but still wait till sept/oct to mate,still cool at night and obviously not quite warm enough to reproduce yet,they seem to pick up whats going outside

You may not have a compatible pair. In a handful of other species of reptiles, such as leachianus geckos, perfectly healthy and fecund animals will reject each other as unsuitable mates, but breed readily with a different mate. Sometimes leachies will even reject a mate they have had for several seasons to seek out a new one. I remember reading a while back of some monitor keepers who found this to be the case when introducing adult argus monitors together, that they were extremely picky about suitable mates.

Not that I have experience breeding tropical blue tongues. Just a thought I had after reading Scott's post.

I remember Andrew saying that he couldn't get his to breed, all they wanted to do was kill each other. But looking back they seem to be just plain aggressive. Ray's kei even killed its own baby.

Hey Kim,

Just thoughts, not experiences:

I wonder if the 'American way' of keeping skinks individually and introducing only for purposes of mating works for anything other than the 'Tiliqua scincoides group' (or maybe 'Australian species')? I know that this can work with Irian Jayas too but we know how scincoides-like they are. Successes I know of in breeding 'gigas group' skinks keep them in pairs year round? To do this, you do have to try different male-female combinations to find a 'compatible' pair. Its only a thought. I kind of hope its not right because I'm keeping my axanthic gigas seperately at the moment!

Probably more realistic is that your skinks are not fully acclimated to your seasonal cycle?

Agreed. The groups I have seen for sale have been that, groups kept together