Gender?

[871ajohnson]

I'm not sure if he/she is a he or a she. Can anyone take an educated guess???? It's my first bluey and I still haven't picked out a name because I have no idea what gender. I just want to have some idea so I can pick out a name. Excuse the little pieces of hay on the floor...I store my guinea pigs hay in that room and it makes a mess!!

[ReptiFiles]

It's almost impossible to accurately sex a blue tongue skink based on appearance, especially when they're young. If it's not an adult yet, wait until it has stopped growing and then take it to the vet for professional sexing. You can also go the more patient route and assume female unless it drops sperm plugs (strings of mucus-like substance deposited with poo), which indicates male.

If you have a friend with a BTS of a confirmed gender, you can put them in a large enclosure together for a few minutes to see how they interact with VERY CLOSE SUPERVISION. If they are both male, they will charge and attempt to fight. If they are both female, they will probably ignore each other unless one gets in the other's space. If one is female and one is male, the male will likely try to mate with her while she acts submissive/tries to escape. However, this method isn't 100% accurate — I did this with my Merauke and a friend's confirmed male, and my skink acted submissive. A few months later he dropped sperm plugs. And like I mentioned earlier, this can lead to severe injury for one or both skinks without strict supervision.

[kingofnobbys]

I think its got some key features of being a girl.

Males have a larger and more triangular head, a thicker tail base, slimmer sides and a huskier throat than females. An important part of mating in skinks is the male bites the female on the neck / shoulder to hold her while positioning himself to do the deed.

If you only have the one skink and don't have plans of mating it, it's sex is neither here nor there as both can become wonderful and affectionate companion pets.