My bluetongue lizard had one stillborn baby

[Azule]

Hi,
My bluetongue hard 1 stillborn last night and I found it this morning. She is young a little over 4 and the male is 3 do you think she will have any more and is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again. Also is it ok for her to have had one baby or would it mean she is sick is some way ( both parents look healthy )
Thanks

[donkeybuff]

Stillbon babies, as I understand them, are not preventable. Some babies are just too weak to make it. As for her litter size, it depends on the type of skinks. Northerns can have more than 15 babies, while shinglebacks usually have 1 or 2.

[Azule]

The parents are both easterns and she has had one more stillborn

[Jeff]

All you can do to minimize the chance of still born is to make sure your husbandry is correct during the pregnancy. If it is, still born babies are fairly uncommon. They will occur sometimes even when everything is perfect though, same as with any species.

A couple years ago, I had a female give birth to 2 still born babies that shared one yolk sac along with an un-fertilized ova. She seemed fine, and I thought she was done. I think it was 2 weeks later (would need to look it up) that she gave birth to 5 perfectly healthy babies. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that this is a very rare situation, but I would continue to treat your female as though she is gravid for the time being just in case.

The ages of your skinks is not a factor. They should be fully mature well before those ages.

[Azule]

Ok thanks

[Richard.C]

Having stillborns and unfertile ova can prolong the birthing process,still could get some healthy bubs,just watch the female,usually they show signs if theres more to come