BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Still no luck. My male did manage to remove four toes from one of my girls though. Probably would have taken the whole foot if I hadn't seperated them so fast. My window for the season is probably gone now I doubt my females are ovulating anymore, but I'll keep trying off and on

Maybe he's gay and just doesn't like girl lizards. Ha ha.

My male usually only has a little foreplay the first couple of times they get together before they get down to business. Sometimes the female gets frustrated and bites him a couple of times to get him on the right track. Then he gets serious and gets the job done. When finished, he's quite shy of the female and will even bury his head in the substrate to try and get away from her as she's sometimes ready for a second go round.

It may also be late in the year? Not 100% sure but mine all wake up in early spring, breed, and I start having babies drop around now. The male is initially super aggressive and attempts to breed everything (including leopard tortoises), then after a couple months he winds down to his usual laid back self, and he's done with the breeding. I tried pairing him with a couple 2 - 3 year old females about a month or so ago (he had last bred in January) and he got the snot kicked out of him and was completely uninterested in trying to breed.

Me, I think it's just season, so if you're in AZ, I'm sure it was warm enough to wake up your skinks months ago. Maybe it's just too late in the year to pair them?

Hi jen, thanks for the input. Where we are located in Az, it snows off and on all through February and into the beggining of march. I waited till late march to start pairing because I couldn't get the house warmer than 68 so I figured that I'd wait till the weather got a little better so that I would have consistantly warm temps in the enclosures. No drastic night time temp drops in particular.

do u supply warmth still during the day over cool period?????

if so,they usually breed long before spring warming,dry season breeding,i leave same heat on mine year round during the day,but never night heat,so winter nights get cool,mine start breeding when temps are at there coolest,middle of winter,mid to late july usually,depending on ambients,theres a strong chance you were to late in pairing them,females windows already closed

just a thought anyhow

I do supply winter warmth, but not as much, I use a 40 watt bulb instead of a 75 watt. No night heat. So next year I will try pairing them earlier in the year and see what happens.

that's all I can think of,perhaps just the timing

My 2 paired up very early (my 1st year) around mid dec. I live in the Northeast (NY) I went off my males cues. He woke up early and was very restless always trying to get out of his tank and not eating much. He mated with my female 4 times between Dec 14-20th. I got a healthy litter of 11. I plan to watch again this next season and see if he follows this pattern to mate earlier. I still provided normal day heat temps, but night was much cooler 65-70.

Interesting. I had 2 matings with 1 female, and 4 with another in late feb/early march. The female that mated 2x gave birth to 13 babies 2 weeks ago(1 was stillborn, another was very small and did not make it leaving 11 good babies).

northerns are quite forgiving in regards to cycling

with leaving winter day heat,they often choose to stay down cool end anyhow so its kind of like a full shut down but by there choosing

my 2 young males are starting to show interest now,grabbing and vent checking a female,they are also popping hemipenes with every poop and dropping sperm plugs,females arent quite ready but must be getting close

Its interesting I have two adults atm and the male is almost always on the warm side of the cage. My female by contrast is always on the cool side(she has a kleenex box she likes to hide in). The tubs are side by side and the temp gradients have to be very similar. I've tried putting a hide on each side and so far she's consistently been in the cool one.

the females seem to choose cold areas more than males,my males in comparison pop out and bask more often,even 1 male who lives with a couple of females