BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi everyone, So I really need some advice/help. I must be doing something wrong. I bred three females this year (two northerns and one merauke pair). All of them bred multiple times. Both northerns bred to the same male who has had a healthy, viable litter in the past. One female I bred over the span of three weeks which amounted to 8 successful breedings over all. I bred her until the male no longer showed interest. Now, 120-100 days later, all skink are throwing slugs. One female had two live babies yesterday, really small-only 7 grams, and both dead by this morning. The rest so far have been slugs. What am I doing wrong to make all slugs? I'm so devastated and frustrated and am feeling really down on myself. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sorry to read that. They can be enigmatic sometimes. I assume that you have all of the obvious things in order, however it is not unusual for first time mothers to have some slugs or under developed babies. I normally get best results with a relatively high protein diet whilst gravid - read largely dog food, snails, mushrooms etc for what it is worth.

However even with all the bases covered I still had one mother with only slugs and dead babies, probably due to excessive heat this year.

I'm sure that you'lle get better results next time.

I'm really sorry to hear that Jessica, but it is unlikely that it is because of anything you have done wrong. I say that because I know that you have been keeping BTS for a long time, and know what you are doing.

All we can do is help the skinks connect the sperm and eggs, then give them proper care while they are gravid. The rest is out of our hands. It would be interesting to hear more details about your skinks and how you cycled and keep them though.

As much as this stinks this year, I am really excited about NEXT year for your palarra!

palarra,sweet,dont oftem see them,let alone hear about them

ive had a pretty poxy season to,alot of slugs and possable slugs,possable as i didnt see any but females dropped condition suddenly with no sign of anything

can be a number of reasons for it,i tried to warm them to fast this season so probably stuffed up there windows

i also got a few still borns with outdoors kept ones,possably a hot summer,but also the females involved were all first timers

dont blame yourself,sometimes it happens,theres always next season

If the outdoor conditions are off, it seems that can throw off an entire season. Was your weather strange this year?

Lack of uv at the crucial times can affect sperm production and viability.

So we are supposed to supply UV during breeding season?

Whoops........