BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I am new to Gidgee's. I am trying to figure out the best way to set up my animals to have success breeding them in the future. I have one group of yearlings that are siblings living in a 4x2 cage. They all seem to be doing well and getting along from what I can tell. Some of them seem to have sort of paired off where two skinks always occupy the same hide area in the cage and sleep together. When this type of behavior occurs does that mean the skinks have paired and are a male and female? Can they be split up and introduced to unrelated animals once they have bonded with each other?

I have another group (1.2) that I purchased as mom and her two adult offspring. Initially, I believe they all had been housed together but it turned out mom had been separated from her adult offspring a while ago after their father was lost. I had housed all three of the adults together in a larger enclosure with multiple basking spots. The mother would occupy the better of the two basking spots and chase away the more assertive offspring that would try and bask next to her. The other offspring would not come out at all to bask.

I separated mom and she is doing great. Once mom was out of the enclosure the two siblings are both active and doing great. I tried popping the two siblings and they both appear female although they have much difference tail and head sizes. I have not popped many animals before so I am not confident that I pressed hard enough. I feel comfortable that mom is female because I was able to get good movement when I popped her.

I did an experiment of putting the more assertive adult offspring in with the other group to see how they reacted. The more dominant skink immediately began chasing other skinks away exactly how its mother had been doing to it.

Because I know nothing about Gidgee's, I am trying to understand if dominance and aggression is displayed by females as well as males. In many of the tortoise species I keep and breed, females can be aggressive but most aggression is between males-males and males-females. The Egernia stokesii behavior seems so much deeper than how tortoises interact. The Egernia stokesii behavior reminds me a lot of Rhacodactylus trachyrhynchus.

The Skinks are doing great and are becoming very outgoing. The mother is the most outgoing and just sort of hangout and eat out of your hand. She is a very cool animal that needs a mate! Will she be able to bond with another male if she had been previously bonded with another?

Thanks!

Multiple studies of E. cunninghami and E. stokesii show extremely low levels of genetic relatedness among mating pairs. In fact, it seems that when pairing off, young skinks can smell if they're closely related and intentionally choose the least related skinks. I don't think siblings will breed, and under a very watchful eye you might try pairing with unrelateds.

I keep stokesii and of course have the same issue with pairing them off. I've seen intraspecies aggression male on male, female on male, female on female and come to the conclusion that regardless of the enclosure size, spiny tail Egernia are best kept in pairs (once you figure out what those pairs are). Males will not mate with multiple females anyway - they're highly monogamous.

I've been raising a group of four from two of my unrelated pairs and have a similar situation to yours where two seem to have bonded. They are unrelated. Everyone's harmonious for the most part, but they'll all bicker with each other occasionally. It's all just chasing off - no real violence.

What you and I are both learning is that the social dynamics are highly complex - part of the joy of keeping them.

Here's one study on inbreeding avoidance in Egernia

https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article ... 69/3605324

Thanks for your reply. Do you think that the animals that seem to pair off in large groups are in fact a sexed pair or could be male-male or female-female?

I have large groups in large cages and they have all separated into pairs. They share the same hide at all times and sleep on top of or next two each other. They even seem to emerge at the same time as each other.

I wish I were more confident with my popping ability. So far everyone I have attempted to pop is female which is not reassuring...

The other thing I wonder is if a female who lost her mate will repair with another male.

These remind me so much of Monkey Tailed Skinks but the way we kept monkey tails was in huge family groups and we sort of guessed who was who until babies appeared and females were identified.

It makes so much more sense to sex them and keep them in pairs.

I don't think I'll be 100% confident until I see mating or babies. I do think it's possible that they have certain members of the group that they're more "fond of" in a sense, and these could be of the same sex. With the group I've held back, it is the unrelateds hanging out with each other, leading me to think I have a pair - but it's all guesswork. Part of the fun with Egernia I suppose. I don't think your strategy of keeping large groups in large enclosures is any less valid than mine when they're young. My adults are ornery critters, and even mated pairs squabble occasionally.