Is this a sperm plug? A little concerned.

[Wyrmling]

Just witnessed my skink go to the bathroom, and he left this behind.

image.jpg

I looked up pics of sperm plugs and they look kind of similar, but there was a slightly reddish tinge to part of it, and my skink is only 5 months old, so too young for sperm plugs, I think? I'm not sure. Which is why I came here!

His behaviour, activity, and eating has been normal, but the climate's been a little dryer than average the past few days. Other than that, nothing's different, and he's currently running around his tank climbing on everything, so he certainly doesn't look unhealthy.

Is this a sperm plug or maybe some sort of parisite? Should I be worried?

[Dakota]

Not too young for a sperm plug! Congratulations, you have a boy.

Not sure what the red tinge is, maybe he dragged substrate in it as he was walking away? Also, do you have the substrate completely submerged in water? By the picture, it looks like so.. so just wanted to ask.

[Wyrmling]

Thanks so much! That's a relief.

As for the substrate: It's not completely submerged in water. I have rocks in his water bowl, and his water bowl is glass, so you can see the substrate through it

Thanks again!

[sacs4010]

Is that something he/she should worry about though?

[Romeyrider]

I hope my baby is a girl even though I named him Indivar and call him a boy. I don't want to deal with sperm plugs. Lol Anyways how old was everyone's skink when they started passing plugs?

[Dakota]

All the males I have raised up started between 6-8 months. Some do it earlier, some are late bloomers, though. During puberty (in my experience), the hemipenes will be VERY swollen during this period. Then it goes down after a bit. The next year they will stayed swelled longer due to them being ready to enter the gene pool.