Merauke breeding season IS HERE! *GRAPHIC*

[Dakota]

Foreplay!!





Sorry for the bad photos, didn't want to disturb him.. he is very secretive about this stuff.

[Dakota]

The IJ must be sensing it, too...... he just dropped 2 plugs.

[Dakota]

2nd Merauke breeding of the year!!


His hemipene, this time no blood on it.

[Lea]

Looks like a successful breeding attempt, fingers crossed. Looking good!

[Dakota]

I have everything on my body that can cross.. CROSSED! They were stuck together a good while (5 minutes or so).

It all happened SO fast, too! Like he was nudging her in all, but when Virginia started to get active, he when all at it! And for the people that don't know, their breeding is actually pretty rough, I tell you!

And just a little note, I took out everything in the cage so they wouldn't get in the way of them breeding.

[hurricanejen]

Uploading pics and video now - but I've got Merauke copulations over here too. Quick, everyone pair up your meraukes!

[Dakota]

Uploading pics and video now - but I've got Merauke copulations over here too. Quick, everyone pair up your meraukes!

Can't wait to see.

[Ophidiophile]

Sounds like an impending bumper crop of captive bred and born Meraukes is on the way in 2014!

[hurricanejen]

Lockups Pretty stoked - we've had a heat wave here lately, so ambient temps have been in the low 80s during the day and only the mid 70s at night. However, today, it's cold and cloudy and sprinkling... Saw this thread, thought might as well try it, I've been pairing up the skinks to try and see if I can figure out genders lately anyway.

AND BAM. Merauke lockup - the female here is the large one I brought from home that I've had for a couple years now. Moriarty, as it turns out, is a girl





In September, Moriarty beat the absolute SNOT out of every skink I put her with, and I was really concerned she was a male and too aggressive to attempt to pair with anything. Kept her here to keep trying as winter came and I am stoked to find that she's a female, just like I've always suspected.

I got video as well, but the internet here is super slow and it's taking ages to load. I'll post that up once it does

[Dakota]

Super awesome other people are having the same success! I just wish my other pair would continue to keep the ball rolling.

I did not make a video, but I am tomorrow if they pair again.

[Dakota]

For Jen and Susann, how long did it take for the male to start trying to breed the female from when you first put them in the cage? Ema did foreplay for at least 3-4 hours, then in 1 second he got serious and bred her.

[hurricanejen]

Not even 10 minutes, lol. I've got some Indos paired right now that I'm watching. I may have copulations there as well

[Dakota]

Classic or Halmahera?

[Dakota]

Then I guess it is just like Richard said, I caught it early.

[Scincoides]

I had my wife put a pair together for me since I'm stuck at work. She said "the male chased jazz behind the big log, when he came out, one of his boy parts was sticking out" after taking a good look at jazz when I got home for my lunch break, she has some roughed up scales on the back of her neck/side. I think I may have had a good pairing as well. I'm going to run all four of the boys through her enclosure this weekend and see what happens.

[Dakota]

Yay, that makes 4 people now!

[RoryBreaker]

Dakota,

Start recording the dates where copulation was observed (until young are born) so you can add your data to the "gestation period" thread in the Advanced discussion forum. It needs some gigas information.

[donkeybuff]

This is very promising. Good job all four of you! Excellent work!

[Dakota]

I have recorded EVERYTHING down. Temperatures, time of day, timing in cage, and date of copulations.

[hurricanejen]

Here it is, almost a minute and a half of sweet, sweet blue tongue love.

http://youtu.be/WJ0YHljqgDA

I did not see a copulation with the indonesians, but there was definitely some interest. I'll be re introducing a lot of the skinks on Monday. Thanks guys! And CONGRATS to the other keepers with their locks today - must be something in the air for the whole country!!

-Jen