BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello,

I'm a new member from this forum and I'm from Holland so if i make mistakes in English, my apologies.
I got some questions concerning my skinks.

First of all concerning my couple of Tiliqua scincoides intermedius:
How can i get them to breed? What can i do to stimulate the process maybe for example with temperature, duration of light or a temporarily 'wetter' environment?

They are now separated cuz the female was aggressive towards the male. A few years ago when they were still caged together, by accident i noticed the female gave birth.. because i didn't know she was pregnant i found only one little skink. Probably all others were already eaten, unfortunately. Since then she was more aggressive to the male especially with mating. I know mating of bluetongs always looks very aggresive but once after mating the female tried to bite the male in his genitals. Fortunately i was on time to avoid this and separate them. Since that moment they are separated from eachother. But of course i would like to let them mate again. So what or how could i do this best? And is there a best period or anything else i could do?

My next questions concern a Tiliqua gigas (gigas). I got her since a few days and she is about 8 years old. Til how old would it still be possible for her to get pregnant and give birth cuz i'm thinking bout also searching for a male.

Thank you in advance for answering.

Greetings,

Sander

Hi Sander, welcome to the forum!

Intermedia are very easy to breed. If you cool them down to 65-70f (18-21c) for about 8 weeks over the winter, they will usually breed for you. as soon as you warm them back up. It is important to stop feeding them two weeks prior to starting the cool down, and may be helpful to cut the hours of light they have during this time as well. I provide mine with four hours of light (no heat) during the day, but some people even keep them completely dark.

It is very possible that your female gave birth to only one baby last time. If their cycling is not ideal, and conditions are not perfect during pregnancy, small litters (even just one baby) is not that unusual. I think it is more unusual for the parents to eat the babies. I have never had an adult male anywhere near babies though, so I don't know how that situation would go. I have only had one instance where a female tried to eat her own baby, and that was a still born.

I don't think anyone can tell you for sure how long a gigas can remain fertile, but it is likely that they can breed successfully until at LEAST 12-15 years of age. That is mostly based on how it works with other speecies though..

Welcome Sander! Your English is great.

Thank you for your reaction. The chance that it was 'just' one baby comforts me as well, cause I felt kinda bad.
After the cooling down period, how can I best introduce the male and female to eachother? And should I stay watching then? I'm so worried the female will bite the male's genitals, cuz she is quite nasty. And suppose they won't attack eachother, how long should i keep them together?

I borrowed now btw a book called Blue-tongued Skinks; Contributions to Tiliqua and Cyclodomorphus.

The care sheet has some good tips on safely(ish) introducing an aggressive female to a male. I personally have never done it though.