BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

i was wondering about what the differences are bwtween obese skinks and pregnant ones, is there something that generally gives either of them away?

photos would be nice to see.

The main difference I am aware of is that gravid skinks have babies inside of them, and obese ones don't. Of course obese skinks can be either gender too, but only females can be gravid.

thank you for the informative answer xD

i meant the visual difference xD

Thats an interesting question, I sure hope there are pictures involved at some point

Linnea - I don't have any pictures, but I agree with your observation about the large Merauke that was pictured in another recent thread - large jowls in gigas species or chunky tails in Scinciodes would indicate an overall fat animal rather than gravid.

There can be obese, pregnant and obese pregnant. Depending on the circumstances they can be the same thing, making it very hard to tell, without knowing the skinks history. Sometimes there is evidence which can help the diagnosis, such as recent damage to the skin on the scutes surface, particularly on the shoulders.

If you take anthropomorphising out of the equation, only the former is the bad one in most circumstances. In fact I prefer my females to be overweight when pregnant because their bodies have a lot of repairing to do post partum, sometimes they won't eat for a while afterwards and they can lose weight rapidly. In T.nigrolutea and I suspect rugosa there is a strong linkage between body condition and fertility.

That being said, generally signs of being overweight are a balooned (barrell) appearance, facial fat on the jowels and balooning at the base of the tail.

In my experience, pregnant Easterns often have nothing but a barrel shaped abdoment but can take on a more ballooned look at the later stages. Blotched will often be ballooned throughout as skinny ones tend not to become gravid in the first place. Clearly being in Australia I don't have experience with gigas (only held one in Canada) but I imagine the same rules apply.

thanks a lot scott

Theres also the oppasite to what scott said,scrawny pregnant,some u really cant tell are gravid but have a good healthy sized litter,ive had this with northerns,easterns and blotcheds,both alpine and lowlands,also in a rugosa aspera

The dont act any different,some dont even do the heavy breathing but still have same results as there chubby cage mates

One lowlands lass is bad for it,she always appears scrawny,but has same size litters as the others,usually 5 babies,only way i can tell if shes gravid is she turns from a timid run and hide lass to a full blown charge you and bite aggressivly lass,if she ever does that u can pencil in her having babies


Fattness isnt always the best to base gravidity off,look for a number of things i guess,breathing,behaviour,big appetite then no appetite,defensive behaviour in later term,a combo of the subtle at times behaviours can tip the odda in your favour

Some have slugs though,which are often missed as they usually are eaten fast,so if they drop a ton of weight theres always the chance slugs were produced

Main point being it varies between each species and even alot with in one species