BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Have there been any reports of a skink breeding with a bump at the bast of its tail?

We talking a male or female?

It doesn't matter.

Ummmm - it totally does matter. I don't think it would be possible for a female to give birth.

Males would have it much easier depending on their mobility. I would say it would be a case by case kind of thing, in many cases it wouldn't be fair to try to get the animals to breed. I think Stubbs had some degree of MBD and dsteamn has bred him.

DEFINITELY a case by case issue. There are many degrees of MBD, and many other factors as well. I can't imagine a circumstance where anyone would need to breed a skink with MBD though. It would probably be a better idea to acquire healthier skinks to breed rather than to breed those of questionable health.

For those who know about my Lumpy, that skink has some really unique and awesome coloring. I would love to breed him/her to see what cool babies would result. I have never seen a northern colored like this one. In spite of that, I will not breed Lumpy because I fear that he could be injured due to his/her inique condition. In this case it is a birth defect that may or may not be related to MBD. I just don't think it would be fair to subject Lumpy to a potentially painful experience regardless of the possible results for me.

I have skinks with MBD that have bred, but only males. Cash the tanimbar is small and has a wavey spine (my worst living case of MBD), and he's locked once with a big female (no babies though). Trikks is another tanny, he has issues with his legs, so he hasn't been able to breed so far (his mobility has improved this past year, and he tried breeding once, but she was having none of it and much poop-flinging occurred). Wasp doesn't have MBD, but he does have a completely wonky back from climbing walls (he can rest his head on his butt, it's messed up) and he's an extremely successful breeder (all my babies are from him so far).

I have one female who's tail is weird because of MBD; she's not interested in breeding though (see poop-flinging above), so no help there. None of my other females have any signs of MBD.

All my skinks that had severe MBD from my original diet have passed away. There were some of them that could very obviously never be bred even if they had lived. The ones still with me who have MBD have much less severe malformations, and they've come a long way. I give them the chance to breed, but I don't really expect much from them.

Fatal_S wrote:I have skinks with MBD that have bred, but only males. Cash the tanimbar is small and has a wavey spine (my worst living case of MBD), and he's locked once with a big female (no babies though). Trikks is another tanny, he has issues with his legs, so he hasn't been able to breed so far (his mobility has improved this past year, and he tried breeding once, but she was having none of it and much poop-flinging occurred). Wasp doesn't have MBD, but he does have a completely wonky back from climbing walls (he can rest his head on his butt, it's messed up) and he's an extremely successful breeder (all my babies are from him so far).

I have one female who's tail is weird because of MBD; she's not interested in breeding though (see poop-flinging above), so no help there. None of my other females have any signs of MBD.

All my skinks that had severe MBD from my original diet have passed away. There were some of them that could very obviously never be bred even if they had lived. The ones still with me who have MBD have much less severe malformations, and they've come a long way. I give them the chance to breed, but I don't really expect much from them.

What was your original diet that caused MBD?

My protein was almost exclusively cooked chicken breast (sometimes liver and bugs, but mainly chicken), and no calcium supplementation (dogfood and supplements were seen as bad/lazy choices when I started). At the time it was assumed that chicken was great because it's a lean meat, and the animals love it; however it's awful for calcium. Now dogfood isn't only accepted, it's recommended as a simple way to provide a safe diet, and supplements are suggested too. It's taken several years of this improved diet, but my MBD skinks have come so far, it's hard to believe.

On topic, my WC tanimbar with MBD just locked up with my silver tanimbar again! Go Cash! I'm so, so proud of the spazzy little guy. No poop-flinging either

I know I would never consider breeding Sylvia because of the MBD issues around her hips. I wouldn't trust that her pelvis could handle it and would be too afraid that birthing would cause injury to her and possibly the babies. Like the others have said, males could probably handle it if the MBD issues are old and minor, and their bone density was back to healthy levels, but it would depend on a bunch of individual factors.

Are you asking because you're considering breeding Blueberry?

Karen wrote:Are you asking because you're considering breeding Blueberry?

Not really, I wouldn't plan on breeding a Merauke if wasn't Classic, unless it was a cool looking skink.