Species identification?

[DrakeLineous12]

Can anyone identify if this female's (I assume female since her head is somewhat small) a Merauke? The leg and stripe pattern as well as the non-outlined head scales point to this, but her tail isn't as proportionally long as what the site says. She's only about 20" so she still has some growing to do and maybe her tail could lengthen out more.

[Dakota]

Looks to be a Merauke.. Definitely has some more room to grow.

[Bird_Brain]

Moved to the correct forum

Yes, it's a merauke and IMO, looks male.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Looks to be a male, Merauke (Tiliqua gigas evanescens)

[DrakeLineous12]

Awesome; how do you sex these guys?

[Bird_Brain]

Visually sexing is not accurate, but with the gigas species it seems to be easier than the other species. Body shape and hemipenes bulge at base of tail are big indicators with the help of looking at them for several years

[DrakeLineous12]

Yeah, I've checked for hemipenes, but it's completely flat down there. I'll just have a vet see when I go for a visit

[Dakota]

At what age is most accurate to tell? By appearance, that is..(even though it's not very accurate at all)

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Adult, I assume around two years old.

[LarissaLurid]

Definitely a Merauke, "he's" cute. If I had to make a guess I'd say male, but when looking for hemipenes I'd watch when he's going to the bathroom and sometimes you'll see them pop out, it doesn't happen every time though. They also will drop sperm plugs, which can be hard to see in the cage though so it's not always going to be noticed.

Monitorlizard, why do you say 2 years though? My Merauke is over 20" and only just over one, I know they all grow differently but just was curious because it seems random. I do agree on adult at least 1 year old though. :]

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

I was answering dakotanivens' question, as I would assume that two year old males would have the most "drive/testosterone" (for a lack of better words) to breed, which should give them a larger hemipenal bulge allowing for more acurate sexing.

[LarissaLurid]

I was answering dakotanivens' question, as I would assume that two year old males would have the most "drive/testosterone" (for a lack of better words) to breed, which should give them a larger hemipenal bulge allowing for more acurate sexing.

Oh wow *facepalm* I misread the post asking about the age...nevermind lol. Woops. I thought they were asking for an accurate age estimate on the skink, not on when you can sex them easier. Sorry lol

[stinkyskinky]

Looks like a porpotionately long tail to me. ....I have an Indo. Her tail is not that long.

[Spindown]

Just curious, OP, how did you "check" for hemipenes? Hemipenes are stored internally until copulation or bathroom time.

Do not try and have a vet sex your skink...they will either try to "pop" it or probe it...either way can cause serious damage to blueys and many other species of skinks. Most vets (many reptile vets included) do not know how to "properly" do this and WILL damage your skink, possibly permanently.

ML, assuming something is true doesnt make it true...

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

ML, assuming something is true doesnt make it true...

Yes, that is why I said,"I assume", because to assume means,"to take for granted or without proof" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assume?s=t) rather than,"it is a" because then a mod would have started to PM me again yelling that I was wrong or something.

[DrakeLineous12]

good to know, stinkystinky. I've personally probed and popped dozens of snakes and lizards, but I've never hurt any of them. I'll take your word for it though SapphireTigress, better safe than sorry

[Spindown]

haha ML i wonder how many times you've been PM'd


There have been people who have said they can sex skinks successfully and safely, but I would imagine only a tiny percentage of those folks actually can. I sure cant, wish I could though!

[DrakeLineous12]

I've never tried to sex skinks before, but I assume you'd need a confirmed male and female as a baseline. That's what I did with other reptiles,

[Spindown]

I've used behavior sexing (so yeah, for that you would need at least two skinks, but not necessarily 2 confirmed) and also watched for hemipenes. That was a surprising experience! >D
For example, when I was trying to figure out the sex of my Indo and my merauke, my merauke didnt really care about my indo but he apparently thought she was super sexy and tried to chase her down to make babies! I stopped that before anything could happen though Later on, I introduced my merauke to my now confirmed female northern and they just went about their day like the other wasnt even there. Not 100% guaranteed method of course, but sometimes it can be pretty obvious LOL

[DrakeLineous12]

Cool, I actually got this one from a member here and the guy said he saw a sperm plug a couple years back but nothing afterwards, so he wasn't really sure. I'll stick with male for now lol