BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi all,

Been a good season so far for the shingles with 5 born so far and a couple yet to drop. Had a bad start though. I usually leave the babes outside with mum for the first day as it tends to stress mum out if I remove them too soon. I had seen a rat in the boganvillia above their enclosure a week prior but didn't think too much of it. Came home that night to find one of the babies dead on the footpath killed by the rat. Was a bit dark with myself for the next few days. Since then I've been removing all babies as soon as they are born. Was a real shame as the dead baby was a stunner, almost the reverse pattern of its sister.

All the rest of the girls have had only single big babies so far, with colours among the group this year are by far the best I've produced. I got to watch one of the girls give birth to a 200g baby last week, currently the largest of the 4 even though it's the youngest. She was looking a bit uncomfortable for a couple of days before hand and after watching it being born I could see why.

Little girl (sibling killed by the rat) - 90g at birth, just coming into first shed now




160g at birth


170g at birth (parents are the solid orange pair)


200g at birth (from same pairing that produced the solid orange baby last year)

Beautiful, congratulations! I hope there are many more pictures to come!

very nice,should develop into stunners,had the same issue indoors last time i bred my shingles,1 baby eaten,and bloody rat/s had a go for the adults to,especially the female who was still low on condition,unfortunatly she never recovered,so watch out for the adults to,ive learnt to keep them covered properly now,being surrounded by hundreds of acres of market gardens has its down fall

fingers crossed for the rest of your females,200grams and just under are hefty sized bubs

Sorry to hear for your loss, but those are some beautiful babies you have there!

better get the sunnies out,soon they will be to bright to look at,lol

Very nice again, I keep looking at thos colours.
Hope to see more pictures soon.

Such cutie little babes

I havent seen any baby shingles up my way this year D:

Nae wrote:Such cutie little babes

+1
Waauw!

LOVE your blueys. Always great to see pics, those are some lovely babies. The colors on that girl are unreal. Please keep us updated as they shed and develop and as more of the moms drop.

Beautiful babies! Thanks for posting the pics.

Adorable especially the second picture. I wonder how they'll turn out

Thanks!

The first has finally had (?)her first shed. I love the way these little guys brighten up with each shed! Really hoping this one is a girl that I can pair up with the orange male from last year. I'm very interested to see what will happen if I keep on line breeding the orange animals.

Wow, this one is realy stunning, I need sunglasses.LOL

teasing, teasing, teasing..

very nice,im sure you could line breed higher orange into them,there probably easily the brightest group ive ever seen alteady,lol

Awesome color The pattern is very interesting also. Looks like a very healthy little skink!

That little girl is incredible! Wow! I'm speechless. Please keep updating with pics, we definitely can't get enough!!

Acanthurus, you goldfields are all amazing, and I could comment about them all day, but if you don't mind a slightly off topic question I would like to ask about the size of your babies.

I have read, especially in the book, "Keeping Shingleback Lizards" by Darren Green, that shingleback litters generally weigh about 40% of the mother's normal weight. Does that number sound anywhere close in your experience? I am guessing that your females are giving birth to litters slightly less than 40% of their weight. I have only produced one litter so far (normal coastal form T.r.rugosa), and it was two babies 85 grams each. That means that the total litter weight is similar to your total litter weights of your single babies this year, but also a little less than 40% of the mother's normal weight.

Sorry for the O.T. Question, but you have produced so many rugosa now that I would really like to hear your data on this. It seems really cool to me if total litter weights are generally the same no matter how many babies there are.