BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Do other breeders besides me cover or remove the substrate in the cage when they are expecting a female to give birth?

KL

Not me,the the odd female has been on newspaper though,or fake grass but alot of mine have been born in sand

I do.

I would if I had them on substrate with potential to swell up if consumed, only for when the babies eat the yolk sac, you don't want that stuck to it. Fake grass is a good option. I normally just have mine outdoors, last time indoors didn't end well with an eastern damaging some of the babies, so a small hide would be a good idea as well to get them out of sight.

I have only had 1 female give birth, so real newbie, but yes I removed sub strait and put down paper towels.

I've tried both way but don't tend to remove the substrate. The last couple of times I haven't bothered taking out the shavings, but I have put a few extra tiles in to cover it up a bit . Some shavings do get stuck to the yolk sac but the babies seem to know & spit them out while eating it. While obviously not a direct correlation, the babies born in the wild aren't born onto sterile particle-free environments so we do tend to overdo the worrying. I would say use your judgement and if you're concerned there's certainly no harm in taking the substrate out to switch with something particle-free like carpet, or tile, or towels etc.

I would be most concerned as Scott mentioned with something that's dried out and can expand and/or clump up when ingested like dry coco fiber & similar substrates. I would either make sure it's moistened so it won't expand if eaten or just remove it.

I remove the substrate and put down newspaper. Two reasons: one, I don't want them eating shavings when born, and two, it's much easier to spot the new babies.

I switch the females over to carpet 30 days before I expect them to give birth. I usually end up washing the carpet 3 weeks later if they haven't given birth yet, so they almost always end up giving birth on clean carpet. I don't think it's absolutely necessary, I just like it that way.

My girls keep sneaking them on me, so they've given birth each time on shredded aspen. No issues so far, although I've only had 4 litters born at home, so it's a small sample size. Any skinks that drop in the stores drop on loose substrate, and I've never heard of or seen an issue with them being born like that.

WOULD make it a lot easier to see babies on paper or fake grass, though, I'll admit.

-Jen

**forgot a word

I keep mine on cypress the whole time. I don't like to change things around when she's pregnant. If I catch her when she starts delivering, I sometimes spread a towel over the mulch to keep the shavings off the after births.