Merauke breeding season IS HERE! *GRAPHIC*

[Dakota]

Well, now that I start this thread about temperatures for breeding, I get a breeding! Post is below.

[Dakota]

I thought this was relevant, and excuse my typing, as I am shaking right now.

I GOT MY FIRST BREEDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT JUST HAPPENED MY LIFE IS COMPLETE OMG. I got a couple phone pictures, since my camera was dead.. I'll post in a second after I calmed down a bit

[Dakota]

Here it is.. out of the 2 pairs I have.. VIRGINIA is the first one to breed.. and it wasn't rape.. she let him do it. I was taking pictures of Maxx and Sam (tortoise) today, which ran the battery down on my camera.. so no HD photos.. but here is a phone photo:

breeding.jpg

While I went to find my phone, I was too late to get any action on camera, so this picture was RIGHT after he let go of her. He was still in daze and one of his hemipenes out in this photo. I did not realize this would happen, or else I would have taken out the substrate, so a couple seconds he gained his mind back into this world (LOL) I gentally took him to the kitchen floor (where it is clean and no substrate would suck in with him to cause problems.. and it went in smoothly with no substrate! His penis had this foamy stuff, and 1 drop of blood.

I had noticed he was trying to nip at her (I PM'd Valley that, like an hour before this happened) today. Yesterday or the day before he dropped a sperm plug in her cage. Today was the coldest night/morning of the season which got around 57.. and they bred at 74.

[Dakota]

And I should add, these were NOT housed together at all. They both live in separate cages. So that will make the news more exciting for those that are against housing these guys in pairs.

[Seadation]

Congrats Dakota! You sound super excited. Did you add the male to the females enclosure or are you housing them together?

[Seadation]

You answered me while I was typing

[Dakota]

Yup! I am too afraid to house her with anything.. haha.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Congrats!
Hopefully you'll get more!

[Dakota]

Congrats!
Hopefully you'll get more!

I hope more with this pair and the other pair!

[Dakota]

Today is Merauke breeding day, too! I texted Susann the awesome news and she also got a pairing today!

[Susann]

Maybe everyone with a male and a female Merauke should put them together today.
I have an ancient phone that barely texts, so you can barely see what's going on, but here it is none the less:

1114131222.jpg

[donkeybuff]

Great job both of you! Hoping to see a good number of Merauke babies next season

[Dakota]

Everyone Meraukes pair now!!

That is awesome Susann! I hope we get babies out of these.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Susan I thought I told you to pair only Milo with Xyla

[Bluish]

Congrats on your pairings Dakota and Susann!!
How are you cycling yours Susann? Day and night temps?

[Dakota]

I know your question was directed toward Susann, but we had a cold front that came in here that lowered the temps by almost 10 degrees at night.. not sure if that had anything to do with the sudden breeding behaviors I have been getting.

[Susann]

Susan I thought I told you to pair only Milo with Xyla

I was going to pair only Milo with Xyla AND Maddie but so far he's doing ZILTCH!!!

How are you cycling yours Susann? Day and night temps?

I'm not really cycling at all, but as the ambient temps in the house dip I don't do anything to adjust temps in the tanks; they may see a dip of a few degrees, but I doubt it's any more than that. I don't brumate, but as the skinks slow down slightly through the winter, I tend to feed slightly less often.

[Dakota]

Thanks for all the kind PM's people.

[Dakota]

20131114_135824.jpg

Some blood on the pene that sucked up good.

[Bluish]

Are your temps just starting to drop Susann or have the been dropping over the past couple of months?
How long have your temps been dropping for Dakota?
Last year all my boys were dropping plugs daily in early November when i wasn't even cycling them because I had no females. This year I saw a few small ones a couple of weeks ago and now none. My boys hemipenes seem to have gotten less obvious lately. I had a couple of males make half-hearted attempts a couple of weeks ago and now they seem totally disinterested.
I've been cycling the same as Susann, like I used to do when I bred snakes back in the day.
I have a proven female that had babies (with a Northern ). Her babies were born in March so she must have mated early in the season also. Her breeding was accidental and she was not cycled.