BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hey folks! I took some new pics of Peaches and I am wondering if y'all are still leaning towards him being a male. He is approximately 7 months old now, is about 18 inches in length, and weighs 420g. I should note that I have not seen any sperm plugs thus far, and he has never flashed his hemipenes while defecating either.

Sorry the pics are a bit fuzzy; he NEVER sits still when out of his tank!

Overhead shots:





Tail area:







Showing off his handsome face:

That is a very tough one!
No bulges can be seen, but I generally prefer pictures when the skink is laying flat on a hard, flat, somewhat solid color surface. If the skink is sexually mature and has well developed hemipenes, they can sometimes be seen then the tail is suspended in the air. But I don't like to guess female just because bulges can't be seen on a suspended tail on a young skink.

Personally I am not leaning definitively in either direction from these pictures. He might just still be a bit young though.

Susann wrote:That is a very tough one!
No bulges can be seen, but I generally prefer pictures when the skink is laying flat on a hard, flat, somewhat solid color surface. If the skink is sexually mature and has well developed hemipenes, they can sometimes be seen then the tail is suspended in the air. But I don't like to guess female just because bulges can't be seen on a suspended tail on a young skink.

Personally I am not leaning definitively in either direction from these pictures. He might just still be a bit young though.

He's biding his time.

Thanks for your thoughts! I will try to get better pics of him on a hard, flat surface. I'll also keep posting as he gets bigger!

Okay, got some more pics. Would love to hear more opinions on my guy! You can just tell me how handsome he is, if you want.

Looks more like a female.

My guess is female as well. But I'll still tell you how handsome she is if you want!

I am leaning toward female too. Time will tell. A very pretty Merauke.

Mike

Susann wrote:My guess is female as well. But I'll still tell you how handsome she is if you want!

Peaches accepts any and all praise!

I wanted Peaches to be a girl when I first brought him/her home. Folks here were thinking male a few months ago so I switched pronouns. I will be highly amused if I have to switch back!

I just named all the babies after characters from Mario Kart, so one of my babies is named Peach!

Susann wrote:I just named all the babies after characters from Mario Kart, so one of my babies is named Peach!

I just saw the new pics! Oh my goodness, they are all so cute, and I love the names.

Lovely skink. Is he a bit on the skinny side or is it just the photos/me? I would go against the flow and say male!

Mark.

mark_w wrote:Lovely skink. Is he a bit on the skinny side or is it just the photos/me? I would go against the flow and say male!

Mark.

I feel like he's lean, not skinny, but am interested in what others think on this point. He gets fed every other day, currently, and eats it all. I try to give him a varied diet of greens, veg, beef dog food, snails, and the occasional mealworm. He is VERY active and still has a lot of growing to do. He's double his size in such a short period of time!

I'm probably going to stick with male pronouns for now since it's habit. I would be very pleased if he turned out to be female, though, since I feel like it's SO hard to find a suspected/proven female for breeding purposes when it comes to Meraukes. I'll probably never know for sure unless he drops a sperm plug, my husband finally gets access to an ultrasound machine at work, or we are able to bring another skink home to see how they behave together (after quarantine).