BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Seeing all these babies makes me REALLY want to breed skinks.

Clara13 wrote:Seeing all these babies makes me REALLY want to breed skinks.

And the carers of these skinks are 'enjoying' the increased work in feeding and cleaning. It nearly caused me to go to war with my wife last breeding/birthing season.

RoryBreaker wrote:

Clara13 wrote:Seeing all these babies makes me REALLY want to breed skinks.

And the carers of these skinks are 'enjoying' the increased work in feeding and cleaning. It nearly caused me to go to war with my wife last breeding/birthing season.

Lol...oh no!
They are just SO incredibly adorable.

It's a lot of fun having babies, but it really is a lot of work, not to mention an incredible amount of stress. Think it through and talk to others who have been there first.

And A LOT of money for many years before you even come close to making it back.

Don't forget it can be emotionally rough. Your girls get mauled during breeding season. Some of my boys rub their noses raw in the spring. Brumation, breeding, & birth aren't completely safe; your adults could become injured, get ill, or even die. And there's no guarantee you end up with healthy babies - what do you do when a newborn needs surgery, or a baby is too weak and passes away on you?

I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but there's a lot more to it than just putting skinks together and playing with cute babies. Money and amount of added work are also considerations, but for me, the emotional bits are the worst part about breeding. Thankfully, the happiness I see in my customers makes it worth it. I'm not much for breeding though - I would prefer to give my skinks panpered lives and leave the baby-making to others.

Also, you sometimes have to make the hard decision to euthanize babies born alive but you know will not- or should not live. Two years ago, my female had four babies whose heads were basically locked like puzzle pieces in utero. The jaws on three of them were locked open. All of their skulls were compressed. I made the decision to let the three go but decided the other one seemed to be OK. She was eating, drinking, and walking around fine so I thought she would be OK. I would not have sold her but thought I would find someone who was experienced with skinks and give her to them. I later realized she is blind and extremely 'simple minded'. I decided I had made the decision to let her live and no one would be able to care for a special needs animal like myself, so I kept her. She can't find food or water. Even if she's standing in the water dish, she won't drop her head to drink. She's hand fed and given water with a dropper. Had I known how she would be when she was older, I wouldn't have kept her. As a more experienced breeder, knowing what I have learned through this experience, I would handle it differently now. But those are the kinds of things you need to think about if you breed. Like fatal said, is not as easy as it seems. We just don't talk about the problems much because we rejoice over the healthy babies we get.

Looking after babies is the worst, they're cute and all but their so delicate.

u can make your money back?

rory the babies actually help me with the war with partner,its the getting them to make babies and hours out there watching them plus electricity bills that cheeses off the minister of finance here,lol

You are responsible for what you create so wise to listen to dsteam, sometimes unpleasant stuff, just understand in yourself why you are doing it and enjoy if you decide to go that way but accept the responsibility.

Clara13 wrote:Please talk me off a ledge....

Jump! Jump!

Ophidiophile wrote:

Clara13 wrote:Please talk me off a ledge....

Jump! Jump!

Lol!

I do appreciate all the insight. After listening to all of you very carefully, I believe this is something I could/would enjoy doing, wholeheartedly....WHEN I RETIRE!
I don't believe I have enough time or energy to get involved in something like this at the moment. It does sound very time consuming, but especially with the emotional toll it will have, it's definitely not something I should wisely persue at this time in my life. It is definitely NOT something I care to make any money in, just something I think would be incredibly enjoyable. Even with the unexpected losses and hardships, I think I could handle it.

I've not had to put any skinks down, but with the amount of chickens I'm hatching, I've done my share of "culling" baby chicks. It is still not easy to do and a constant emotional/ethical battle of whether it is the right thing to do and if I am doing it the best way that causes the animal the least amount of pain and suffering. Coming from a 27 yr old manly man (lol), it is much harder to do than you would realize.

Bird_Brain wrote:I've not had to put any skinks down, but with the amount of chickens I'm hatching, I've done my share of "culling" baby chicks. It is still not easy to do and a constant emotional/ethical battle of whether it is the right thing to do and if I am doing it the best way that causes the animal the least amount of pain and suffering. Coming from a 27 yr old manly man (lol), it is much harder to do than you would realize.

Ouch. That is truly hard, to make those choices. I used to work at a swine farm in the farrowing department. I too had to cull baby pigs if they were premature, runts, or the occasional one that came out deformed. It never was easy. I do think it would be harder on me with the skink babies though, for sure.

Since no one else mentioned it, I'll add another pitfall to beware of: you'll want to keep all the babies. I'm not sure it's actually possible not to keep a few for yourself. It's a terrible addiction

thats a syndrome i suffer from mel,hangontoemitis,lol

Richard.C wrote:thats a syndrome i suffer from mel,hangontoemitis,lol

Hoarder !!!

Fatal_S wrote:Since no one else mentioned it, I'll add another pitfall to beware of: you'll want to keep all the babies. I'm not sure it's actually possible not to keep a few for yourself. It's a terrible addiction

Lol. Ya, I would have a hard time parting with them. I will definitely think long and hard before I go ahead with any plans to breed. Again, not in the near future. I will just continue to enjoy the pictures of all of the breeders on here!

I suffer from wanting to see how the babies turn out, holdontomeitis as well.

thats it scott,they often turn out different as they mature