BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

It's been noted by a couple breeders that some females stop becoming gravid despite yearly copulations after about 5 yrs of successfully reproducing. Two species in particular noted are Blotched and Tanimbar Islands. I'm also noticing my females that have produced less than 4 litters are more dependable in getting gravid and that those over that. On the other hand, breeders like Ray Gurgi have females of other types of BT's still giving birth well into the late teens. Maybe it's just our imaginations but does anybody have any thoughts on this.

KL

Have these people considered giving the females a year off to recover before trying again? BTS are known to have babies late in life, but I doubt it's at all healthy for them to reproduce year after year after year. I'm not a long time breeder though, so I don't have the experience to back this up.

Kim,i bought this female 19 years ago,as a supposed ten year old,shes fravid in the pic and had babies this past april,shes my founder vic alpine and most consistant breeder still,some of her teenage babies are churning a few bubs out to,the old girl has babies most years but some years she has off because she doesnt regain condition because wearher turns crap by time she drops,suprisingly though some years she goes into brumation skinny,wakes up skinny but gets condition on before breeding begins and has litters

Any ways,in short shes old as heck,and isnt showing any signs of slowing down just yet

Richard.C wrote:
Any ways,in short shes old as heck,and isnt showing any signs of slowing down just yet

Or you could have said, "Many a fine tune can be played on an old fiddle."

And it still delivers a few good notes,lol

Has this female has always been kept outside Richard? Some of the factors that have been considered would be different for indoor skinks vs. outdoor skinks. For example, exposure to natural so light. It's good to know that nigrolutea can breed into old age, but Kim is the only one in the U.S. that has been breeding them consistently, and he is just now getting to that point where it seems that the chimerae stop producing, so we don't really know if the blotchies here will experience the same thing yet.

I'm noticing that the oldest of the females is not producing regularly despite still mating. My oldest was born in 2006. She had babies in 08, 09, 10, skipped 2011, produced in 2012, skipped 2013 and did not get gravid in 2014 despite 10 matings. An 08 female had babies in 11, 12, 13, but despite 11 matings this yr., no babies. A very good, long time breeder in Europe told me he bred blotched for several yrs from different females and than starting around 2007, they stopped producing despite still regularly breeding. I know it's not related strictly to age because Gurgi and I got his female to reproduce in 2010 and that animal was in it's teens at the time. But, it had never been bred before. Maybe it's more to do with number of litters and not how old an animal is.

KL

Has been outdoors most of her life,spent first 8 odd years indoors with me though,had 3 litters indoors

Oh my goodness Rich That lizard has been birthing longer than I've existed!

8 years old is still quite young for a blotchie,even indoors,the old girl in my earlier post had a litter in her last year indoors before she went outdoors,she had been indoors for 8 years ,so roughly at 18 years of age,outdoors since i think shes only not had babies 3 or 4 years over 11 years outdoors with me,she had also had numerous litters for the previos owner

My old line shingle back original pr i had indoors for 17 years,they were almost definatly wild cauggts from a petshop,they were riddled with ticks when i got them,and both looked quite old even back then,compared to 13 year old male and 12 year old female i still have that they produced,in the last 6 years i had that pr they spat out babies 5 of those last six years

Ive heard people also suggest northerns have short reproductive lives to,even from some aussie keepers,none of my females are super old,so i cant say from first hand experience there but folk like ray and a few others i know have animals still reproducing after 20 years of dropping babies,easterns do similar to ,so not sure what the go is with tannies but i cant see them being much different to there scincoides cousins,its an interesting observation though

I wonder if perhaps as they mature perhaps they are more particular about how they are cycled,perhaps a few of you guys fortunare to have access to tannies can rest it out,hint hint jeff,lol

Tannies are not readily available anymore because Ray and Andrew were about the only ones producing them here, and theirs have stopped producing. Vin has some available in the classified section right now, but those are yellows. I think I would like to get silvers first.

I've found in the past that it became more difficult to get female blotchies to become gravid after about 8 years, but this is only weight management issue.

Are you referring to them getting too fat?

KL

Or do you mean theu have a harder time regaining condition,i have noticed by old girl can take more time refatherung condition,some of the younger girls to though,where others still stay chunky after a litter

Yeh, harder to get them to regain weight after giving birth prior to brumating. Generally only the females in good condition prior to brumating will reproduce in the subsequent year. This year my girls produced late, so I brought them inside to fatten them up for next year which worked quite well, otherwise I'm sure the wouldn't have produced next year, but my younger girls were fine. My older girls are now 7 yrs old so I'll have to pay more attention to weight management from now on.

Yeah thought u meant that,i do see that a bit to,especially in late litters,even more so with lowlands,sometimes it has taken 3 years for them to reprodice again because i left them out after lare litters,can rake its toll on them being generally lighter than alpines,my big female alpine generally loses alot of condition after every litter,some of her offspring lose very little,others lose alot like her big weight losers often struggle to regain enough condition if left outdoors,bringing them indoors to regain before cooling certainly helps there,ive done that this year with those new lowlands i aquired,two females definatly needed to bulk up,which they have now so will have to cool them and see how they go