Some vic alpine updates

[Richard.C]

On checking the outdoor vic alpines a few days ago i noticed a couple had developed respitory infections,watery eyes,drooling from the mouth yadda yadda,which is odd because ive never had that before,both males,ones an older one,15 years old,another is still young,i think going on 5,both are grown babies from my old girl,all the others looked fine,so i took the 2 males home to warm up inside and straight away they have improved,one of bluemountains males at home also suffered a ri ,oddly the 2 females and a couple of easterns didnt,there cage got no winter sun so half understandable,and i brought them indoors quite a while ago,hes cleared up,just had his second shed and is now chasing females about and telling another male off

In 24 years of keeping them outdoors this is the only times ive dealt with ri in blotchies,im wondering if perhaps my adding of decomposing grass for the easterns to keep a tad warmer and not get a ri may have made it marginally to warm for the blotchies that brumated in it to,as thats been the only difference in that cage the last 14 years

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15 year old male with ri,cant really see watery eye well but note drool hanging out of mouth

I really need to set up easterns seperatly me thinks ,joys of experimentation

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So i grabbed a few of the easterns out to bring home with 2 vic alpines with ri symptoms and a young lowlands lass that will be joining the new group at home which are housed with my easterns there,back outdoors now suns on there cage for most of the day,one funny thing is i found my old no tailed green eastern female,i didnt see her last season at all,she is timid and i wasnt overly looking for her but i had a feeling she mustnt have pulled through the previous winter,she looks in great shape to,bulky,so hopefully she may be primed for another litter

[Richard.C]

To abort any confusion,my vic alpines and sone of my vic lowlands still reside at parents house,lol

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Today i noticed the first male vic alpine has shed,a young male that to my knowledge hasnt bred before,his penes look quite swollen so might be primed to go this season,my alpines are coming out of sheds alot lighter than normal this season for some reason,the bluemountains instead of orange were quite pink,nsw southern highlands male very yellow,normally orangey and first vic alpine male whom also normally sheds quite orangey is a very washed out yellow

Above pic is young male on left with one of the females that dropped last season on the right

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In this pic is the old dominant male,in blue,him and a couple of the older males look black and white at the moment,more so than usual when in blue so will be interesting if the pale out of shedding continues
With blotchies,generally males shed first before showing any interest in mating,so looks like its going to be an early season this season,last 3 seasons have been very late with breeding in dec,nov then december again in that order,interesting to see they are shedding around same time as indoor brumated ones ,considering some of those have been awake for quite a few weeks now and active,ambients indoors still being low holds them off mating till close to when they would outdoors,i used to wake indoors ones in early july,after 4 to 6 weeks of no cooling and they would eventually breed around oct/november and pretty much drop at same time outdoors ones would who would still be brumating into september outside,telling me average ambients are what stimulates them to breed,hopefully wont be long until i can start witnessing mating,indoors ones are still grabbing at females and pacing,but not quite at full steam yet,outdoors ones are just starting to eat well

[Richard.C]

Another good sign mating season is close is a couple of there cunningham skink cage mates started showing interest when i was checking blotchies out,i got some film of it so ill chuck it up on my u tube page

[Scotts1au]

RI's in blotchies - something I haven't seen. Colin Hamilton pointed something out a long time ago to me when I first stated keeping alpines, that was that their natural habitat has perfect drainage, and they also don't end up sleeping where they defecate as they have to do in captivity. The bacterial loads and stresses are much different in captivity than the wild despite our best efforts. The last few years I've created sleeping bunkers by dumping sand into the enclosure then covering with logs etc. I have to pick them up a few times over the winter to keep putting them back in, but I figure it is better than letting them sleep in the mud. Doesn't work for all of them cos some seem to prefer mud, usually the lowlands. haha As a by product I find that I end up with a lot of sand in the enclosure that makes it easy to remove weeds that grow in the sand.

[Richard.C]

Ground here is quite sandy,still dirt but high content of sandstone in the ground to,drains pretty well but iver winter is constantly wet,they ignore dry areas to brumate in damp areas

This season i had a few piles of weeds breaking down in enclosure for the easterns to use fir brumation,as with out that they always at least get a mild case of ri,this year there all clear of it,but oddly a couple of blotchies had developed issues,a few of them also used the grass piles to brumate.but i cant recall if these 2 did or not,but looking over the others i cant see any others showing issues,so a bit stumped,couple of days under lights and its clearing up fast which is good

[Scotts1au]

The boys have started fighting, mating not far away now.

[Richard.C]

Sweet,still just one young male has shed here scott,no tiffing here yet except over food,why they try to pinch it from cage mates mouths when theres two cans worth in front of them i do not know,lol

First outdoors all winter male eatern is shedding,my goal is trying to capture all my blueys mating ect on film and in pics,good excuse to sit and watch them for hours anyways,lol

Mine must be waiting for yours scott,but good signs i wont have to wait till december this season

[Richard.C]

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Silver male eastern shedding

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Male green eastern

I was just thinking mine havnt been niggling then bang,another big male green eastern started chasing and biting green male in last pucs tail and also chasing the silver shedding male,this male was one brought indoors in late winter with the bluemountains blotchies as this cage got zero sun in winter

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Male easterns starting to liven up

[Richard.C]

For the behaviour sexers,the aggressive male was sitting there waving its tail at other green male before pursing him,both are definate males

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Biggest lowlands blotch pr,female whom had ten babies last season on top

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Big male again,note swollen hemipenes

This male indoors before i cooled them started chasing and biting females,hence why i popped him in brumation tub at the time,will be interesting if he does anything,i popped them outdoors to wake up slowly after a month brumating inside,he looks to be in blue so shouldnt be to long to see,theres another 3 males and 4 females in there so shiuldnt be to long till we see some action

Eastern males are still bolting around ,but persuing male isnt chasing anymore,other 2 are just touchy now,will let it plau out and seperate if nessacary

[Scotts1au]

I've separated the males now, I'm taking a gamble on one male this year over 4 females, some of which are twice his size, he has been grabbing on, so hopefully gets the job done.

[Richard.C]

He should be right scott,if he favours one to much,which they sometimes can,simply removing her at times makes them pick the next best ect,thats one thing ive noticed is they often favour one at particular times,sometimes its that she may be ready when others arent,but when u have a few males,often theres a few pairs going at same time

[Scotts1au]

Definitely favoring one of the females yesterday - he is a like a dwarf next to her. Will be too cold for action over the next couple of days. So we will see if things turn around. I'm currently fixing up another enclosure - will get to it at lunch today (working from home), to stash some males that don't fight each other and some yearlings to stop them getting beaten up.

[Richard.C]

Haha,yearlings are like crash test dummies for them,because they run the males persue and grab them

I think they go for the one throwing strongest hormones,often ignoring other females that are ready,my dominant males shocking for it,but on the plus it allows the other boys to blow off steam elsewhere

ack in the day when it was just the big old girl and stupid me hung on to solid babies,which turned into males i used to have as many as 5 trying to get her at once,one time had two on her at once trying to lift her tail,dominant male won,other one was still trying though,i had to resort to buggering the other 4 off till season was over,thankfully now not an issue as quite a few females to go around