brumating skinks (wake up and mating to)

[Richard.C]

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Whilst the northerns are fooling around i check on the brumaters

In the big stumpy cage heres a few,the cunningham skink keeps going to basking area,which is what my stunpies used to always do,but so far they are content just curled up around the cage,this is down one end

In the pic are an aspera,rugosa,some lowlands,vic alpines,a nsw southern highlands and bluemountains blotchies,a landmullet hidden quite well and the lone cunningham,nirth of melb variety,an escape artist thats indoors until i make a cage the bugger cant get loose from

I plan to end up moving the blotchies back out doors for a slow natural wake up

[Richard.C]

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A lone young male sa western and a reverse trio of adult wa westerns ,plus a young male new england cunningham skink that lives with the original wa pr,due to his cage mates beating him up,when i suss out sexes of rest of group i plan to pr him with a lass

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The other 4 new englands stuffed in a hollow log,lol

[Richard.C]

I should point out all of these guys pretty much shut right down even with heat still,ambients drop very low quick here and the lizards often just go to cold end and curl up long before i shut heating off,so guts are emptied and they are raring to go,to sleep anyways,lol

[Richard.C]

Might start a slow wake up for the westerns at end of june and the cunninghams,still have to move the blotchies outside to wake up naturally

[Richard.C]

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well woke up the westerns this evening,all at once this season,going back to the way i used to wake the temperate stuff and letting them follow the ambients,not warm them to peak to soon

will see how it goes

the others are still in brumation so will wake them shortly as well,blotchies im still leaving and plan to allow them to finish brumation naturally with the rest outdoors

[Richard.C]

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yesterday i woke the bluemountains and nsw southern highlands blotchies as well as my stumpies and victorian lowlands blotchies

[Richard.C]

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Well this is looking pronising,since july 11th wake up,first male is shedding,2nd male looks set to shortly as well,last two seasons of breeding attempts has seen males take for ever to shed which may have had them do that post female cycling

[Richard.C]

Apparentlu like blotchies,males shed before mating after winter cooling

[Dakota]

I have a question for you, since I'm not experienced with brumating skinks.

With my group, the males go around three to four months without eating once breeding season has started. Do the brumating males, as well? Say they spent a good 3 months brumating, do the males still refuse food for another 3 months after they have waken up?

[Richard.C]

Yes and no,depending on certain things,if i brong them out into summer like conditions they often eat pretty good,after a few daus at least anyways,but ive had not as much success bringing them out into summer like conditions,by that i mean with warm ambients like in summer

I prefer,and my climate dictates it that they are woken when ambients are still pretty cold,theu still can bask and get hot,but the cool ambients has a few that keep staying inactiveish till ambients raise to a certain level,most are finicky eaters until the ambients raise to,but generallu they do eat,when the females finally cycle,and some times thats been 3 months from wake up (i wake them in winter) the males do go off food again as they have other things on there mind

Thats for temperate occuring animals though dakota

My northerns get same heat year round at hot end,they just run off the natural ambient drops to cycle which sees them follow nature and breed when ambients are at there lowest

[tiliqua]

I've never seen such a large and varied communal brumation group.
I've always considered brumation to be a relatively solitary activity.
When kept outside year round, as I keep mine, they invariably curl up alone and seperate from each other.

[Richard.C]

My outdoor blotchies often curl up in groups to,some are solitary but most are in contact with others, thats in 4 metre by 3 metre outdoor cages

The top pic is a 7 foot long enclosure and they are all up the heated end like they are waiting for the light to come on,and i did add lowlands and vic alpines to cage for brumation

[Richard.C]

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Outdoors some do go off by them selves for me but alot actually bunker down with cage mates,ive lifted a hide here showing two curled up together,the 3rd on,an older male also joins them but has been trying to pop and bask of late

[Richard.C]

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Other areas they can pile up to 3 or 4 deep and have other groups near by doing the same

[Richard.C]

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Same group as last pic but showing another group next to them

[Richard.C]

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This girls curled up in the grass exposed and by her self

[Richard.C]

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Big old fella is off by himself as well but chose under a pile of weeds like the group ones


With the indoor animals,i just used the stumpies big 7 foot long enclosure to shut them down,so had 3 groups of blotchie types in there at the time,indoors because they have zero heat when i go into full shut down mode,they often hover around where the basking light would warm them,i guess temps arent fullu favourable so they move to try and fix that

Indoors here due to cool ambients most actually shut down long before i cut all heating,some even breed when i havnt actually cut heating but its more consistent shutting them down

[Richard.C]

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last coiple of seasons ive experimented with waking them into warm ambient conditions and woke some males two weeks before some females and some both sexes at same time,for nil return on the baby count

This season with a few inside,ive reverted to doing what i used to do,that is wake them early still but let them have cold cage still but supply hot basking spot still,my belief being that they wait till a certain ambient temp is reached no matter your hot spot and popping them straight into summer conditions makes for smaller breeding windows and makes aligning both sexes harder

I live in a cold climate so slow wake ups actually suit this need perfectlu here

On the posative most of the males are already in blue,alot sooner than last couple of seasons under warmer conditions

[Richard.C]

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Couple more

[Richard.C]

Oh and for DAKOTA,or any one else interested

Brumation is a term i use for temperate form tiliqua,this isnt my method for tropical species

estiviate is what I call what tropical ones do,more a conserve them selves thing rather than a full shut down

Not sure i answered that well in last post so ill go deeper here to avoid confusion

Tropical reptiles are winter breeders,dry season breeders,here if i shut them down like temperate animals they would likely succumb,read its to cold and that doesnt suit there reproduction,well especially here anyways

Because of my cold climate,in particular in winter,i just keep same basking spots running year round and let the ambient temps dictate what they do,some will bigger off and spend alot of time in cool part of cage,others keep baskong and staying active,usually when a certain low ambient is reached,then males start dropping copius amounts of sperm plugs telling me females windows must be getting close so i start the odd intros ,when the females windows do open you will see the change in males behaviour,lol

But they mate when the ambients are at there lowest here,which is what they also do in nature,all mu job is is sticling them together when both sexes coincide,for some strange reason the ones i have in groups wont mate there cage mates but go nuts for ones in other cages