Blue Tongue Weight and Possible Sex

[credenfield90]

I had my Blue Tongue Skink since he/she was a baby and had it for a little over a year. I really want to know two things.
1) Is there any way to know which sex it is? I had a friend with a Bluey and they just stared at each other, which made me think they were both females because they didn't display any aggression. I would love to breed mine one time just to take in the experience, but wasn't sure if there is any way to find a mate for him/her.
2) Does he/she look overweight? I wasn't sure. He/She weighs 579 grams. I want to make sure it's healthy and not overweight. Thanks!

[Susann]

Do some searches here on "sexing", it's something that's been discussed quite a bit, but if I had a gun to my head, I might guess female for that one.
I might suggest you do some searches on breeding as well to have an idea what you might be getting yourself into.

Your skink looks mostly like a Merauke, but it has some Indo traits as well... I don't know that I would breed a skink if there was question on it's species origin. Something we take very seriously here Is keeping species and subspecies "clean" and unmixed, so whatever you do, get some other opinions on the species of your skink, and if you decide to go ahead and breed it, mate it to another one of the same sub/species.

[GeezerRep]

It looks to me to be a Halmahara. It has the black on the forelegs and the webbing on the head. I think most Halmaharas show the strong single neck stripe similar to Merauke's. I'm not sure that it's a hybrid. It looks like pure Halmahara to me. I'd like to hear Dakota's opinion on this one.

[Susann]

As I am away for the weekend, I am looking at this on my phone, which has messed me up before as far as species ID goes, but it does not look Halmahera to me.

[Dakota]

I agree with Merauke with Indonesian influence. Not sure I would necessarily say it is mixed, just has what I would classify as "Indo" traits. Though it is questionable, I agree. Just guessing games from pictures. I lean female, too ... but don't hold it against me if I'm wrong !

[Edward]

[Susann]

For those not as familiar with the Indo species, let me explain what I see.
For a year old skink, it has much more webbing on the head (Indo trait) than we normally see on a Merauke.
It has black on its forelegs, but much more "speckling" on top (Merauke trait) than we normally see on Indos.
It has smaller stripes on either side of the "single" neck-stripe, which is more often seen on Indos than Meraukes.
The head has a Merauke shape, as does the body.
The body is very "speckled" between the stripes (Indo trait), almost like is has a black color under the scales that's showing through; however, I've seen plenty of Meraukes who have some of this trait, and on the "speckled" Meraukes, the black has a tendency to make more of this vertical striped look...
The stripes are bi-colored, but more in the Merauke way where the darker color in the stripes make an "outline", enclosing the lighter color. Indos usually have the darker color dispersed, or scattered, throughout the lighter color.
The tail is very clear between the stripes, which I've never seen on an Indo; Indo tails are generally more speckled than their body, giving a "marbled" look, often growing more dark towards the tip.

There's my explanation for why I say it looks like a Merauke that has some Indo traits. I can't answer as to whether it may be an intergrade between Merauke and Indo, I can only say that I would personally have some hesitation to breeding it. That's not to say that I'm telling you not to do it; I'm just giving you my reason for why I'd personally hesitate.