New Meruke!!! So HAPPY!!!

[DianaBlueTongue]

I got to pick up my new adult meruke last night and I couldn't be happier! He/she was SO SO much nicer in person, the pics I saw did him/her absolutely NO justice! And what an AWESOME deal I got too! I'm totally stumped on the sex though and so, it seems, is everyone else I asked. I guess it's plug watch for a while!

[Katrina]

I moved this to the general forum from the classifieds - figure you probably don't want to sell her just yet!

Gorgeous Meruake, congrats!

[jdheff1982]

Nice Merauke! I need to get one of these to add to my small (one) collection of BTS's.

[DianaBlueTongue]

Oh! haha, whoops! Guess I got a little ahead of myself! Thanks for moving the thread. lol. Guess that's a bit of a "duh" moment

[StaceyLeigh]

Beautiful Merauke -Congrats!

[donkeybuff]

Pretty merauke! I'm actually leaning towards female now.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Pretty merauke! I'm actually leaning towards female now.

It's a male

[donkeybuff]

Pretty merauke! I'm actually leaning towards female now.

It's a male

Explain? I thought male in the previous thread, but the body proportions make me think female.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

They put it next to a female and it attempted to mate with it and hemipenes were seen.
There is also a picture.

[DianaBlueTongue]

Yeah, he DEFINATELY proved male. DON'T worry! I'm almost positive I got them away from each other in time, had no idea how quick to the point they would be, had read on the caresheet page that a good way to tell gender is placing them together and observe the behavior. They both sat motionless for about a minute and I was posed over them with my camera hoping to get some tail wiggling shots or something but in a blink he was on her trying to "do the deed". I feel aweful and like a total ass but I really didn't think it would be so...well you can see from the pic. Niether were burmated or cooled in any way and the northern is 17 years old and a virgin so I actually thought she woulda lost her drive to breed by now. Anyway, fingers crossed nothing actually happened......

[DianaBlueTongue]

...

[donkeybuff]

Blue tongues can definitely breed at 17, I think richard may have some breeding skinks that are older than that. At least from that picture, it looks like he didn't finish the job. On the bright side, you have two gender confirmed skinks now!

[DianaBlueTongue]

Yeah, lol, funny thing is I've actually thought all these years Burrito (the northern) was a male. Been calling him my "little buddy" for years. lol. It's gonna be really hard to refer to him as a her from now on. After I got her out he did have the dazed look I read about and had his hemipene out for about 15-20 seconds....I'm so worried now. The whole thing from start to finish was a little less then 2 minutes with a little more then 1 minute with them only staring at each other. I was sitting on a stool poised with my camera and when he suddenly shot across the enclosure and latched on I snapped the pic and literally fell off the stool scambling to get them apart....

[Richard.C]

Haha

With tropical reptiles,theu really dont need alot of cooling,normal ambient temp drops is often enough for them to cycle

If rhar pic is as far as he positioned him self then u should be safe,when they properley hook up theres no mistaking when he makes the money shot so to speak,lol

[DianaBlueTongue]

Well, it was a little bit "closer" cuz I had to put the camera down and fell off my stool in the process but he sat there with his hemipene totally out for about 15-20 seconds with a really dazed look on her face. The female was frantic running around in a big circle with her tail up......yikes....

[Richard.C]

Oh and 17 isnt to old for them either,the female in my avatar is gravid now,ive had her for 19 years,and got her as a supposed ten year old,she shows no signs of slowing down just yet

[Bird_Brain]

Nice looking skinks, but I would have really recommended quarantining the new guy

[Susann]

I really don't want to turn into the grumpy, mean old lady, but I'd like to use this "incident" as an example of what NOT to do on just about every level.
• When you bring home a new reptile, quarantine it from your existing reptiles, no matter how long, or short a time, you've had your other reptiles. Please research how to properly quarantine reptiles.
• After a proper quarantine, if you wish to put your reptiles together for sexing purposes, your #1 priority should be keeping your reptiles safe --not keeping a camera in your hand to snap pictures! If you have two males and you put them together in a confined space, especially at mating time, it can quickly turn into a blood-bath! ANY time you put your skinks together for any reason, be ready to intervene immediately. A split second is all it may take for serious injury to occur, especially if you don't know what BTS body language looks like.
• If you know your two BTS are two different species and you truly do not intend to let them breed, then do not put them together!

[DianaBlueTongue]

It's okay, and you absolutely right, I guess my excitement got the better of me. I do usually quarantine animals coming into my home for quite a while as I have a fairly large collection, but I knew who/where he was coming from so only had him quarantined for 2 days until I put him into the reptile room.

I was really just trying to go by what the caresheet part of this site recommended as a good way to tell the sex of a bluey. Niether were cooled or burmated in any way, not even on their own, and from what I understood from reading the part on breeding, burmation or cooling is pretty necessary to getting blueys to breed, so it just didn't occur to me that them going at it so quick was even a possibility. Plus I was told by quite a few people that a female bluey as old as mine who'd never been bred have a high possibility of having lost her drive to breed, and getting one to could prove pretty difficult.

I really tried putting as much thought into the situation as I could, I love all my animals like little members of my family, but like I said earlier, my excitement of having a new bluey on top of possibly finding out the sex of my other one that I've been calling a boy for 17 years got the better of me.

I think adding this scenario to the "gender determining" part of the caresheet would be a good idea and mention that blueys will attempt to breed even without being cooled in any way and will at any age, despite never being bred.

Hopefully nothing happened, and I'm pretty sure it didn't, but if it did any offspring that are produced I will be very careful to make sure any new owner understands what the background of the little bugger is and be clear that they shouldn't be bred and kept only as the great pets that blueys tend to be. Actually, a few will probably go to 3 of my nieces and nephews that, by the time the babies are ready to go, are ready for they're first pet lizard.

[Richard.C]

The majority of blueys dont just try and mate for the fun of it,they need to cycle,which generally needs a cooling of some type,northerns and meraukes come from areas where its 30 degrees plus year round,they dont need to be shut right down to cycle,often keeping thrm in our cold temperate climates is enough to cycle them

There winterbreeders in nature,dry season breeders,if they had to shut right down they wouldnt breed,they need a cycling of some description to get in the mood,so simply chucking anything yogether at any time wont get you that behaviour,hence its not in the care sheet,we try to keep the info accurate

17 isnt overly old for bluetongues,ive found at that age there often more consistant breeders,more likely to try annually,thry serm to hold weight better and not need to recover as much

Dont listen to everything people say,as theres alot of misinformation out there,alot of 2nd hand trash that doesnt ever go away