I could use some advice

[The Crested Castle]

We have been slowly working on building up a merauke breeding group and currently have 1 confirmed male, 1 suspected female and 1 unknown (but I have a feeling he's male). We have a dream of purchasing a confirmed female this year, but in Canada blue tongue skinks are hard to come by and finding a confirmed merauke female could take a decade. Seriously.

So, here's my dilemma. I have recently come across a pretty merauke that is being advertised as a female. The current owner, Amy, has had the BTS for about 2 years. The BTS was 18-24 months old when Amy purchased her from a friend who breeds and sells reptiles. I don't know the friend's name, so let's call him Jake :-) . Jake sold the BTS to Amy as a female. Jake says he put this BTS and another one together and "they tried mating", that's why he believes the BTS is female. I have asked Amy to find out from Jake what exactly " they tried mating" means. Jake wanted to breed these BTS' but was never successful.

What would you do? Would "they tried mating" be enough for you to purchase "her" as a highly suspected female? What does it take to tip you over the edge to say there's a good chance this is a female when you are purchasing a blue tongue skink? I'm not looking for gender guesses on this skink in particular, but if you want to go there that would be great, I'm looking a bit deeper than that because I want to learn too and not just be told what you think "she" is. How many sex indicators are enough for you to feel confident making an educated guess on sex? Or do you just go with an overall gut feeling?

I have looked through the FAQ on how to sex a skink and she seems to tick the boxes for female ... narrow head, wide hips, sausage shaped body, no bulges, her eyes are between Meatlug's bright orange/red and Sasha's brown eyes and her behaviours are reported to be female.

We only intend to purchase one more adult merauke and really want to be as confident as we possibly can be that we are getting a female ... I know that we will never really know for sure until we see sperm plugs, hemipenes, or babies. It wouldn't be the end of the world to have 3 males, the bottom line is that we love our meraukes and will adore this one too either way, but would prefer to be more confident than it being another 50/50 chance. Are there other questions I can have Amy ask Jake?

The photos are just got show how pretty "she" is, I know it's not likely that you will give me a gender guess based on the photos :-)

I have Amy's permission to use the photos and share the background information.

Thank you so much!

[Susann]

Tough one to answer. Both the question and the guess on gender on that skink.
Personally, when going off of pictures, I'd say I go more off of an overall impression more than a "gut feeling". But I really don't put any stock on anyone's guesses off of pictures ...least of all my own. There have been so many times when a skink --especially Meraukes-- have ticked off every indicator of a gender and turned out the be the opposite. The only time I tip the scale anything more than 50% in either direction is when I can see an adult skink in person. And even then I've never been anything close to certain unless I've seen the irrefutable evidence popping out of the skink.

I wish there was a scale, or a formula of "If 'xxx', then 'xxx'..."; it'd make every breeder's job so much easier! You are running into the same issue we all have who are looking to breed; finding females. I wish we had a secret we could share, but I'm telling you, if it exists, nobody has yet shared it with me!

I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone looking to breed: you need to just buy up every skink (that is the type and look you're going for) that isn't a confirmed male and then cross your fingers; sell off the ones that turn out to be excess males.
Yes, it takes money and time to set up a group. Wish I had better news.

As far as a guess on the skink...
Even though the head is very female-looking, I'm getting a slight male-feel when looking at the body... Yup, very female head, nope, no bulges at all. Would I put any stock on that feeling? Nope. First off, it's a gorgeous Merauke. Second, I'm only looking at pictures.
If you are serious about getting more females, you need to pick up any available good-looking Merauke that is possibly female. That's the only guidance I can give you. Unfortunately. Others may have some other advice; let's hope so.

Good luck to you! Let us know your thoughts and what you decide.

[The Crested Castle]

Thank you! I still have to wrap my head around sexing these guys being nerly impossible. I am so used to the ease of crested geckos :-). If it wasn't a 16 hour return trip away from us, we would have picked the merauke up yesterday and taken our chances. It's a big decision to pack up the kids, arrange the pet sitter and ermbark on an overnight trip for an unknown merauke.

Mel's Exotics and I have come up with a plan though! We are going to purchase this merauke, "she" is just too nice looking to pass up and like Susann said, it just becomes a matter of purchasing enough bts' that some of them inevitably show you what sex they are. Since the merauke currently lives in the same city as Mel, "she" will move over to Mel's place for awhile where Mel can observe "her" behaviour. If it is indeed a female, she will be coming to live with us. If it's a male, then Mel is going to keep him. If it's inconclusive, I think we will take the chance and bring "her" home. It's a win/win all around.

[Susann]

Mel is the BEST! Wish she had more time on the forums...I miss her.
Congrats and good luck!

[The Crested Castle]

I know! Mel and I have been privately chatting since early fall about the challenges of breeding our meraukes and updating each other on how our pairs are interacting. She is phenomenal! I couldn't ask for a better mentor this past year and am thrilled that she offered to help out with this new "girl". Of course there are many reasons that I hope this merauke proves to be female, one of them is that I would get to meet Mel in person when we go pick up the BTS!

[Susann]

I would get to meet Mel in person when we go pick up the BTS!

LUCKY!!!

[The Crested Castle]

She arrived at Mel's yesterday and Mel is quite certain that she is female! So, now we begin making plans to bring Charlie home to our place. She is absolutely gorgeous. This is a quick photo that Mel took when Charlie first came in, before she went into her tank.

[Susann]

What a cutie! From the picture, my guess leans female as well

[Dakota]

What a beautiful classic Merauke. Good luck!

[The Crested Castle]

Thank you!