2016 Baby Update Thread

[Dakota]

Eh, he has his moments. He usually does not like me very much, but I think he is now realizing I am the harbinger-of-head-rubs.

I probably should have waited to post pictures, because he is in the blue again! Twice this month.

[tcopitho]

What a sweetheart. I'm glad he looks to be doing quite well despite his disabilities.

[Bluish]

Looking good Dakota! They're coloring up nicely.
Not surprising that Dom is the best looking of the bunch, lol.

[Dakota]

Ha-ha, thanks Dom! Means a lot coming from you.

It was very hot and sunny out today , so I decided to take some Keis out for photos. Anyone that knows me personally knows I hate wearing shoes (and rarely wear them), so I went out barefoot.. it was so hot, the sand was absolutely scalding my feet! Holy cow. Summer was always the season of no shoes in Tennessee, but I'm thinking summer is the season OF shoes in South Florida. OK, enough here are some photos.

This is K-7. This little fella was the smallest of the group, and had the biggest scar. You can see it is healed, but the scales have not come back yet. I'm not totally sure they will, but I still like the little dude. He has very thick bands, and is a whole lotta brown. Might name him Brownie.



This is K-5. It was probably the second smallest. He is starting to develop more color now that he is getting bigger.



This is K-3. He stays pretty slim, though he is eats decently. He is probably one of the more drab-looking of the crew, but I still like him. I've named him "Maggot". Thought it was a catchy name.



This is K-10. I would have to say this is one of the prettier ones of the bunch. I LOVE the white sides. None of my other Keis have this.



This is K-2. The most darkened one of the bunch. This one is probably my favorite of the bunch!



This is K-9. He came to me with this tail just about freshly dropped. Sad that he dropped it, but was quite amazing watching the regeneration process. This fella is the largest of the group, and he is the sweetest!



I'll get pictures of the rest some time later. I am getting male "vibes" from a number of them, and praying my ratio is at least 1:1. I know of two that I'm pretty positive are male. A few of the others I'm flip flopping with.

Thanks for looking!

[ETNJ]

Finally haha, they look great. K-10 is definitely the most appealing of the group. How many are there all together? I'm too lazy to go back and check the other thread.

[Dakota]

Thanks Eddie! I have 10 at the moment. My goal is to have a 1:1 ratio, so if there are extra males, I will likely sell them. The more females, the merrier, though. However, now that I've went back to look, I'm thinking between 5 or 7 are males. Boy I hope I am wrong. Time will tell.

[ETNJ]

Got ya and yea I agree the more females the merrier haha. Good luck, hopefully it will work.

[Dakota]

K-7 actually started out my favorite because of the thickness of the bands. Then it went to K-10 to K-2. David was right: your favorites definitely change as they change! They still have quite a lot of changing to do, too. I think the ones that are grey looking now (K-3, K-9, etc.) will turn yellow/green as they mature. Can see some yellow coming in on K-9. My Meraukes are bigger than most of these guys, and these are actually a few months older. I'm very excited to see what they look like into adulthood. May take about 2 years to reach that, but I can wait.

Anyways, Goon should be shedding tomorrow or so, so I'm going to get him and Tiger out for some photos next. Domino is actually in shed again, too. He's getting as big as my palm and forearm combined His hemipenes look to be swelling, so I think he is fixing go go through the "puberty" stage. No hemipene bulges from Ms. Canada or Casper so far, so fingers crossed for 1.2.

[tcopitho]

K-10 is fantastic, and Im fond of K-3 as well, I tend to like a clean uniform look to them for whatever reason. all of them are looking so nice. Certainly will be fun to see how they mature up.

[Dakota]

Dom shed again, so I took him out for some photos. He is only a little over 3 months old. 16 inches already! I swear it feels like he gains an inch each day.






Thanks for looking.

[ETNJ]

Its weird how that banding looks like someone just erased it, pretty cool though.

[Richard.C]

All are looking great

[Dakota]

Ha-ha, I really like that aspect of his pattern, Eddie. His bands really aren't the thinnest in the world, but I think it is so cool how it starts to disappear towards his lower back/hip area. He really lives up to his Latin subspecies description "evanescens" from the word "evanescere", meaning to vanish.

And thanks Rich. I was worried he wasn't going to turn out as orange as I'd imagine, but this last shed he seemed to gain some. I think he is only about 4-5 sheds in now, so still has a lot more room to develop. I think in the end, he will be a mostly yellow-orange color, maybe slightly more orange than he is now. It will be different from Susann's orange line because hers seems to range from tangerine to almost hot pink it seems. if he continues to grow as much as he is now, I'm probably going to put him over a female of he is up for it.

ETA:
Appears one of the Keis is starting the "puberty" stage. The male Halmaheras I raised up did this as well. Out of season hemipene swelling, accompanied by sperm plugs. I have not seen any plugs, yet, but I have moved him over to paper towel to see if he is dropping any. Just noticed this yesterday. Not sure why I am excited by seeing this, I believe I am extremely male heavy. As of this photo, he is 157 g.

[Dakota]

Well, Ms. Canada recently shed, so I figured I'd take a photo. The rainy season has really moved in, so I figured I'd just take some photos inside since it is cloudy outside.

Ms. Canada. Currently 15 weeks and 1 day old. 40 cm in length, weighing 193 g. When she was young, she would eat like a pig! But now she eats less than the others. It is hard getting her to finish her food. Currently feeding every 3rd day. She has grown to be quite shy, similar to Xaunder. I'm still not very sure on gender. I lean female most of the time, but sometimes I can see "her" being male. I really, really hope "she" is not male. Her coloration is quite interesting. Her base color is a light tan color, but her bands are very orange (even moreso than Dom's bands).



Domino, or "Dom". Also currently 15 weeks and 1 day old. 42 cm in length, weighing 242 g. Dom has been a glutton since the moment he laid eyes on food. It is to the point I don't even have to clean his food bowl after he is finished; I can count on him licking his bowl. I usually give him more food than the others, since he loves it so much, and he STILL eats it all! He is also on the every 3rd day feeding schedule, but I'm sure he'd love to eat daily. His personality is very similar to his dad, Hunter. Very outgoing, NOT shy at all! Overall, I just think he is the definition of an "awesome skink" if such a phrase had a definition. I'm very partial to him if you couldn't tell. As far as coloration, he is a yellow-orange color, mostly yellow. It gets more saturated every time he sheds. I'm not sure if he is going to gain more orange as he matures, or if he will become more yellow. His bands are like an orangey-brown? Not really sure that is a color. Maybe a sort of "caramel" for lack of better terms. He definitely gets his band colors from his mother, Virginia.



Casper should be shedding tomorrow. When she sheds, I'll post some photos of her and the Xaunder babies. Looking back at the Kei photos above, they definitely have grown since then, so I may post another update on them soon, too. I have also been getting updated pictures of the babies that went to other homes, too. I'll post them if I get permission.

[Dakota]

Thought it would be appropriate to add these images, too.

This is a skink that I did not keep named "Bowie". He lives with a great Morelia viridis breeder, Eddie Appell. This is the baby that had the least color out of the litter. I'm kinda wishing I held Bowie back now, because "she"/he would go great with my silver Merauke, "Albert".

Bowie 5-22-2016 (1).jpg

Bowie 5-22-2016 (5).jpg

Bowie 5-22-2016 (8).jpg

Bowie 5-22-2016 (10).jpg

Bowie 5-22-2016.jpg

This is "Link". This is also another baby I did not keep. He went to live with Eric L. and his family. Link was actually going to be my second choice of a hold back. At the time I was wasn't keeping Ms. Canada, and I really liked how clean his pattern was.

link1.jpeg

These babies are turning out so awesome. I wish I had just kept them all. But they are at great homes, can't ask much more than that. I have tried to contact the other two people that bought babies, but no response yet.

[Janella]

Gosh they all are absolutely gorgeous!

[tcopitho]

They're all just turning out so lovely. Really nice faded look on those last two.

[Dakota]

Thanks guys! I can honestly say I am shocked by the variation of the babies. Some babies you can tell are from Hunter and Virginia; other babies you wouldn't have guessed in a million that Hunter and Virginia are their parents.

OK, so today was a rather sunny day, so I figured I'd take some of the skinks out to bask + pictures.

First up is Tiger. I think I'm going to be renaming her to something different.* Don't know -- "Tiger" sounds.... bland? She was originally reserved, and was supposed to be sent to her new home after this last shed, but the person that reserved her backed out, so I've decided to keep her. Did you like that run-on sentence? She doesn't chow down food like her brother, Goon, but she eats OK. I thought she was born sickly, but I think she mainly just had trouble recognizing still food. In any case, that is all behind her, and she is doing great. I would like to keep her permanently, but if the loan Northern doesn't give birth, I'll have to sell her. I really need to start upgrading the Keis to adult enclosures. The Northern is looking promising, so hopefully it won't come down to selling "Tiger" to get the funds needed to do one big upgrade. Finger crossed for that. Anyways, here she is.




*I think I will name her after a female character from Game of Thrones. Maybe Sansa since they both are rather timid ....?

Next up is Casper. Kept her back because she wouldn't eat good, but I've gotten attached to her, so she will be staying. She reminds me a lot of Susann's "Maddie" which is Casper's half sister. She has a more sit-and-watch type personality. Not necessarily timid, but not active or willing to flee all the time. She has the same facial structure as her mom, too, which I find fascinating. Even though I thought she was the "drabbier" ones of the litter, I think she is turning out quite awesome.





Finally, Ms. Canada. As stated above, she is a rather timid skink. She was not like this when she was young, so it is interesting to see her personality shift. Hoping she is female. I'm not really sure what I'll do with "her" if she proves otherwise. But for now, let's just hope she is female. Until now, I felt like I've never really shot a photo that quite catches how beautiful she is. I was comparing her colors to one of my IJs, and holy cow she looked like she was glowing. I probably don't give her enough credit, she really is quite a beautiful skink.