BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Last night Renee and I tried Bianca and Nona together, and wow is Bianca aggressive! She was pretty interested in eating Nona, and that put the poor little guy into a full threat display. After a brief break, I decided to try the technique that Zach described for sexing females. My thought was that if she was put through the paces without the male, it might calm her down enough to let her breed. She was still aggressive, but eventually Nona was able to take her. Neither Renee or I could see if he got a full insert, but he did try and there was skink goo on the floor afterwards.

I tried again this morning and Bianca was once again super aggressive. I spent the whole time keeping her face away from Nona with a spatula. I know that breeding is supposed to be violent, but she's genuinely interested in hurting Nona. Today Nona was WAY more interested in breeding and went for her in no time. After he had a good grip I let Bianca get her head wedged in a towel. This time Nona did have an insert. After they split I noticed there's quite a bit of fluid on the towels again. Is it normal for there to be some discharge? Or did she not keep any of it? Anything I can do differently to help this be more successful? Thanks guys!

Alrighty, attempt number 4 just happened. Nona is seriously intimidated by Bianca, and not that I blame him. She's a pretty angry beastie. I have her back feet trimmed really short and filed down, just in case she kicks, but she seems most interested in eating him. My best friend has been a large spatula that I use to keep her head from his body. Bianca got a good grip on Nona last night and scared him enough that he lost interest.

Anyways, this afternoon I put them together again. Nona seems to be most interested when Bianca is running away. With her head blocked by the spatula she is fairly harmless and Nona was into her. This time I'm sure he got a full insert, and there wasn't much leakage afterwards. Hopefully all of this will result in babies! We've got one more attempt tomorrow afternoon, and then Nona is off to see little Miss Moe Dee!

Good job! I use something to let the female bite down on if she's extra aggressive -- like a pencil or something. When she turns to bite, stick it in her mouth and she'll just bite down on that.

You although it sounds cruel, you take a thin piece of tape and put it around her snout so she can't open up to bite all the way -- John (Pink T monkey) did that this year and had GREAT luck and was able to have several successful breeds. Hef also did this because Lissa was so aggressive.

And yep, fluid left is normal. There's usually quite a bit on his hemipene so when he retracts it out, whatever touches it collects it..

thanks for the updates, Jen! Keep trying them...hopefully we get lovely little babies this year!

I asked this in another thread but i'll ask it in this one too.

What's the general deal with the babies?

Do the owners of the male and the female go halvies or does the owner of the male get the pick of the litter like in Dogs?

Does the owner of the male walk away empty handed just happy in the knowlege that his/her boy made a deposit in the Baby bank?

Does the owner of the male get a small fee for use of Sperm?

it depends on the individual situation...

The owner of the female can pay a 'stud fee' to the owner of the male and then the owner of the male gets first pick of the litter.

The two owners can split the babies down the middle.

One owner can take care of all the babies and then split the money between the two owners (not necessarily 50/50).

Any combination of the above. It really depends on individual situations.

I LOVE the visuals I got after reading this post...especially with the spatula!! Whoever thought a spatula could be used as a "s*x" toy? I had a good chuckle!! Man Non is quite the virulent guy and I am glad he is still out there spreading his good seed to keep that Nona gene going!! My Maggie Moe Dee is his daughter and they do not come any more beautiful, friendly or genetically superior.......HAHAHA So we are going to try for more Nona/Moe babies huh? Mags is going to have more brothers and sisters that she will never know...... I hope we at least get a Christmas card!!!Are you going to use the black satin sheets again this year Zach? That was veeeedddyyy succesful in the past if I remember correctly!!! Good luck with Miss Bianca and I will be waiting with bated breath. Poor Nona, it's like he's caught in a vicious cycle of "pass the stud"........

Dragontears wrote:it depends on the individual situation...

The owner of the female can pay a 'stud fee' to the owner of the male and then the owner of the male gets first pick of the litter.

The two owners can split the babies down the middle.

One owner can take care of all the babies and then split the money between the two owners (not necessarily 50/50).

Any combination of the above. It really depends on individual situations.

how are you guys gonna sort it out?

Blotch wrote:

Dragontears wrote:it depends on the individual situation...

The owner of the female can pay a 'stud fee' to the owner of the male and then the owner of the male gets first pick of the litter.

The two owners can split the babies down the middle.

One owner can take care of all the babies and then split the money between the two owners (not necessarily 50/50).

Any combination of the above. It really depends on individual situations.

how are you guys gonna sort it out?

Well, first Renee comes to my house and punches me in the face so she can pick what she wants and take them home before I know what happened. Martin knocks holly out with insane asylum hot brownies and is soon incapacitated. Then I get menacing "nanny" PM's from Renee and freaky "breathing" phone calls...she also has many many many...many.........many....8 legged friends.



Actually.......we split the babies. If there's an uneven number, I think she usually gets it. If we have a fight over which one's we want, she punches me in the face and....KIDDING Blotch!

Renee, we might be interested in breeding Nona to Sassy if it's ok...Slurpy hasn't had one copulation.

Zach - you still getting those heavy breathing phone calls? Man - I told you not to give Kyle your number. J/k guys

I was just really curious as to how it's normally sorted out - seeing as with dogs it's generally the owner of the male gets pick of the litter.

Holy Crap Zach.

The brownies ...

I was assuming that we'd split the babies. As far as I understand, that's usually how it works. Unless you want to do something different Renee?

Last night Nona got a good grip, but then pulled a Styx and missed Bianca entirely. It may have had something to do with her lack of cooperation though. So far they had 3 introductions that resulted in copulation.

Zach, I've found that Nona is most interested between 12-2, but not at all before, and has to be coerced after that. He did breed Bianca once around 5ish (at Renee's place) but has not shown any interest later in the day since then. Just thought you'd like the scoop on that one. When are you come up to get him?

yes, Jen, I was also assuming we'd split the babies. In an event of an uneven number, we can decide who wants to take care of the extra one and when it is sold, we split the money. With Zach and I, we usually decide that I take the extra one since he usually has other babies from other girls to keep him busy. In our case, the extra one will probably go to you for the same reason.

Sounds great to me Renee! Good news! Nona bred Bianca again this morning. Seems that he takes a while to decide that she's really worth the potential risk. I did tape her mouth, and used the spatula to keep her face away since it scares Nona when she lunges at him (not that I blame him!)

That was the last time I'll be introducing these guys, so everyone keep your fingers crossed for lots of babies!! I just weighed Bianca and she's tipping the scales at 1174g right now. Hopefully I'll start to see a big weight gain soon. How should I manage her diet from here on out? Increase a lot? A little? What do you guys feed your *hopefully* gravid females?