BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello. Long time lurker who has finally gotten back into BTS keeping. I recently acquired this little gem and wanted to know if anyone could help me ID it, as well as gender guesses. Thanks.







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A gem indeed!!! You have your self a beautiful meruake!!!

That tummy! =O Gorgeous! <<< Cant ID to save her life, so will just give much deserved compliments

Very beautiful Merauke, congrats.

thanks, I was really happy to find her (I assume her) The guy I bought her from said she was wild caught over a year ago (apparently he went to Indonesia and purchased her himself) but wasn't sure where she came from originally. I'm amazed as to her wild origins, though, as she is sweet as can be, and is perfectly happy to have my kids hold her (gently, of course).

Welcome to the forum! Very pretty merauke! I would hesitate to say definitely female. From the pictures you posted, I could see it going either way. If you could get a picture straight down from above with the body as straight as possible, it would be easier to give a better opinion on gender.

I'm going to move this thread over to the general discussion forum because that's where we like to keep ID threads. Everyone likes to see them and make their guesses, and not everyone reads the ADF.

Thanks for the move and tips. I have included two new pictures, hopefully these will give a better opportunity for other members to help me sex him/her. Thanks.

That's the best looking wild caught I have ever seen. I have the same species. But yours is out of this world. Beautiful. Looks to me like a young male. But dont take my word for it. I am what they call a tenderfoot. Lol.

That's a tough one for a gigas. I would lean toward male, but definitely not for sure. Many gigas are much more obvious. BTW, your pictures are great. That's not the problem, you just have an androgenous skink.

Thanks all. I keep leaning back and forth on sex as well. Every time I find a new tip for determining gender and apply it I change my mind. Does anyone know any definitive methods for sexing? Can you probe a BT? (Obviously I would not do it myself, but rather get a professional to handle it.)

As far as I know, no you cant probe. I believe the only sure fire methods is if one falls pregnant, gets another pregnant, a male drops sperm plugs (but not all do/ are noticeable) and if your lucky you might see a males hemepenes before he brings them back in. The last two methods only determines if its male though, as obviously females dont do it, yet some males are never caught. So yeah, quite a difficult process

Unless you plan on breeding, you could just do what I do and call everything a 'he'

haha, I supposed I could just call it a he by default, but I am planning on breeding. The trouble is picking a partner if I don't know the sex of this one. Oh well, guess I'll just have to get 5 or 6 to be sure. haha.