Merauke blue tongue skinks are notoriously hard to breed in captivity (intentionally and repeatedly), producing live babies. In Canada it doesn't happen very often and for the past couple of years we have been determined to figure it out, dedicated to increasing our merauke family, trying new things and to keeping good records. We have 3 females that mated successfully from January - March 2017. On May 19 we took photos of each of them, today we took 6 week follow up photos and things are looking promising! Zoe looks the most likely to be pregnant, she mated with Angel only once, 104 days ago.
Buffy first mated with Angel 170 days ago and last mated 106 days ago. She is recovering from a burn when she broke her heat lamp in May, so the red you see on her back is from the iodine ointment. We see some signs that keep us hopeful that she is pregnant.
Charlie first mated with Angel 171 days ago and last mated 104 days ago.
Blue tongue skinks are great at showing signs they are pregnant and not producing anything (they simply had a huge spring appetite), or producing unfertilized eggs. So, although we are hopeful, we won't know anything for sure until those babies start popping, which will likely be in July. We will keep you updated!
I love the toasty warm, sunshiny days when I can take the B. Boivinis outside. It's fun to watch them all line up on the sunniest wall to bask, and follow the sun around throughout the day. Our large front deck has full access to the eastern morning sun and the full southern sun of all afternoon. It is wonderful!
We promised you walkthroughs of our reptile spaces and we are keeping that promise :-). This first one is of our gecko room. The blue tongue skink room, the Boivini habitats, and the stink pot turtle aquariums will be coming over the next few weeks. Enjoy the quick glimpse into a bit of what we do :-)
