Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I finally got a little PTS. It is a little 4 month old CB. It is set up in a temporary cage (an unused custom chameleon cage; 6ft tall, 2ft deep, 3.5ft wide), until I finish the BIG cage. I just wanted to let everyone know of my new PTS family member. I also wanted to know if I should try to sex it, should I? I know how to do it(Thanks to Philippe de Vosjoli and past experience), but I also know if it is not done right, it can cause bruising, breaking of capillaries, and bleeding. Should I wait until it is older, even though 4 months is when you can start sexing, or even let the vet or someone else do it? I would like to know what sex it is, so I can get some little companions for it. I suppose I could get a female to accompany it, and if I find out it is a female, I can get a male, and if it is a male, get another female, but maybe I am thinking too far ahead. Sould I take it to the vet to do a general check up and to possibly sex it? As far as I can tell, it is healthy, but I have only had if for a few hours. Thank you for your help, jrbl

I don't know if my camera works, so this is the photo I got from the guy I got it from. I am unsure if this will work, because I have never uploaded an image before. The head of the skink looks dark, but that is just a shadow. It is such a cutie. jrbl

Your baby is gorgeous, congratulations!

I love my PTS, too! Although i only see him 2 or 3 times a week because he is a deep sleeper when he is awake we use to have a great time together! Try to tame yours! Its amazing how easy they are to be tamed! But careful not to grab him by the back on the beginning!Use a towel! To sex mine i used to observe him when he was doing his business.He exposed his male apparatus while doing so and i could give him a male name: Leonardo!

What a spoiled little guy he looks to be, hehehehe ! Nice pic

Eve

Baby, and lots and lots of luck, keep posting, I enjoyed your pic !

Eve

Congratulations on your new PTS, and big huge kudos for buying CB.
You mentioned that you have some prior experience with sexing herps, but didn't say what type or how much. Sexing PTS IME is more difficult than sexing snakes and many other lizard species. It does seem to be easier to get an eversion from a younger animal than an older one, so if you are going to do it, younger (although at least 3-4 months) is better. But as you know, the failure to evert the hemepenes is no guarantee of anything and may be more indicative of the lack of skill of the sexer than anything else. So you'd need to assess your own sexing skills to decide whether or not you'd be confident with your results. For those who have never done it before I would definitely recommend doing it with the assistance of someone knowledgeable.

You may want to wait at least a few days to let the skink get accustomed to it's new home, but in the next couple weeks you should take your new PTS to the vet for a check-up and bring along a fecal sample for analysis. The fecal analysis is probably the most important thing you can do for your skink at this time aside from providing it with proper husbandry.

Good luck.

-Z