Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I am considering breeding my blue tongued skinks when one of them gets older and was hoping that someone could help me sex them. I've had Eli for a couple years and got him from a breeder who thought he was a male. I bought Niya froma pet store about 5 months ago and the pet store thought she was female, but she's the one I was hoping I could get some confirmation on. The following link has pictures of both of them (a close up of their eyes and bodies because I heard these could be determining factors. The pictures of them are at the bottom of the list. Also are they the same type of blue tongued skink?

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~lymchin/Bluebird/

Thanks so much for any help,
Kate

When you follow this link, it gives you a very long list of JPG files, w/o names. Even the "Parent Directory" at the top doesn't list "BTS pics" or anything else that might help us find the pics. Please try again.
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1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn snake Fuzzy
1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

n/p
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Edward
Carpe diem

n/p
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1.0 Reverse Okeetee Corn snake Fuzzy
1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena

Both are irian jayan blue tongues. from looking at body shapes alone i agree that eli is male and niya is female, but the best way to tell is that if you keep them on artificial grass turf, the male should drop sperm plugs after he defecates usually, and you can also usually see him pop out him hemipenes to do so. i think your assumption is correct. another way to find out is place niya in eli's cage and see how they react. eli should seem interested and approach niya and sniff around her hind leg area. good luck!

They don't live together now because when I put them together, Eli tries to eat her. I was worried that maybe she was a male and Eli was showing aggression another male. Or that they're just not in the mood?
Kate

I would advise you against breeding them. They are not the same subspecies and, although it's not scientifically set yet, they may even be different species. Eli is the so-called Indonesian BTS, while Niya is an undescribed subspecies. Any offspring would only weaken the qualities of each animal. Diluting the genetic characteristics of a species/subspecies should be avoided, especially by those who truly care about the animals. So even if they are the right sexes, please do not breed these two together.
By the way, excellent pictures. What type of camera did you use?
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Edward
Carpe diem

Hello!
Thanks for the comments. Eli is an offspring of Craig Loose (who used to post messages here occasionally). I'm not able to get ahold of him, but I was looking on his web site (http://members.shaw.ca/cloose/species.htm) I believe he owns both Irian Jaya Blue Tongued skinks and Merauke Blue Tongued Skinks because the species pictures are taken on his carpet. To me, both of these look like Eli. What do you think? And my boyfriend took the pictures on his sony dscv1.
Kate

Hi, Kate:
As you pointed out, Craig's site does have a picture of a Merauke. Open up the body picture of Eli and click on Craig's picture of the Merauke. They are virtually identical in color and pattern. Eli is T. gigas evanescens. (Craig's seems to have a bit more black, but that may just be a matter of photo quality.)
And Niya is definitely Irian Jaya.
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Edward
Carpe diem

I am just logging on here and your question has probably already been answered but the females are lighter in color and the heads are longer and proportional with the width of the bodies. The males are darker and head much larger than body width with larger sized "brow" above the eyes.

np

Amazing pic of Eli's eye! I've been trying to get pics of Norman like that forever, and have had no luck , even with Minolta SLR w/210 zoom (no flash)...what kind of camera are you using?

Not to evade your original question, I just have no clue...

Beck (& the herps)

Thanks!
The pictures were taken on my boyfriend's sony dscv1. It's a digital camera with manual functions, like changing the aperture and shutter speed. Sorry if you already know this stuff... Glad you liked them!