Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I kept two C.zebrata together for about 4 years, with no fighting, and no babies. I figured they might both be girls. About 2 years ago I bought what I looked like a male (based on yellow eyes..and a head shape). He got along in the group aswell. About a month ago one of the supected to be gravid females droped a baby. I found the baby dead, with no signs of mechanical injury. It was fully formed, and surprisingly huge. It was not in encased, nor did it have any unabsorbed yolk. I suspected maybe it wasn't accepted by the other expecting mother, or father, so I seperated the remaining gravid animal. It did well on its own. It ate well, and became extremely agressive towards anyone who came near the cage. The other day I found she had also given birth. By the time I found the baby it was dead. I'm not sure if it was a stillbirth, but again,it was a huge fully formed baby, with no yolk left to absorb. The mothers had ample basking and hiding spots, but would usually not bask.

Any ideas as to why this might have happened? I know its a hard diagnosis sight unseen, but any ideas would be appreciated.

There was a red incandescent bulb on 24/7, and a standard incandescent on 12:12.

The diet consisted about half and half fruits to vegetables.

The fruit portion of the diet consisted 75% mostly of their favorite, bananna. I realize thats a lot of potassium but they loved it and it seemed to keep them full for longer than other foods. Bananna was always liberally sprinkled with mineral I.
The remaining 25% of fruit was mostly apricots, peaches, the odd apple or pear.

The vegetables consisted of about 50% romaine (supplemented) and 50% dandelion/kale/baby field greens. Also supplemented with mineral I.

I would comment on your situation, but why don't you come check out www.corucia.myfreeforum.org for a whole group of people devoted to breeding and keeping Corucia.

I have a male female pair and have not had a successful live birth yet, just one miscarriage.

There are lots of elements to tweak in getting a successful birth, diet of course (mostly to all greens seems to be ideal and some say a little protein while preg is good, but that's up in the air), social situations, cage size, high humidity and heat, uv for preggos, and some say if they are from diff islands, maybe that leads to incompatible genes (but that would not likely lead to a full term birth, imo, more likely no preg at all). If I had to guess about your situation I'd say it had something to do with heat or humidity or parental/cagemate aggression. I've heard more than one story where people say that if the newborns temps or humidity are not perfect (80-100% humidity and 85-90 deg F) the baby can rapidly deteriorate. And of course it is so hard to know when they are born because it's usually at night. Most people have overhead heat and the babies will usually be born on the floor of the cage. One person said she sets up an undertank heater with a hollow log over that with moist substrate inside and a damp towel over that and the baby made it. My understanding is that these things are critical for baby's survival. As I said, I have not even had a full term birth yet, so I don't have the experience to back up what I'm saying, but over on the forum people have had lots of births.
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Lisa Rakestraw
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My skinks:
1.1 Corucia zebrata (Berman and Joni)
2.3 Egernia striolata
2.2 Eumeces schneideri (Jack and Mabel; Kaa and Cochisa)

Hubby's snakes of the Southwest:
0.1 Lichanura orcutti (Rosie)
0.1 Lampropeltis pyromelana (Little Red)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer (Jennifer)
1.1 Bogertophis subocularis (Humphrey and Olive)
0.1 Lampropeltis alterna (Sandy)