In this guide, I am going to help you learn how to breed blue tongue skinks. You will learn about the blue tongue skink breeding season, skink’s perfect sexual maturity age for mating, how to breed, what time is best, and what you should do. Blue tongue skink breeding can be pretty daunting, and watching the courting can make you want to rescue your poor female skink. Female skinks usually get beaten when male skinks try to hold her still.
Breeding or mating skinks are not complicated if learned properly but watching them mate will seem like they are fighting. Let’s first know when blue tongue skink breeding season is and when you should mate them.
When Is Blue Tongue Skink Breeding Season?
The breeding season for Blue Tongue Skink starts around the September-November months if you reside in the Southern hemisphere (Australia, Africa & South America). In the Northern hemisphere (the USA, Europe & Canada), blue tongue skink breeding season starts March-April.
What Time Of Year Do Blue Tongue Lizards Breed In The Wild?
Blue tongue skink species do have a breeding season in the wild. In the Australian mainland Wild, the mating season starts in September all through to November. It’s the time when their brumation period ends.
Although they have a breeding season in the Wild, in captivity, you can make them mate. It is essential to prepare them for brumation before breeding. Hence, you can make them mate and plan the mating season for your skinks; it is not good to emulate its natural cycle.
When Do Blue Tongue Skinks Reach Sexual Maturity?
Sexual maturity doesn’t always reflect the best condition for breeding. Usually, male skinks become sexually mature at 6 months of age, whereas female skinks at 1 year of age if you power fed them. It is best to wait until at least two years of age before breeding.
The sexual maturity of a blue tongue skink is more based on their weight and size than age. Plus, sexual maturity also varies accordingly from species to subspecies.
How To Breed Blue Tongue Skinks?
There are lots of things that you need to learn and know before breeding a blue tongue skink. The best advice is to wait until your skink is at least 18 months of age.
How To Prepare Blue Tongue Skinks For Breeding?
Here are the following steps to prepare a blue tongue skink for breeding.
- Determine your skink sex. It is essential to determine the physical characteristics of your female and male skink apart. You can look at their head size. Female head size tends to be less broad and more extensive compared to male ones.
- Get your skink health examined at the nearest vet office. It is essential to get your skink properly checked and pass all the tests before breeding. I would highly recommend you contact your skink repeatedly tested before mating. Breeding an unhealthy skink or skink with parasites will result in sick babies.
- Give calcium and Vitamin D supplements to your female blue tongue skink. Most times, calcium deficiency creates problems when giving birth to young ones. Plus, after giving birth to the young, female skink is likely to suffer from a calcium deficiency.
- Prepare a separate breeding habitat. You need to get a temporary enclosure where you can introduce your male and female stick to mate. Glass aquarium works best but makes sure to use a screen lid to prevent sudden escape. The air circulation should be proper inside the enclosure.
- Consider placing some rocks and branches in the tank so that your skinks get opportunities to hide and rest from each other whenever they need.
- Keep the temperature inside the tank around 77-88° F during the day and 70-75° F at night. The humidity level should be between 40-60%.
- Prepare a birth box where your skink will give birth to the youngs. It is recommended to fill the container with about 8 inches of either potting soil or topsoil mixed with sand. It should be easy to dig as well.
- Prepare your blue tongue skink for brumation. Their brumation should last at least two to three months before mating or breeding.
- Now, get learning and proper training through meeting with a breeder having experience. The best person would be an adequate breeder with skink breeding experience to train & teach you the basics. If there is no one available, This article alone is enough to guide you.
How To Prepare Blue Tongue Skinks For Brumation?
It is essential to prepare your blue tongue skink for brumation before breeding.
Following are the steps to prepare brumation for your blue tongue skink.
- Make sure your blue tongue skink is at least 10-12 months of age to brumate properly.
- Get your skink health check before brumation.
- Slowly drop the temperature by -10 or -20° F to make them think it’s wintertime, and they should brumate.
- Bath them before brumation because disturbing them during brumation will to unwanted health issues & concerns.
- Ensure that the flooring of the tank has loose soil mixed with sand easy to dig. It is common for skinks to dig a small hole where they can sleep in. It usually helps them to regulate their body temperature.
- Avoid cutting off the heat source and the light straight away.
- Start decreasing their food intake. Offer a small amount of food day by day.
- Once you are confirmed with their food being fully digested, they’re in their brumation, and they’ve had to poop, you can completely stop offering food and turn off all the heat sources & UVB lights of skink’s tank.
- Avoid disturbing them when they are in a brumation period.
How Do Blue-tongue Lizards Mate?
Male Blue Tongue Lizard grabs the female skink’s skin of her neck or limb using his mouth. Then, he mounts on her from the top and brushes his tail under hers. He may also use his back leg on top of her tail to make a lift. Then male skink will start pushing himself in to get closer to her vent.
Blue Tongue Skink Mating
Blue tongue lizards don’t mate straight away, and their mating period can last up to 30 minutes. The mating between blue tongue lizards only happens if the female skinks submit and lifts her tail. Once she does that, the male skink inserts his hemipenes in her vent.
During mating, the male tends to be very aggressive and likely bites her limbs, tail, and neck. If the wound is not deep, you should not worry. However, I recommend you disinfect your female skink wound using a simple antibiotic to boost its heel.
Do Blue Tongue Lizards Get Pregnant?
Yes. Blue Tongue lizards do get pregnant in the wild and captivity if given a chance. Keeping a male and a female blue tongue lizard together in the same enclosure will result in reproduction. In The Wild, you are likely to find female blue tongue lizards pregnant from September to December.
Near the Northern hemisphere, it is best to get your Blue Tongue lizards pregnant in the months of April-May.
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How Long Is A Blue Tongue Skink Pregnant For?
Blue tongue skink will be pregnant for 3-6 months before giving birth to young ones. Being viviparous animals, they are going to deliver to live babies. If your skink has been pregnant for more than six months & hasn’t been born till now, consider visiting the vet as soon as possible.
Sometimes, female skins also give birth to slugs before giving birth to live babies. In some instances, unfertilized eggs of blue tongue skink don’t form cotyledon, which results in giving birth to slugs instead of living babies. If your skink continues to produce slugs, you should talk with your veterinarian and get them checked for proper diagnosis.
How Do You Know If A Skink Is Pregnant?
It can be challenging to tell if a skink is pregnant or not without proper vet examination. Here are a few signs that a pregnant blue tongue skink will show. If you have done 3-4 mating grounds to make your skink pregnant, these signs will reflect/mean the pregnancy.
- Refusing Food
- Hiding More
- Round Belly
- Doesn’t Want To Be Handled
- Breathing Heavily
Is It Hard To Breed Blue Tongue Skinks?
For beginners, it can be hard to breed Blue Tongue Skinks as males tend to be very aggressive and often injure the female. If the female submits, it will be easy for you to make them mate, but overall, breeding is difficult for a beginner without proper training, research, and guidance.
How Many Babies Do Blue Tongues Have?
Blue tongue skinks usually give birth to around 5-20 babies depending upon species, size, brumation period, age, health, and changing environment. Here are the Blue Tongue Skinks species and its litter size.
| Tongue Skinks species | litter size |
| Northern Blue Tongue Skinks | 10-20 |
| Eastern Blue Tongue Skinks | 10-18 |
| Western Blue Blue Tongue Skinks | 10-18 |
| Tanimbar Blue Tongue Skinks | 10-20 |
| Shingleback Blue Tongue Skinks | 5-7 |
| Halmahera Blue Tongue Skinks | 10-15 |
| Irian Jaya Blue Tongue Skinks | 5-15 |
How Do You Tell If Your Blue Tongue Lizard Is A Boy Or Girl?
The first indication of gender is their coloration. Male blue tongue lizards will have a broader, triangular, and more giant head with a thick tail base than females. A boy Blue Tongue Skink will also have slimmer sides and a clear throat than female skinks. The male sides will have more orange and bright colors compared to females. Adding to that, most boy blue tongue skink have brightly colored eyes whereas females have more brown.
Final Thoughts
Wrapping it: It is essential to get your skinks to brumate for at least 2-3 months before breeding. Once they reach their sexual maturity and are two years of age, they’re suitable for mating and breeding purposes. During mating, make sure you have a prepared enclosure exclusively for breeding purposes. As soon as mating is done, get your female skinks separate from the males. Male skinks tend to be highly territorial. Once your female Blue Tongue Skink gives birth to young babies, get them an independent tank as well.
I hope I have given you all the information needed to know how to breed blue tongue skinks. If you have any concerns regarding blue tongue skink breeding or baby care, let me know in the comment section. If I managed to help you out even a little, consider sharing this post. Sharing this post will help other people who are facing issues with their skink breeding and me. Do check our comprehensive guide on how to care for blue tongue skinks. See you in the other article, till then, take care and goodbye.
94% of pet owners say their animal pal makes them smile more than once a day. In 2007, I realized that I was made for saving Animals. My father is a Vet, and I think every pet deserves one. I started this blog, “InPetCare”, in 2019 with my father to enlighten a wider audience.