southeastern five-lined skink eggs *pics*

The proud parents in the bottom pic.

Cool, nice to see folks working with some native species. I enjoy running into them in the field down here in Georgia.

Agree, that is highly cool.
I have prairie skinks in my area, and I've often toyed with the idea of setting up a colony and trying to breed them.
Did you hibernate them, and do you use a UVB light?

Very cool Justin and unique to see. Thanks for sharing this.

Originally Posted by Herpin Man

Agree, that is highly cool.
I have prairie skinks in my area, and I've often toyed with the idea of setting up a colony and trying to breed them.
Did you hibernate them, and do you use a UVB light?

Nothing special, just a few inches (3-6) of dirt/sand/coir mix, a hot spot 24/7 (approx. 120+° / ambient in the low-mid-eighties) RH around 50 - 60% and plenty of bugs. No hibernation or uvb.

The female post egg laying. She's swelling up again and feeding heavily. Possibly forming ova or even gravid all within two weeks of laying, idk. Anyways, thanks all for your interest..

Wow! Skinks are by far one of my favorite reptile species. Please keep us updated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This species is a joy to observe. Each male on the property my home is at "owns" his own tree. The females and juveniles move around more freely here, territory-wise. I took some photos of a nice blue-tailed "teenager" the other day.

Glad to see you working with these and getting eggs.

Thanks, Nick. Speaking of territorial, the former trio was believed to be one male and two females; since one skink was considerably larger and reddish face than the other two. It turns out one of the two females was male and sadly, the larger male killed and partially consumed him; only his head was found, around the same time the female started her first cycle of the season. Up until then, all three coexisted peacefully for the last eight months. I'm guessing the cycling female began emitting pheromones which in turn, sent the larger male into an 'eliminate-all-competitors' behavior. There was signs of aggression a few days prior (tail was bitten off), but I was too slow to act. By the time the new enclosure was ready for the weaker male he was already dead.

That makes perfect sense and fits very well with the behaviors I observe in my yard. I have seen two challenge each other before and the fight was brutal until the loser finally fled. Thank you for sharing that.