My 2014 Monkey Tail Skink Breeding Season ( Corucia Zebrata )

This is a good start to the year for me. I found my first 2014 Baby Monkey Tail Skink on January 15. I'm really hoping for lots of baby's this year from my groups I've got a lot of good pairs and trio's now in my colony.

Here is some pics of the new baby.

I just finished giving the new baby a bath. Here is a couple pics after it's first shed.

I wanted to say special thank you and express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Kerry Korber and staff from Calgary Avian And Exotic Pet Clinic. They saved one of my female monkey tail skinks life last week.

On February 9 I noticed one of my gravid females had broke her water and was getting ready to give birth so I left her alone to do her thing for the day. So the next day I thought I'd better go check on her and see how she made out. When I finally found her in the cage I noticed that the baby's hand was sticking out of her cloaca. Usually corucia baby's come out head first with the arms tight to the body so I knew something was up but thought I would give her some more time pushing it out as these baby's are huge!

Well now it's been two days since her water broke and nothing has changed the baby's hand is still there hanging but now it looks dead and my female looks like she is in a lot of pain. So now I know she can't push the baby out and she has a case of DYSTOCIAS.


I rushed her to my vet thinking we probley needed an emergency C-section. We took some radiographs and Wow the head is in a bad position. Dr. Korber said after seeing the radiographs we would most likely have to do a C-section but stated that the surgery was very risky because of the size of the baby. I had to do something for her even with the risk's involved. She was going to die if nothing was done. I owed it to her!! I love my animals there my passion. Dr. Korber stated that the size of this baby is like a human giving birth to a 6 year old. They said that they will try some other thing's first as surgery was a last resort.














You can see the dead baby's head in the radiographs located just above the left leg. So the baby's neck / back was facing the vent with the hand sticking out. I was told to go home and wait for a call. I was trying to hold in my tears when they took her away as I really though that this may be the last time I see her.

After a couple of hours I got the phone call with some good news they got the baby out. My vet said she was lucky that she had small fingers. They where able to cut some of the dead baby and stick her hands inside to realign and push the baby out. Dr. Korber said she hasn't done anything like that since she was in Vet school in the 80's with gravid cows.












The dead baby weighed 110 grams and the mother was 425 grams. They kept her over night in recovery with a heart monitor attached. I took her home the next day after the vet said it was alright and I've been keeping watch very closely. She is now starting to eat for me so I've been treating her like a queen!!

I've talked with a good friend from Florida that is a vet and a long time corucia keeper. He said that there is no way to prevent dystocias in this species and that it was a rare accident.


This was not a great breeding experience for myself but I learned a lot and wanted to share my storey with you. Thanks for reading

What a story! Corucia birth looks painful enough already. I cannot imagine what it would be like to go 2 days with a baby that won't come out. Thank you for sharing, great pics, and glad to see you have had success earlier this year!

Thats amazing.

Got some good news!! I found a new baby monkey tail skink last Friday!!
Finally got around to post some pics. Thanks for looking!!

I just found a new baby monkey tail skink hiding with mom. This female has been playing tricks with me since I got her. Always looking gravid but no baby's. I've witnessed breeding multiple times over two years but she has never taken. Today is the lucky day I'm super happy new bloodline for me. I will post better pics in a few day's after baby and mom settle down.

Just... Wow....

I cannot believe the size of these babies! And what a story!

Thanks


Here are some better pics of the new baby. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the baby will look like in 4 months after the baby brown colouring start's to go away. The father produced an amazing baby last year with a different female so I'm hoping this baby will look similar.