I have a question about gendering, obviously.

How can you tell if a skink is a male or female in species that are not sexually dimorphic (Ie. Fire skinks) Or where females can have alot of male traits and vice versa (Ie. Gold skinks)?

Usually it is just a guess and check game, sexually mature males will produce sperm plugs and some times evert their hemipenises when defecating. That is the only sure way of knowing. Another trick that some bluey breeders use is to put 2 skinks with in view of each other and watch the reactions. Females will often tritch their tails in the presence of a male and they will court if it is a male female pair.....two males would be more inclined to fight, and to females would be more inclined to ignore each other (although this is not alwas the case).

There are also slight differences in the way males and femals look that can be picked up by a keen eye, but it takes alot of time. I'm still not 100% accurate and I spend alot of time studying skinks trying to guess the sex.

__________________

Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

The problem I'm faced with is that my original two gold skinks look very different, morphologically, allometrically and colorwise. It's very easy to see. Their offspring, however, have a combination of color patters and colors and often will have the females head with the males body. There's just no way of knowing I guess.