1. The author with a successful mother.
Photograph by Abbie Elmer.
2.
2. The author’s outdoor blue-tongue
enclosure.
3. The internal layout of the enclosure.
All photographs by Bailey Elmer, unless
otherwise noted.
As with many reptile enthusiasts,
an important goal of mine has
always been to successfully breed
reptiles in captivity. It is one thing
to capture gravid females from the
wild and then just wait for them
to give birth, but the ultimate test
of a herper’s husbandry skills is
whether their captive reptiles are
willing to breed from scratch. My
collection of Blotched Blue-tongue
lizards (Tiliqua nigrolutea) have now
bred twice in the last three years,
producing a total of 40 very healthy
neonates - the only exception being
a specimen that was born with
two heads and did not survive. As
this species is very widespread and
common throughout Tasmania and
south-eastern mainland Australia,
as well as being commonly kept as
a pet, I wanted to write about how
simple it can be to breed them when
sufficient time is put into these
gorgeous lizards.
The collection.
My colony of blue-tongues is made
up of six adults; three males and
three females. They have been
together for some five years and
are therefore very familiar with
each other. From this point on, all
of them will be referred to by their
pet names, so as to create a clear
distinction between specimens. All
of my blue-tongues were captured
crossing roads around the Hobart
region.
‘Nessi’ – the largest specimen;
female; total length of 460mm.
‘Jenny’ – female; total length of
430mm.
‘Angela’ - female, total length of
425mm.
‘Bolt’ – the largest male; total length
of 420mm.
3.
‘Goldy’ – male; total length of
410mm.
‘Bluey’ - captive since newborn
neonate five years ago; male;
390mm.
The enclosure.
My blue-tongues are kept in a large,
rectangular, outdoor enclosure.
Two walls that were part of a pre-
existing structure are made of brick,
whilst the other two are made
of corrugated iron. It measures
5.3m long and 4.5m wide. The
two brick walls are 1.5m high, and
the corrugated iron walls are 0.9m
high. To prevent feral cats (which
are abundant in my local area) from
entering the enclosure, there is
chicken wire which extends a further
1m above the iron, and the entire
enclosure is covered in netting.
There is a gate to one side which
has a latch and is padlocked. The
main substrate is coarse pine bark,
although part of the floor area is left
to allow some vegetation (weeds) to
grow through and create a natural
look and feel for the lizards.
There are many different hides
throughout the enclosure, ranging
from large plastic gardening
containers with entrance holes cut in
them to piles of firewood arranged
so they provide ample shelter, but
cannot crush the lizards. There is
an upturned half-shell children’s
plastic pool with an entrance hole
cut in it, and to provide shade while
the animals are active, one corner