young and one underdeveloped stillborn. Once
again, by 18:00 on 7 June the parturition process
had paused and all observable contractions had
ceased.
In the following days, the female’s behaviour was
observed as typical postpartum activity: eating,
drinking and thermoregulating normally. No contrac-
tions or attempts to birth more offspring were
1.
observed, resulting in the assumption that
parturition was complete. However, on 17 June the
female was observed to be restless; she appeared
pale in colouration and produced several loose
stools. At approximately 13:00 the female birthed a
fully-formed live offspring. The female’s colouration
and behaviour returned to typical postpartum
expectations, and again parturition was believed to
be complete. Normal behavior was observed for two
more days, until on 19 June at 08:30 another live
and fully-formed offspring was born.
From onset to completion, the parturition period for
this female was 13 days. Duration between live
births was as brief as 30 minutes and as long as 10
days. Each baby was similar in snout-to-vent length
(SVL) and weight at birth. Little or no variation in
birth size suggests that the rate of embryonic
development of the offspring might not have been
synchronized. Historically, in captive Northern Blue-
tongues parturition has normally been observed to
occur over a period of less than 24 hours. In some
cases parturition can be paused for a day or two,
resulting in the remaining offspring being birthed
stillborn (Molyneux - personal communication,
2017).
Prolonged parturition is therefore not typical in this
species and has not been formally documented in
literature. This note is the first formally-documented
case whereby live young were birthed from the
same female 13 days apart in Tiliqua scincoides,
and also the first record of apparent variable
embryonic development coupled with prolonged
parturition for this species. The precipitating factors
that may have influenced the embryonic develop-
ment to vary so greatly are numerous and only
speculative at this point (Fregoso et al., 2010;
Ladyman et al., 2003; Shine, 1980).
2.
3.
A common sense application for Tiliqua scincoides
breeders in light of this data would be to maintain
observation of birthing females routinely for a
minimum of three weeks from the onset of parturi-
tion so as to ensure all offspring are afforded proper
attention following birth. Caution
should be exercised in order not
to return postpartum females to
communal housing prematurely.
Overall postpartum care should
include close observation and
minimal changes to the environ-
ment for three to four weeks
following birthing.
1.
Animals from this litter at six
weeks.
2. Two-month-old Northern
Blue-tongues.
3. Female from the litter.
4. Second generation from the
specified litter.