Odatria_14_NOV13 - Victorian Herpetological Society

Small quantities of food are offered to newbornsimmediately after they are born.Two week old hatchlings, southern Victorian formNewborn - southern Vic form. eating egg and mince mixHatchlings can be housed with their parents until the nextbreeding season, (Brown, 2012) or can be separatedearlier if desired. If kept within a family group, paternalcare (Chappel, 2003) is provided initially for the first coupleof weeks (Brown, 2012) and frequent interactions betweenparents and hatchlings can be witnessed (personalobservation).Two month old siblings, NSW, New England ‘striped’ formNewborn riding on Mother’s back, Victorian formTwo day old hatchling on father’s head, southern Victorian form15Two year old juvenile top, mother in middle, step-mother on bottom,NSW - Central tableland ‘freckled’ formNew evidence suggests that it may be possible tobreed first or second degree relatives of some Egernia,species in captivity ’(Brown, 2012). However, in thewild, Cunningham’s skinks have been shown to activelyavoid inbreeding (Stow, & Sunnucks, 2004 a; 2004 b). Ipersonally have not experienced sibling-sibling, siblingparentetc. pairings within captive Cunningham’s skinks,but have observed this type of mate selection in captiveHosmer’s skink populations.