Wild bluey baby still with mother...

[BlueyMother]

Hi everyone
We have a wild bluey living in our front yard who gave birth early January '24 and we've just today seen one of her babies come out of her hidey hole with her (staying with her for 9 months). In the past, the babies have all left mum pretty quickly, but now the males are around looking to mate with her again and I'm not sure if mum is keeping the baby with her longer for some reason? Any thoughts?

Yes I'm newbie, but I would have thought somebody, any body? would have replied to my post. Is it because my blueys are wild and not kept in enclosures?

 

[dragonlover1]

no reason I can think of, usually they separate fairly soon. mother is not feeding the baby , they are not like dogs or cats. We have kept them so the behaviour isn't unknown

 

[BlueyMother]

no reason I can think of, usually they separate fairly soon. mother is not feeding the baby , they are not like dogs or cats. We have kept them so the behaviour isn't unknown

Thank you for answering, that's awesome.
We have observed this beautiful creature for years and have never seen her tolerate the babies staying too long in her territory. This year she's different and I was curious to see if anyone had seen this before.

 

[Snek_Kid]

Yes I'm newbie, but I would have thought somebody, any body? would have replied to my post. Is it because my blueys are wild and not kept in enclosures?

Don't stress it's got nothing to do with you or the fact that the Blueys are wild, it's probably just because people are busy or haven't noticed.

Hi everyone
We have a wild bluey living in our front yard who gave birth early January '24 and we've just today seen one of her babies come out of her hidey hole with her (staying with her for 9 months). In the past, the babies have all left mum pretty quickly, but now the males are around looking to mate with her again and I'm not sure if mum is keeping the baby with her longer for some reason? Any thoughts?

I'm on the same page as @dragonlover1 with this. While some skinks have been observed providing some levels of parental care, many don't go beyond protecting their eggs. But the full extent of paternal behaviours in skinks varies greatly. I have heard about Bluey mothers being very protective of their babies but it's just an instinctual thing, nothing like compassion or care lol. Anyways, I may be completely wrong but I hope this helps!