Skink Eggs and Breeding: What to Expect From Mating to Hatching

Skink eggs are easy to miss. The common wild skinks of North America lay small, leathery eggs in hidden nests instead of carrying live young. People usually find a scattered clutch under a log before they ever see the mother nearby.

This guide covers what skink eggs look like, how many a female lays, and when each stage happens. It also explains skink mating, egg brooding, how to hatch a rescued clutch, and how to sex the common species.

Not every skink lays eggs, though. A few well known pet species give birth to fully formed babies instead. Knowing which group your skink belongs to is the first step, and our skink species overview is a good starting point.

Do skinks lay eggs, or do some give birth to live young?

Skinks use both strategies, and the family is unusual among lizards for how often live birth appears in it. Biologists call egg laying oviparity. The five-lined skink and the broadhead skink, the two most common in eastern and central yards, are both egg layers.

Females of both species find or dig a cavity. They lay a clutch there and stay close through incubation. That parental habit is one of the more surprising parts of skink breeding.

Blue-tongue skinks work the opposite way. Females in the genus Tiliqua carry young internally and give birth to fully formed babies. Our blue-tongue skink breeding guide covers this live bearing process in depth.

So the honest answer depends on which skink you mean. Garden skinks in the genera Plestiodon and Scincella lay eggs. Blue-tongue skinks and their relatives skip the egg stage entirely.

What does a skink egg look like?

A typical egg is small, oval, and off white to cream colored. The shell is leathery rather than hard and brittle like a chicken egg. That soft shell absorbs moisture from the soil around it.

This is why females pick damp nest sites. Logs, bark, and leaf litter all work well. Dry, exposed ground does not hold enough humidity for the eggs to survive.

Size varies by species. Five-lined skink eggs average about 1.3 cm (half an inch) long, and their shells shift from white to mottled tan once they touch the nest soil. Broadhead skink eggs weigh under a gram each.

Little brown skink eggs are smaller still, which fits an adult only a few inches long. Our skink size guide compares adult sizes across these species.

Use this checklist to confirm a find:

• Eggs about the size of a fingernail, 1 to 1.5 cm, oval and leathery, not hard or chalky.
• White when fresh, turning mottled tan or brown as they absorb moisture and soil stains.
• Tucked inside rotting wood, sawdust, a stump, or under bark, leaf litter, or loose soil.
• Often a striped or orange headed lizard curled beside them. That is a brooding female five-lined or broadhead skink.
• Eggs swell during incubation, so a clutch found late in summer looks noticeably plumper than a fresh one.

Hatchlings of the five-lined skink emerge at 6 to 7 cm total length with a bright blue tail. If tiny blue tailed lizards are running around the log pile in August or September, the eggs you found earlier have hatched.

How many eggs do skinks lay?

Clutch size differs a lot between species. Some skinks nest more than once a season. The table below compares the three North American species here, including the five-lined skink, with the live bearing blue-tongue skink for contrast.

State wildlife agencies report five-lined skink clutches of 2 to 20 eggs, with 9 to 12 typical. Larger clutches of 15 to 18 come from big, well fed females, so a nest of a dozen eggs is normal and a nest of 30 or more is almost always communal.

Little brown skinks make up for small clutches with frequency. A single female can lay several clutches in a warm season. Multiple females sometimes share one nest site, which is why a disturbed patch of soil can hold dozens of tiny eggs from more than one mother.

Skink mating and breeding season

Skink mating usually starts in spring, once temperatures warm up enough. Male five-lined skinks track females by contact pheromones rather than airborne scent. Tail and body color specific to each sex help too.

A male approaches from the side, grips the female’s neck, and copulation lasts four to eight minutes.

Five-lined skinks and broadhead skinks both breed once a year. Well fed females tend to produce stronger clutches, a topic our skink diet guide covers in more detail.

The five-lined skink calendar runs like this across most of the eastern United States:

1. April to May: courtship and mating. Males turn orange headed and fight over territory.
2. Late May to July: females nest about six weeks after mating and lay a single clutch.
3. June to August: the female broods the eggs for roughly a month, longer in cool nests.
4. August to September: hatching. The mother leaves the hatchlings within one to two days.
5. Two to three years later: the hatchlings breed for the first time.

Little brown skinks mate from late April through July and lay repeatedly across that season. Clutches come three to four weeks apart.

This is part of why their eggs turn up in gardens more often than people expect. Blue-tongue skink breeding follows a different calendar tied to the Australian summer.

Do skinks guard their eggs? Egg brooding explained

Parental care varies sharply between species. Five-lined skink females show real maternal investment. They choose the moist, sheltered spots described in our skink habitat guide and rarely leave the nest.

Brooding females stay coiled around, beside, or on top of the clutch. They retrieve eggs that roll away and even urinate on the nest. This keeps humidity high enough for the eggs to develop properly.

Several five-lined skink females sometimes share a communal nest. They take turns brooding and foraging so the eggs are rarely unattended. Broadhead skink females also guard their eggs until the clutch hatches.

Little brown skinks take the opposite approach. A female lays her eggs in a hidden spot and leaves them unguarded. Communal nests of this species can hold up to 60 eggs from many mothers with no parent present at all.

That is why a gardener sometimes uncovers far more eggs than one female could produce. Sharing a good cavity likely improves the odds that some eggs escape predators or a collapsing log. Count a big pile as several breeding females, not one unusually productive lizard.

Finding skink eggs and how to hatch them

If you uncover skink lizard eggs while gardening, the safest move is usually to leave them alone. Disturbing the nest or turning an egg can kill the embryo inside. A mother that returns to a disturbed clutch may not renest successfully.

Sometimes the eggs are in real danger, such as soil you must move for construction. Transfer them carefully without rotating them. Keep them in damp, loose substrate like vermiculite or sphagnum moss.

Skink eggs hatching well depends on steady warmth and humidity. Wild nests sit in shaded, damp wood and soil, so the target is a covered box that stays at ordinary warm room temperature and never under a heat lamp or in direct sun. Nest temperature sets the pace, and a cool box simply takes longer within the ranges below.

1. Lift each egg with the top side still up. Mark the top with a soft pencil dot if you must carry them.
2. Half bury the eggs in vermiculite or sphagnum moss that is damp but drips no water when squeezed.
3. Cover the container with a lid that has a few small holes, and check the moisture every few days.
4. Do not turn, wash, or candle the eggs. Shriveling means the medium is too dry, and mold usually means too wet.
5. Have a small enclosure with tiny prey ready before the expected hatch date.

Our skink enclosure guide covers substrate and humidity setups that also work for a simple incubation box.

Incubation length depends on species and temperature. Five-lined skink eggs take roughly 24 to 55 days. Broadhead skink eggs take 3 to 8 weeks, and little brown skink eggs hatch in about 22 days.

Warmer nests tend to hatch faster within those ranges than cooler ones. If you plan to raise hatchlings afterward, our skink care guide covers what young skinks need.

Telling male and female skinks apart

Sexing skinks by sight works best during spring breeding season. Hormonal changes make the differences obvious then. In five-lined skinks, males develop a noticeably wider head with reddish orange coloring on the snout and jaws.

That coloring intensifies as breeding season approaches. The five pale stripes that give the species its name tend to fade with age in males. Older males sometimes lose the stripes almost entirely, while females usually keep them for life.

Tail color tells a similar story. Juveniles of both sexes hatch with a bright blue tail, a stage covered in our blue tailed skink guide. That color dulls faster in males, which usually show gray tails as adults, while females often keep some blue.

Body length is no help in five-lined skinks, since the sexes match in size. Broadhead males do grow larger than females, but head shape, snout color, and faded striping remain the clearer clues. Maturity timing is covered separately in our skink lifespan guide.

Little brown skinks are harder. The sexes share the same color and pattern. Males only show a slightly longer tail, about 64 mm against 56 mm in females.

Skink breeding across different species

Scincidae is a huge lizard family, with well over a thousand species worldwide. Most of that diversity lives outside North America, in Southeast Asia, Australia, and other warm regions. Both egg laying and live birth are widespread in the family, with live bearers especially common in cooler parts of Australia.

The three species detailed here show the range of parental care. One broods its nest closely, one guards it, and one abandons the clutch entirely. Blue-tongue skinks sit at the far end with no eggs at all, so a breeding setup for them centers on a well fed, properly heated female rather than an incubation box.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do all skinks lay eggs?

No. The common wild skinks of North America, including five-lined, broadhead, and little brown skinks, lay eggs. Blue-tongue skinks and many other Australian species give birth to live young instead.

How big are skink eggs?

Five-lined skink eggs average about 1.3 cm long when laid and swell during incubation. Broadhead skink eggs weigh under a gram each, and little brown skink eggs are smaller still. Hatchlings of the five-lined skink measure 6 to 7 cm including the tail.

How long do skink eggs take to hatch?

Incubation ranges from about 22 days for little brown skinks to 24 to 55 days for five-lined skinks, with about a month typical. Broadhead skink eggs take 3 to 8 weeks. Warm nests hatch at the short end and cool, shaded nests at the long end.

Do skinks protect their eggs after laying them?

It depends on the species. Five-lined and broadhead skink females stay with and defend the clutch until it hatches. Little brown skinks leave their eggs unguarded as soon as they are laid.

What should I do if I find skink eggs in my yard?

Cover the nest back up and leave it. A brooding female usually returns if the eggs are not moved. Only relocate a clutch in immediate danger, keeping each egg top side up in damp vermiculite at warm room temperature.

How can I tell a male skink from a female?

During breeding season, male five-lined and broadhead skinks develop wider heads and reddish orange coloring that females lack. Faded body stripes and a gray rather than blue tail are additional signs of an adult male.