Baby blue-tongued skinks warm to Vic zoo

Nine baby cold-blooded lizards are warming to their new surrounds after a breakthrough breeding round at Melbourne Zoo.

The newborn Centralian blue-tongued skinks were on Wednesday weighed and measured for the first time by proud reptile keepers as an exhibit is built to permanently house them for public viewing.

The six-week-old lizards, which were live born unlike most egg-hatched reptiles, are the first crop of skinks bred at the Victorian zoo.

To add to the accomplishment, the orange and cream coloured species with distinct black blotches on their head is known to rarely reproduce in captivity.

The tiny skinks - native to parts of Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia - all came in at around 40 grams and 16 centimetres despite a healthy appetite for salad mix and yummy insects.

It's too early to tell the gender of the babies, who will reach adulthood in about two years.