Pictures New little guy!

[SquawksNibbles]

He's so precious! And beautiful, too! Congratulations on your little cutie!

 

[riddick07]

Thanks @riddick07 for the advice! I've been absolutely smitten with these guys! Do you know of some good resources where I could learn more about them? Maybe a good book on blue tongue skink care?

Even though it may be more expensive, I would feel more comfortable going to a reputable breeder (or rescue, but I think it would be very, very difficult to find a BTS at a reptile rescue) rather than getting a farmed or wild caught animal. When it comes to voting with my money, I like to support those who take the time, energy and resources to raise healthy, happy animals. Regardless though, I would bring any newly adopted animal to a vet for an initial check up.

So each of the different species and sub species can have slightly different care. Depending on which one you acquire the care is different. For example my guy has a humidity requirement of 80% as a minimum. Other species that kind of humidity would cause health issues.

Some of the species or locality’s have yet to reproduce in captivity or have only done so a few times. So if you find a species or locality you love don’t be surprised if your only option is a farmed baby. You will easily find CBB northerns. Halmaheras won’t reproduce in captivity so far. So even though mine was labeled as a CBB they were obviously lying their butts off...which is something I already knew because I listened to them lie and give bad advice while I was standing at their table. Not usually someone I would buy from but those little faces were staring at me...

I don’t know of a book myself. I rarely buy books on reptiles (I have a few on boas and one on bioactive and one that’s been on backorder for months for old world ratsnakes that I have yet to receive haha) and tend to rifle through forums/sites/groups and look at natural climate history of where the animal is native.

http://bluetongueskinks.net/
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He's so precious! And beautiful, too! Congratulations on your little cutie!

Thanks! He’s so adorable!

Gave up on waiting to do the fecal until giving him moss/cocohusk. Forgot how much I hate tanks and keeping humidity up...remembering why I don’t use them!

 

[ode.to.parrots]

He seems to be settling in nicely!

Thank you for all of the info and for pointing me in the right direction. I appreciate it!

 

[alshgs]

We plan to bring one home next month at repticon

 

[riddick07]

Messy face!

And another new arrangement for him. The coco husk and moss wasn’t getting enough humidity then the springtails popped up. I ended up dumping everything nixing it for a few days and putting plain old dirt mixed with coco husk this time. 85-89% humidity during the day and 100% at night. Working a lot better than the other mix! He already had his first shed and looks bigger

 

[Mizzely]

 

[ode.to.parrots]

I love how shiny they get after a shed. Have you named him yet?

 

[riddick07]

Still unnamed but he is big now! Just moved him to a pvc the other week. Denfinitley a boy...he kept leaving sperm all over incase I was still having doubts after the first one he left

Just moved into the cage pictures. He was shedding at the time.

Pictures from this morning. He shed and added some more bark to his enclosure. I think I need some fake plants for color!

 

[ChirpyMacaw]

cutie! that enclosure (idk if it's temp, if so ignore this) looks a bit small though, the general rule of thumb for lizards is to double/triple whatever the snout to vent length is, esp for an active animal like most blue-tongues tend to be.

 

[KatelynDeanne]

Hes beautiful! How about naming him Reptar!? He looks like a Reptar!! Hes so wittle .

 

[riddick07]

cutie! that enclosure (idk if it's temp, if so ignore this) looks a bit small though, the general rule of thumb for lizards is to double/triple whatever the snout to vent length is, esp for an active animal like most blue-tongues tend to be.

It’s fine. He’s 16in including his whole tail. The cage is 3ft. It’s around triple if you don’t include the tail and a little more than double if you do. Plus, he is a hider not an explorer. Other skinks I’ve owned were more active and they had bigger places but he’s a nervous one. He only comes out briefly and if you walk by you hear the rush to go back into hiding. From what I hear from other halamahera owners it’s not an uncommon trait for them. Wthin the next 2-3 years he’ll probably inherit the 4ft bearded dragon cage though.


Not sure on Reptar he probably needs to be named after some scaredy-cat or grumpy old man lol

 

[KatelynDeanne]

It’s fine. He’s 16in including his whole tail. The cage is 3ft. It’s around triple if you don’t include the tail and a little more than double if you do. Plus, he is a hider not an explorer. Other skinks I’ve owned were more active and they had bigger places but he’s a nervous one. He only comes out briefly and if you walk by you hear the rush to go back into hiding. From what I hear from other halamahera owners it’s not an uncommon trait for them. Wthin the next 2-3 years he’ll probably inherit the 4ft bearded dragon cage though.


Not sure on Reptar he probably needs to be named after some scaredy-cat or grumpy old man lol

Well John Gustafan is the name of the grumpy old man off of the movie "grumpy old men" . So you could name him Gustaf! Haha! I used to watch that movie on repeat as a kid. I love the part where they go ice fishing. I got some nice cages for my ball pythons from animal plastics. I think they would work great for him later on. We also have a herpstat.

 

[riddick07]

I have thousands of dollars worth of various thermostats and PVC cages haha. Those things add up quickly when you have a lot of reptiles! I’ve started disease testing recently with all the crap going around lately. My more high risk guys (eating lizards or wild caught) were tested first for crypto and everyone came pack negative. Doing 5 at a time right now. Next I’ll be doing python and boa panel testing for nido/IBD/para. Probably going to be a couple grand when I’m all done....crying in the corner lol

 

[KatelynDeanne]

I have thousands of dollars worth of various thermostats and PVC cages haha. Those things add up quickly when you have a lot of reptiles! I’ve started disease testing recently with all the crap going around lately. My more high risk guys (eating lizards or wild caught) were tested first for crypto and everyone came pack negative. Doing 5 at a time right now. Next I’ll be doing python and boa panel testing for nido/IBD/para. Probably going to be a couple grand when I’m all done....crying in the corner lol

Trust me I know! They arent cheap, especially the set ups! sigh..

 

[Shezbug]

Oh he is so cute, we have some of those living in our back yard from time to time. I much prefer the blue tongues to the goannas we have around the area. There is one little fat blue tongue who lives in the garden at my fathers house and he often comes out for a sticky beak if you are near his hide out. I also love the little geckos we have in the yard (and sometimes inside the house). We once had a shingle back in our yard and so far that has been the only large lizard that my dog was not happy about so I removed him to a safer area for him to live in so I did not have to worry about the dog harming him.

 

[riddick07]

Changed up the enclosure again! Decided to change out the substrate to a vermiculite/soil/coco coir mix with a clean up crew. Added some flowers for some color Figured out the bulb is not broken like I thought when I went to change it out. The light fixture itself must have gotten too wet with the humidity & died on me, so I’ll have to change that. I actually have a bunch of extra sitting around so that won’t be an issue at least!

He was sitting in the hide huffing/hissing and generally complaining quite loudly about the change up