Merauke or Irian Jaya

[blazew97]

I recently got a skink from backwater reptiles. It said that he was an irian jaya but i just read a post on here and a person ordered an irian jaya that turned out to be a merauke from the same website.
My skink came with no birth date and it said he is an irian jaya. I am brand new to skinks. Any help on assuming his age and his species would be much appreciated.

[IchliebeTiere]

the exact thing happened! when did you get yours? we got ours the 11th from the same place
we didn't get a birth date or anything
what did they ship yours in?

[blazew97]

I got him December 14 2012. He came in a tied up bag

[IchliebeTiere]

did they get shipped in something like this?

[blazew97]

no metal frame. just the bag.

[amcurls]

It appears to be a Merauke. A closer picture showing head profile and another of full length of body would help. Vendor/importers often label by location instead type. My first BTs were sold to me IJs and turned out to be Meraukes. That is how I got into Meraukes.

[donkeybuff]

Definitely Indonesian or Merauke, but it has some traits of each. Maybe Indo x Merauke?

[Kurt]

New form merauke is my guess

[taniya91]

i was just looking on their website ...and this is PURE SPECULATION... so please do not take it as fact ...but as i was browsing i noticed many animals were labeled as "captive-bred" and others just weren't labeled at all, including the blue tongue skinks and it was asserted in the other forum you are referring to that, that persons skink may have been wild caught so many the animals not labeled at all are wild caught? or they have many that are captive bred and some wild caught and cant guarantee you one over the other so they just dont label them at all....not sure....

[Linnea]

Hello!
very cute skink.

i have heard the backwater reptiles name on the forum before, i cannto say if it was a positive or negative light, but you can assume that if you got either an IJ or a Meruake, they are not captive bred. The most usual is that theyre born from captured pregnant skinks, then shipped, or that the mother is bought and shipped while still preggy. Meruakes and indonesians are the most common to be shipped as such, whereas IJ breeding is more common in captivity (at least from my european point of view)

Im not too good on ID ing meruakes and Ij's unless they look very classic. but to me that looks like an IJ more than a meruake. there is another look to a meruake that appears naturally in some areas (okay, there are many more variations too), which is referred to as a new form meruake (for some reason), making ID ing skinks that dont look very "classic" a bit hard.

im sure the meruake and IJ enthusiast will start writing on this thread soon and give you a better picture on exactly what your skink is just wait a bit more.

would help with a closer photo. little details do a lot.

[IchliebeTiere]

Here is a good link to try to determine what kind it is. It was written by fatal_s at this site and the pictures are great.
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=20330

ReptileKing was kind enough to show me this link.

[blazew97]

Heres another picture. He was very hissy and stubborn today. probably because he just woke up. So i wasnt able to get the best pictures. He does have a black stripe going down his neck but i couldnt get a picture of it.

[donkeybuff]

I'd say new form merauke.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

I'd say new form merauke.

[marisa]

Definitely agree with new form merauke.