Baby Blue Tongued Skink Cage

[HawkNinjaMaster]

I am thinking about getting a blue tongued skink ( not sure what species yet ) and there is one BTS owner around here looking for a good home but by the time that I'm getting one, it will be gone. So I might end up with a baby and I was wondering, can I keep a baby BTS in a 40 gallon? Online it says a 10 gallon is good but I don't really have the money to keep buying cages as it grows up so I'm hoping to just get one and be done with it. Any answers?

[Halogen]

You should be okay using a 40 gallon. I think the reason why people say smaller ones are good are when they cant afford a bigger one just yet. The bigger the better and would let the skink explore.

[kingofnobbys]

You should be okay using a 40 gallon. I think the reason why people say smaller ones are good are when they cant afford a bigger one just yet. The bigger the better and would let the skink explore.

40Gal fishtank type enclosure (common in the USA) or 100L to 140L plastic tub with sides you can see through (need not be like glass) can be very easily converted to a BTS rearing tub in a hour or two ....

Will be Ok for him til he's about 16 month old at which stage he'll need a 120Gal (4ft x 2ft footprint enclosure) for his home as an adult.

[HawkNinjaMaster]

Ok thanks for the help!!! I'll be sure to give him a big enclosure!

[Susann]

Will be Ok for him til he's about 16 month old at which stage he'll need a 120Gal (4ft x 2ft footprint enclosure) for his home as an adult.

...I love how we're arbitrarily now raising the minimums that all skinks have to have, and at the exact ages...

The beauty with raising a BTS from a small size is that, unlike other reptiles, they don't do better with smaller habitats while they are smaller in size. As long as you can provide plenty of hides and/or substrate for him to dig himself into, there is no such thing as "too big" even for a baby BTS.
The minimum floor-space we recommend for any adult BTS is 3 feet by 18 inches. But if you have the space and can afford a bigger habitat than that from the get-go, no need in my opinion, to spend money on several.
While some species can get very long very fast (like the Meraukes), some can take 18-24 months to reach full length. If you are converting a standard US 55 gallon fish tank to a terrarium, the issues I've had in the past is that they are very wide but not terribly deep --generally only 12 inches-- and by the time you put a large water bowl at one end of it, it doesn't leave a whole lot of floor-space in front or behind it. These tanks are also usually very tall, which can prove difficult to achieve a basking spot warm enough for example for a gigas species BTS.

Good luck and have fun finding your new friend