What species is my BTS?

[Lhunt94]

Hi guys. This is my first post here, been reading loads of the threads on the site. Seems like there are some amazing people here offering out really good advice!

I had Northern blue tongue skinks for several years before (sadly had to sell them due to moving and wasn’t allowed any pets what so ever). Now I’ve got my own place I can keep animals again and first on my list was getting some amazing blueys again. I found a pet shop that had Indonesian blue tongue skinks 1 male and 1 female and these were the only blue tongue skinks available I could find after months and months of searching. So I went along and now have two amazing skinks which according to the pet shop will soon be ready to breed. Which was a bit of a bonus for me as I want to set up a reptile room and breed blue tongues (if there’s any breeders on here that could help me out on the breeding side of things I’d be forever great full as I can’t find much info on the subject).

Anyway, I’m not completely familiar with the subspecies and just wanted to see if anyone could confirm what my two skinks are. Sorry for the long post just thought I’d introduce myself and give you all a bit of background.

Many thanks for all your help!

[mb606587]

They are both Halmaheras. As to whether you have a male and female, that is anybody's guess. I highly doubt the pet shop knows for sure. As for breeding advice for these guys, many in the US have tried, nobody has been able to find long term success. So maybe you can be the pioneer and write that book!

[Lhunt94]

Hello mb606587,

Sorry for the delayed reply I just realised that I never pressed send when I replied before . Thank you for your reply, I do like a challenge so will defo be persistent trying to get these to breed but don’t really know what to try my since I’ve never bred blue tongues before. It is typically my luck that the two I get are the ones that don’t really breed haha

[OlitheHalmahera]

Just noticed the bedding in your enclosure doesn't look to be humidity friendly. Keep in mind that halmaheras need at least 80% humidity. Not having proper humidity can cause anything from toe loss to damage to the digestive system.

For my halmahera I use a mixture of coconut fiber, bio ground, compress mulch and sphagnum moss. Many do fine with cocnut fiber and bio ground (or other types of dirt without fertiliser) but it can get very soggy with that high humidity which I find the rest of the mixture does a pretty good job fixing.

You might also consider a fogger (if you don't already have one) since a spray bottle would be a difficult way to do it. A hydrometer is a most have.

You might already have all these thing under control I just wanted to make sure. I hope everything goes well with your skinks.