BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi, new here. Just got some BTS. I have been wanting one for years but for whatever reason never bought one Now I did ! I am not new to reptiles, I breed ball pythons and keep asian water monitors, crested geckos, and a few other animals. I have been keeping and breeding reptiles for 15 years. I have already done my homework on the care of these beauties and am excited to attemp breeding them eventually. Below are a few pics of them (ricky and lucy ) could anyone tell me the subspecies? I wasnt sure, and reading the guide on how to figure out gets difficult with my ADHD

Ricky


Lucy

Welcome!!
Beautiful BTS!
Looks like 2 northerns to me, what do the experts say?

both northerns. awesome ones at that! if you have a breeding pair, those would be amazing! the second one has a great orange color

The girl is just gorgeous, allthough I have never seen a a bluey I havent liked I will try and breed them but they havent been cooled this season. Should I just try and put them together and see if they do the deed (completely supervised of course)?

I also noticed they need their nails cut (at least the female does), I will be doing this 2moro. I have trimmed many other reptiles', dogs, and kids' nails so I feel confident that I wouldnt have an issue with them

i'm sure you'll be fine, but just in case heres a link for nail clipping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe0FHbOP6aQ


i have no experience in breeding, so you'll have to wait for the experienced members to answer that question. but unless you are sure on their sex you may not want to try anything with them yet?

I know that ricky is male because he is a proven breeder. The person was 99% sure that lucy was a female, but I know how that goes, haha. I was going to let them acclimate to their new surroundings for a bit then try and place them together to watch for behavior to see if she is really a she

look northern to me,second ones tail looks odd,almost meruakeish in the banding,but they are nice looking color wise so maybe the brightness fades the banding,definatly have the northern looking appearance,putting them togethers an option,at worst u may see if u have a female,but thats only if the male trys to mate,if they get aggressive or the unknown even goes after the male,could still be a female,female northerns are fiesty buggers,definatly watch them if u do put them together

oh and welcome aboard

She is definitely faded up the sides. In the ball python world we would call it high white sides (like in spider morphs), where her belly's "whiteish" color creeps up her sides. And her tone of orange is really bright. The pics of both of them really do capture their true colors...

Hi and Welcome! Gorgeous northerns! You should probably post more pictures of them...and your other critters...

Coomassie wrote:Hi and Welcome! Gorgeous northerns! You should probably post more pictures of them...and your other critters...

I still need to take more pics of them, I just took the 2 really quick when I got them home last night and wanted to get them in their enclosures to get warmed up.

You're in the same state as the breeder of Sunset Northerns (Andrew Seike). I have to wonder if the second one might be from that line. Consider e-mailing him with pictures (including birds-eye shots) and seeing what he thinks? Don't expect a quick reply though, he works a lot and recently had to cope with a terrible fire. He's an amazing guy though who loves skinks and likes to help out He also has a BTS forum where you could post the photos and he might respond (seikereptiles.com).

Welcome to the addiction!

Fatal_S wrote:You're in the same state as the breeder of Sunset Northerns (Andrew Seike). I have to wonder if the second one might be from that line. Consider e-mailing him with pictures (including birds-eye shots) and seeing what he thinks? Don't expect a quick reply though, he works a lot and recently had to cope with a terrible fire. He's an amazing guy though who loves skinks and likes to help out He also has a BTS forum where you could post the photos and he might respond (seikereptiles.com).

Welcome to the addiction!

Thanks, I took your advice and posted a thread over there as well hoping to get further info on her. She is really cool and almost washed out on her sides. I havent seen a lot of pics of them like that, is it a normal occurance?

Pretty skinks!

Welcome!!! I can't help you with the species, but by the sounds of it there are many people here who can!!! You have very pretty skinks there.

beautiful
i like the second ones orange coloration

Thanks everyone for the welcomes!

So maybe they are both males? After the video ends the supposed female started biting the known male and he started biting back. I seperated them immeiately before injury. Would you say based on these pics and the video of behavior that they are in fact both males? I have been told by a few people that northern females can be gnarly if they arent in "the mood". Thoughts?

Youtube video of their behavior:
http://youtu.be/qKFDkcW5k_Y

Supposed Female



Known Male (the base of his tail and his head are a lot bigger than the supposed female)




Them together

hard to tell in your video,females can be the aggressors and even bite and chase the males

pics can be decieving to,some of your pics of the supposed female looks like tail has bulges and it looks boofy headed like a male,but others and when its with the male theres a looks not so boofy

how old are they and roughly what size

Known male is 5yrs and supposed female is 3 1/2. known male is 22-23" and the supposed female is 20-21"