My BTS Northern or Eastern?

[lewis]

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Hey I'm new to this site and just wanted to introduce myself and my BTS. I am Lewis and my Bluey's name is Berry. I bought him from a pet shop 4 hour drive from me. Took me forever to ring around loads of shops to get the type I wanted. BTS are hard to find in my area in the UK anyway, let alone a T. scincoides. Anyway this shop I rang told me he was a scincoides scincoides which suggests he is an Eastern, but I have since looked around and he could very well be a Northern. So what I'm asking is does anyone know by this picture if he is a Northern or Eastern? Doesn't make any difference to me, just something that I'd like to find out.

Habitat:
Warm end 30*c / cool end 20*c. Basking light and UVA/B light turned off over night which allows the whole vivarium to drop to around to 20*c.
Humidity jumps around 20-50% but has a humid hide.
I am looking to change his substrate with bark as he seems to be getting a very dry/rough tummy on his current substrate. Atleast that's what I believe is causing this problem, other than that he is very healthy, active and likes to eat. He is now restricted to eating once every 2 days as I know they can over eat if offered food too often. I got him in September at four months old, so he isn't even 1 year old yet and is still growing. He is currently just over 17" long. I feed him Cucumber, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, water cress, chicken, Scrambled Egg and Locusts/snails as a treat once or twice a month. I have tried other salads/veg but he just ignores those. Found out recently that he is male as he was releasing sperm plugs a couple weeks ago.

Think thats about sums him up. Thanks for reading and Hello :-)

Lewis.


Edit: I can't seem to view pictures on this site, so unable to see if my picture is actually working, anyone know if theres a way I can fix this? Thanks.

[StaceyLeigh]

Looks like a Northern to me, and very beautiful Check out the care sheet and diet chart on here for more ideas and info. This is an awesome site for gaining knowledge!

[lewis]

Ok thanks, I will check the care sheet out later. I've seen many comments on the internet about BTS losing toes to poor shedding building up, but to be honest he hasn't had any problems with shedding so far, I always check a couple days after shedding and the only place he struggles to shed is the tip of his tail. So I can't be going too far wrong

[Dakota]

From a pet store more likely Tiliqua Scincoides Intermedia.. but if I'm not mistaken, Easterns can resemble Northerns, since the Northern is a sub-species.. but I would check his parents, if possible.. and consult with other members.

[Spindown]

I'd say Northern, but I have no experience with Easterns so ?

[Richard.C]

only scincoides i can see in it is the intermedia type,looks northern to me,he looks in great shape,whilst they are subspecies its grnerally quite easy to differentiate the 2 from each other unless they have mixed parentage

normally pet shops call indo species scincoides,like ij,s,so on a posative they are close with this guy,welcome to the forum

[nmcnick]

Check www.bluetongueskinks.net and go to the Northern and Eastern pages.

http://bluetongueskinks.net/beast.htm
http://bluetongueskinks.net/bnorth.htm

To me, comparing and contrasting photos, I'd have to go with northern even though yours seems to have a little darker color than the typicial northern. However, Northerns can range in darkness and lightness fairly easily.

Hopefully I'm not wrong... but I'd say Northern.

[mark_w]

Hi,

Looks like a nice skink. In terms of what type it is, I would say Irian Jaya or Irian Jaya x Northern. Purebred northerns are hard to find in Europe and especially in the UK. Purebred Easterns are almost impossible to find!

Mark.

[Linnea]

could we get more photos, and of the tail as well?

[lewis]

Hi,

Looks like a nice skink. In terms of what type it is, I would say Irian Jaya or Irian Jaya x Northern. Purebred northerns are hard to find in Europe and especially in the UK. Purebred Easterns are almost impossible to find!

Mark.

Thanks for all the replies, but as for how rare these guys are is very true, I am yet to find a BTS like this one in the UK. They're mainly Indonesian which obviously this one is not. But I did see his parents, the guy I bought him from is a breeder of rare Exotic Reptiles. He told me that he is most likely the only breeder in the UK breeding these BTS's. I bought him from Mark Amey, who is a renown zoologist in this country. So I felt confident that his animals are genuine. But ofcourse money is money and could be wrong. http://www.markamey.co.uk/ is his website if your interested in checking him out or for anyone else that might be interested in Acquiring a BTS.

I will post more pictures later as requested

Thanks.

[lewis]

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Here are 2 new pictures that I just took. You may notice if you look closely he has a slight scar on top of his head. When I bought him he had unshed skin on his head. I waited for atleast a week after I got him to settle him in a bit before attempting to remove it. It so happened it was a couple days after his first shed with me. I soaked it with a cotton bud socked in warm water for 10 minutes. Then I slowly peeled it off, he seemed to enjoy it, as he just sat there. I was shocked with what I saw underneath, it was a scab from cut, not unshed skin. It was white and still gooey, so I kept it clean by cleaning it every other day and it eventually healed and now you can barely notice it! My guess was, he must of got into a fight with another sibling or something. never mind lol. Anyways the new pic's are yours to see with the tail as requested

[Jeff]

Welcome to the forum! Those last two pictures are much better for ID'ing. Of course you can never know 100% for sure if a skink is "pure" or not unless you collect it from the wild, but I don't see anything in that skink that would suggest it is anything other than a pure T.s.intermedia male. Very nice looking lizard too!

I'm not exactly clear on the source of the animal though. Is the shop you referred to where you got it owned by the breeder, or did they acquire it from the breeder before selling it to you?

[lewis]

The Breeder owns the shop

Thanks.

[Jeff]

Then my only concern would be why he would label it as an eastern. Some people really don't separate northerns and easterns, but in that case it would generally just be labeled as Tiliqua scincoides. To put T.s.scincoides on it, is hard to see as anything but a mistake. It doesn't diminish the skink in any way, just bothers me when someone knowledgable mis-labels their own animals.

[Katrina]

Gorgeous skink! Those last two are definitely better for IDing. Welcome!