BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

A couple weeks ago I started planning a terrarium my little sister (she's 4) and I could work on together since I haven't been able to spend as much time with her as I'd like to due to school. I'm just posting what I have done so far and as progress occurs I'll update the thread.

The idea that we had was to have a large sliding door terrarium with plenty of floor space with some custom terrarium rocks to make it really special. Working with wood I'm familiar with, but I'm pretty new to painting, grouting and the like so I've already come across quite a few snags and have made some mistakes. Right now we're just using an old 45 gallon tank because we're in the process of moving houses, so I'll whip up a whole new terrarium later on or even when the skink gets older (we'd like to get a baby to start with). If I can find it (I know it's here somewhere...) I'll post the concept art/plan I had

*I had taken more pictures before of the gluing process but they were corrupted.


the main hide


this is the basking platform, standing upright




this is what the v1 glass tank will look like, there's a hide underneath the basking platform too. I plan on having a wooden ramp or something so the lizard can get on top of the basking platform and hide



started painting today, this is the first layer. apparently more difficult than it seems..

any constructive criticism is welcome, we've never owned a lizard before (we've owned snakes but that was way back when) so this'll be a new experience. Thanks for looking! Updates to come!

EDIT: Also, I live in Alberta so if anyone knows of any lesser known but trusted breeders in the area with babies coming soon please tell me!

Welcome!! That looks great so far! I love the custom enclosures like that, the ones you see for beardies always look incredible.

There is a guy in Calgary that breeds Northerns - spankenstyne on several forums (I can't remember if he is on here or not). He would be a good choice to try. If you need help contacting him, PM me.

Oh for cryin' out loud!

WOOOOOW! Amazing!!!

Lopks great,end result will be fantastic i reckon,one thing to watch out for if thats an open top cage is blueys are buggers for using furniture to access lid and if not secure can easily push there way out,i have a houdini northen male that can easily get out with 18 inches of clearence and a lid,luckily he kept dropping into stumpy enclosure,though one time i found him in with 2 adult male sand goannas,happily basking with them,after that he lived with the stumpies

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

Richard.C wrote:Lopks great,end result will be fantastic i reckon,one thing to watch out for if thats an open top cage is blueys are buggers for using furniture to access lid and if not secure can easily push there way out,i have a houdini northen male that can easily get out with 18 inches of clearence and a lid,luckily he kept dropping into stumpy enclosure,though one time i found him in with 2 adult male sand goannas,happily basking with them,after that he lived with the stumpies

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.. I'm still trying to find a lid that'll lock, right now I'm just using weights to keep it down.

Katrina wrote:Welcome!! That looks great so far! I love the custom enclosures like that, the ones you see for beardies always look incredible.

There is a guy in Calgary that breeds Northerns - spankenstyne on several forums (I can't remember if he is on here or not). He would be a good choice to try. If you need help contacting him, PM me.

I live in Calgary so that makes everything pretty convenient, I'll have to look him up when I finish.

I painted the second coat today, realized I goofed up a little.. There are a couple circular patches where it looks like I didn't even grout over on the basking rock. Luckily the actual basking area has sufficient grout on it. Still very weird, I'll have to go back and regrout some of them or figure something out :/ might even just get some fake plants and cover em up

They look great, just keep in mind what Richard was saying and after a while you will appreciate surfaces that are easy to clean which might rationalise your interiors a bit. You will tend to find that longer term keepers end up with more spartan enclosures for that reason. Look out for the Poonamis.

I built a working waterfall with this method... well its sorta working. It has a leak . I would seal the piece with something, I used silicone for aquariums but there are some other sealer you could use. Look up lizard landscapes to see some ideas of sealers if you haven't already. I painted mine using brown, white, black and grey acrylic paints. I would try "dry brushing" on some "rocky" areas.

Scotts1au wrote:They look great, just keep in mind what Richard was saying and after a while you will appreciate surfaces that are easy to clean which might rationalise your interiors a bit. You will tend to find that longer term keepers end up with more spartan enclosures for that reason. Look out for the Poonamis.

Yeah, I was thinking of maybe just getting rid of either the basking platform or hide and use it for another animal if I decide to get one.. it looks really cramped in the setup right now.

Anyways, update. Been a bit busy lately getting back into school and going to a cabin over the long weekend (breaking my phone in the process...), but I've finished painting and covering the rocks with sealant so take a gander folks! I really like how grungy looking they turned out

Nice job,looks great i reckon

Last bump in this thread, here's the finished product all ready for a baby bts. Temperature's all set correctly and everything... mind the readings in the picture that was a few minutes after I turned the lamp on. I think it'll look a lot nicer though with aspen bedding. Can't wait to finally get a baby bts!

Looks good,will definatly look better with a substate of some type,a juvie will appreciate the cover

Thanks Richard, how many weeks/months dyou reckon a bluey should be given before moving on to a different substrate?

Not speaking for Richard, but what do you mean? If you want to change the substrate, change the substrate! There is no waiting period. Just do it!

Just following the site's caresheet I could've sworn it said not use that sort of loose substrate until the animal was older because of fear of ingesting the substrate.. though I might be going crazy. I know people do this for snakes (which I find unnecessary unless you're feeding live prey..) I assumed it would've been the same for lizards?

Yeah no need to wait,just like with adults,just be careful at feed time in regards to food getting substrate stuck in it

Rifte wrote:Just following the site's caresheet I could've sworn it said not use that sort of loose substrate until the animal was older because of fear of ingesting the substrate.. though I might be going crazy. I know people do this for snakes (which I find unnecessary unless you're feeding live prey..) I assumed it would've been the same for lizards?

I think the care-sheet said to wary.. since the scales are still soft.. or something to that nature.. you might be right, though.. I'm not sure..

Richard.C wrote:Yeah no need to wait,just like with adults,just be careful at feed time in regards to food getting substrate stuck in it

right, I plan on avoiding feeding live insects if I can anywho. should be safe if I keep food on a plate or something.

Dakota Nivens wrote:

Rifte wrote:Just following the site's caresheet I could've sworn it said not use that sort of loose substrate until the animal was older because of fear of ingesting the substrate.. though I might be going crazy. I know people do this for snakes (which I find unnecessary unless you're feeding live prey..) I assumed it would've been the same for lizards?

I think the care-sheet said to wary.. since the scales are still soft.. or something to that nature.. you might be right, though.. I'm not sure..

Mhmm, it was something along the lines of this I think..

EDIT: found it

Caresheet wrote:Do not use aspen, or any type of regular adult substrate. They're quite sensitive at this young age, and you don't want to risk any splinters in the nose, eyes, or even indigestion of small substrate pieces. Use clean towels, or artificial turf. You can even use soft sweaters or shirts, the babies can really have a blast tunneling through the long sleeves.

I keep my babies on paper towel for at least two weeks after their born, just so it's easy to see any feces. After that I go right to shaved aspen shavings.

Ive kept babies on news paper,sand,fake grass and in sugar cane mulch,whilst they are more fragile than adults,they arent to fragile for substrate,yes big plates even on raised platforms to try keeping food away from substrate,i normally keep juvies in groups and at feed time,some grab a big chunk and takke off to substrate to eat it a anyways,death shakes ect ect,havnt had any issues substrate wise,its just precautionary i guess