BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

As you probably know I'm on a quest to have everyone owning and breeding blotchies. Ok I joke, but seriously I believe that there is more scope out there for these guys to be better understood and for what animals exist outside of Aus to be sustainably bred and kept - that means - stimulation and management of matings during their of their breeding cycle.

In general keepers in Southern Australia find that they breed like rabbits in outdoor enclosures. This is largely because they can be kept together safeley unlike other Tiliqua from the gigas/scincoides clan, hence can mate when they are ready, rather than attempting to syncronise male and females.

I believe that there is scope for these guys to be kept in areas down to USDA zone 9 relatively easily with extreme care at least for much of the year down to as low as 8a - that is with particular attention to microhabitat and vigilance. Explanation about the USDA zoning system can be found at:
http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

The concept of vigilance is discussed further down.

As a rule of thumb soil temperatures at 2 inches or so shouldnt drop to less than 5C or thereabouts. So this means that places which experience ground freezing are not suitable. In Zone 8 or lower an unheated room in a house may be suitable as long as temperatures stay within a range from 5C to 15C for a minimum of 6-8 weeks. It is important to understand that soil temperatures are very different to ambient environmental temperatures.

In those areas where maintenance of temperatures is possible the following tips may help.

Methods of maintaining survivable microhabitat include:
-allowing the animal to maintain soil (or other heat retaining substrate) contact and to enable it's natural burying instinct.
-building a suitable sleeping bunker from materials that retain heat and/or buffer temperature fluctuations.
-preventing animals from coming into direct contact with snow, or frost.
-buidling a sleeping bunker against a wall or solid object which will allow best use of diurnal warming during Winter. In Nothern Hemisphere this will be Southerely aspect.
-building in such a way that the animals can be inspected/removed periodically.
-preventing the animals from being flooded (being completely dry is not necessary).

For illustrative purposes see the below link which will allow you to compare (indicative) application of the USDA zoning system between continents.
http://davisla.wordpress.com/plant-zones/

The point about all this is that it is advisable, if you believe that temperatures can be managed in the safe range and you intend to breed them to allow them to spend at least the latter part of their brumation outdoors. Their emergence from brumation is temperature dependant. That is generally when daily diurnal temperatures reach an average of 13-15C they will start to emerge to bask and when daily temperatures reach an average of around 20C they will start to mate on the warmer of the days in this period ie. 23C. Generally this is 1 to 2 months after they emerge.

Picking exactly when they are ready to mate is difficult but experience from breeders in Aus suggests that if they are exposed to the same conditions then they will be ready to mate at the same time. This is despite the fact that this window occurs 2 months earlier in Sydney than Melbourne (Sydney is approximately 900 km North of Melbourne).

Vigilance
Whether you are brumating blueys inside or outside you still need to periodically check on them.
Key things to look out for include:
-Indications of animals attempting to burrow in.
-Feral animals such as rats entering the enclosure - note cases of them eating blueys are known.
-Dehydration
-Development of infections/lesions.
-Loss of condition.
-Parasite infestation
-Moisture or flooding

Don't be afraid to handle them! I find that blotchies brumating in dry conditions are prone to dehydration. A way to prevent this is to wake them once a month and you will find they will readily drink once warmed. They do require more water and general hydration than T.scincoides and generally occur in more consistently moist habitats.

I believe that naturally it is rare for them to be dry during brumation which probably helps to play a role in their moisture management.

Anyway I can add some more later but thought I'd throw this stuff out there.

Some photos:

That's good information Scott. I would definitely like to try keeping a number of species outside when I have time to set things up correctly, and monitor them closely enough. You have inspired me to begin monitoring soil temperatures throughout the year. I have been meaning to do that for quite some time now.

90 percent of mine just curl up in dirt for the winter like your dirt nappers scott,with the occaisional pile of them,but mostly spaced out,i can put them in a dry hide but they come straight back out and curl up in the open,they seem to like exposing them selves

ive had them in ice for 3 days and still they do same thing,ill pop them in hides,dry or wet and even with hail piled up they make there way back out,so i just leave them alone now,we get the odd winter hail storm where hail blankets enclosure floor and takes 3 days or so to melt,pretty rare occurance

ill have to take some ground temps this season to see what temps they are

was rainy today and one lowlands was out trying to bask on top of main hide box,theres a bit of grass cover in there


if u can get cool temps inside they are just as easy to breed indoors,just letting them do what they do outdoors and waking when ever they want,trick is not to warm them to fast,that way u dont need to wake males early,and have a big temp gradient,with a cool back ground temp,mine indoors mate when the outdoors ones do then,but wake up months earlier,but ambient stays low enough for delayed matings

joys of living in a cool climate