BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I have been a reptile hobbits for close to 5 years now so its no surprise that I find myself browsing around "kingsnake.com" classifieds on a regular basis. Yet what has surprised me is how often Blue Tongue Skinks are mislabeled or simply just label as "Blue Tongue Skink", not only on this classified but many retail websites.

Its very upsetting that these retailers are not taking the time to label their animals correctly. I feel if your going to sell anything you have to at least have the knowledge to properly name it, not just putting a general name and forgetting all about subspecies and locals. Then their are the people who include sub species but get it wrong! I am not sure which is worse! Im sorry about my rambling but just though I would see what others options were on this forum, now enough of my yapping and more showing. Here is an example I saw today.





Now I might consider myself a beginner with Blueys but come on Im pretty sure that someone that claims to be a reptile retailer can clearly see this is not Scincoides. nonetheless very beautiful Blue Tongue Skink he is selling there!

This is very common on Kingsnake. I'm not sure if the sellers don't know or don't care?

I am friends with this person that had baby IJ's on his Facebook that he produced. I commented "Cute IJ's".. he then replied to me saying that the mother was an IJ x Northern.. and the father was a IJ x Northern x Northern.. at first I was upset, and was about to write a 2 page comment saying what he was doing was wrong.. but I erased it all.. and I asked to see the parents. After about an hour wait, he sent them to me. If they weren't full IJ, my name isn't Dakota.

He went on saying Indonesians smuggle Northerns in.. and sell them for their hide, ect., ect.

I don't really know enough yet to really tell the different bts apart. It does irritate the snot out of me when people call a blizzard or a snow corn an albino, or mix up any of the other morphs. Just b/c the snake is all white does not make it an albino. Albino or amelanistic (amel) corns lack black but are otherwise red and orange.

I think anyone selling any animal should know enough about it to call it by its proper name. Likewise if you are buying an animal, do your research and know what you are buying.

Here were the babies:


Here is the father:


Here is the mother:


Now if these had the slightest Northern in them, I own 20 skinks.

Photo credit: Jeffrey S.

Those look like standard IJs to me as well. That being said, if you breed an IJ to any scincoides, you will get IJ looking babies.

They would look like this:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23616

Not always Dakota. That animal has very distinctive Scincoides traits. Most Ij crosses end up looking like ijs I haven't seen many in person, maybe a dozen or so at shows, but they usually look like pure ij's. I have no idea why, but that's just how it works.

Ooh, back to the ad, I check the skink classifieds on kingsnake every single day and I see a ton of mislabeled blueys. Its sad that people focus so much on getting the animal sold, that not much attention is payed to giving out good information. This isn't always the case, but most of the time the seller just doesnt care.

Yes, but if it was a Northern mixed with an IJ, then mixed again with another Northern.. it would show some type of Northern trait..

It SHOULD show traits of a northern. It may not though. Thats what makes hybridization so bad in Tiliqua. You could be buying an animal that looks like a pure Irian or Intermedia, and not even know that a few generations down the line, there's genes that don't belong there.

there was a member on here that was breeding meraukes,had a group housed together,a few were actually ij,s,they showed pocs of merauke males mating ij females and babies looked pure ij

theres a few of those type adds on kingsnake to,showing the parents,ij and merauke,every baby ive seen looks like a ij

i dont think indonesia would be importing northerns,especially for there hides,but indiscriminately imported aussie blueys are often passed off as indo imports to try legitimising there enterence out of aus,eg the albino and black easterns popping up out of australia now

I dont know what possible use someone could get out of a hide that small...

Dont believe everything you hear

Here is another ad like this. They got the common name for it right.. kindly.. but scientifically, not even close..

I actually went to Glades Herp Farm today, which is who is selling this Merauke. I seen this baby, along with 2 more skinks. 1 Northern.. 1 Merauke (pictured).. 1 IJ.. I held them all besides the baby Merauke. The IJ had MBD.. They were housed in a 20 gallon long separately.. The Northern had the under-jaw coming over top jaw thing, which is a sign of MBD.. so whoever is wanting this little guy, needs to hurry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the side note, I got the meet the owner, which is Robbie off of "Swamp Brothers", and got his autograph. He is a really cool person, just needs to study more about each species of animal he has.

Robbie's brother was showing us around, since Dad was up there to meet the owner of the venomous part.. and when we got the the skinks, my eyes lit up!! .. He kept popping me questions about them, answered them all pretty good.. he didn't even know the Northern was a Northern.

He asked where they originate from, while holding the Northern, waiting for me to answer "Australia".. and of course, I answered Australia.. but knowing that he didn't even know it was a Northern.. he is probably one of those people that think all Blue-Tongued Skinks come from Australia. His face would have been priceless if he was holding the Merauke or IJ.. since he would expect the answer Australia, though it is Indonesia and New Guinea.

I thought I had to share that with you guys.

We have dealt with Glades before. They may not be particularly knowledgable, but I've always been happy with the animals we received. They seem like good people. I'm mildly envious that you got to tour the facility. That would have been interesting. And thats a pretty cool looking skink in the ad.

Seeing the MBD made me quite sad.. but I guess not everyone is going to give them the best care.. they have so many animals! It was crazy. Tortoises, Caimans, Monitors, Crocodiles, Alligators, Cockatoos, Macaws, Cobras, Vipers, Skinks, Bearded Dragons, Frogs of every type.. everything! It was an adventure.

We originally went to see Robroy, but he wasn't there.