BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Just added my first BTS to the family. He's so cool and the kids and I are loving having him/her. Can anyone tell me if it is indeed a Northern BTS? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Nope, he is an Irian Jaya (IJ). Very pretty!

X2 ,an ij with a more scincoides look,nice looking one to

Not a Northern then? I guess I was lied to. Oh well.

I would say he is a Irian Jaya (IJ for short) or a hybrid.

Northers have a distinct pattern on their lower sides that is usually orange or peach but can be other shades and not always as striking as the skink in the attached pic.

He looks just like my skink "Scatha" who had a Northern mother with a very typical pattern and an unidentified species of father that looks just like Scatha.

Could you post pictures of the parents Dood?

We love him no matter what he is anyway. Thanks for the info!!! And the compliment. He is a beautiful specimen.

The clean forearms and little bit of black outlining on the lower portion of the bands would point at a hybrid animal in my eyes

Do I need to be concerned at all about any of that??

All of yours who commented are awesome looking!!!

mzelinger wrote:Do I need to be concerned at all about any of that??

This looks nothing more than a classic IJ.. I wouldn't worry about it being a hybrid.

THIS is a hybrid.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23616

mzelinger wrote:Do I need to be concerned at all about any of that??

you dont need to worry at all your bts will be a lovely pet, and he looks like he has a lot of character from the photos, and some really nice bandings too.
however, if there is a concern the bts might be a hybrid, or have had a parent which was half half, then breeding might not be the first to think of with this particular individual.

personally i only see a very nice IJ

Thanks Dakota. Appreciate all of the help. That 1 year old is absolutely beautiful. Hope it ends up in a good home.

Thanks also Linnea. He does already show a really great personality. He explores all over the place. He doesn't mind being handled at all. I think the Reptile store really took good care of the couple of BTS's they still had available. I really don't think they even knew they were selling ones that weren't Northerns, so I'm not upset. The store was really amazing and they really took great care of us and didn't over sell us on stuff we didn't need (which I heard is the regular practice of other places). I will definitely not be breeding, but I can see myself getting another somewhere down the line.

It did, I know who took him.

Dakota wrote:Could you post pictures of the parents Dood?

No, I answered a classified ad that said they were Northerns and the parents were on site.

They had 7 babies (Scatha was one of the larger ones at 67 grams) and I was suspicious that they were not purebred so I asked to see the parents. Mom had the typical Northern pattern but pop didn't, I suspect he was IJ or a hybrid and the babies all looked like him.

I originally wanted a Northern mainly because I'd read that they had a very calm temperament and because I didn't want an import.

So far I have been very impressed with my little guy.

Looks like a Northern x IJ to me.

I would say NorthernxIJ or IJ. It doesn't matter as long as you're not planning to breed him.

donkeybuff wrote:I would say NorthernxIJ or IJ. It doesn't matter as long as you're not planning to breed him.

As long as the babies are correctly labeled I don't see why not.