Just got our first BTS! (Pictures included)

[STCxB]

Hello everyone. My girlfriend and I have been doing our skink research for the last couple months and have been tracking down breeders and getting all of our equipment and everything. I know we emailed a few of the forum members who are breeding to see what they have available and when, but a trip to our local reptile store proved to be very fruitful recently. They have been a world of help when looking into skinks and are, combined with the world of help available on this site and forum, one of the biggest factors that turned us on to blue tongue skinks. We met one of their skinks a few times, who was a rescue/adoption from a customer who could no longer care for her after a few years (we assume it is a she because of what look like mating scars and a smaller head than one would expect from a male, in our opinion).

They took in another one from customer who could not bring their skink with them when they moved, and we met her and fell in love (assumed to be a her because of the head size and because the other skink did not attempt to mate with her to anyone's knowledge). She is about 4 or 5 years old, and her previous owner had had her since she was a baby. We believe she is either a Merauke or Indonesian BTS, but she displays traits of both species. My girlfriend and I are wondering if any of the more experienced members can help identify her species more accurately, as we are simply using the site's species specific pages to identify her. She is about 20-22" long (we haven't done a solid measurement, yet), and she has a very nice grey coloration and thin stripes with all four legs being black with white flecking, and a very orangish-pink belly. Also, her tongue is half pink and half blue, which I believe is a fairly common trait amongst Indonesian skinks. She is an absolute sweetheart and is settling in to her new home quite nicely.

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[Sarikazam]

Hello! Welcome to the forum!
I would say that is a Merauke you have, and a very pretty one at that.

[Ophidiophile]

Yup nice Merauke (Tiliqua gigas evanescens). Congrats.

[Katrina]

Lovely addition! Welcome!

[STCxB]

Thanks! We were leaning toward her being a Merauke, but she seemed small compared to other Merauke's I've seen photos of, especially with some people saying they get up to 30".

[Sarikazam]

I think 30" is quite exceptional. My 2.5 year old male is somewhere around 24".

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Your Merauke will probably stay somewhere in between 23-26 inches.

[Katrina]

Thanks! We were leaning toward her being a Merauke, but she seemed small compared to other Merauke's I've seen photos of, especially with some people saying they get up to 30".

Lots of people have 30" Meraukes. Online... they just can't prove it.

My largest is 25.5", the others are 22-24" generally.

[STCxB]

Ok. So if she is the 20-22" size that we've estimated she's right on the lower end of normal?

[Katrina]

Ok. So if she is the 20-22" size that we've estimated she's right on the lower end of normal?

I'd say 20-23" is totally normal. Not too many get much larger than 24".

[Ophidiophile]

It looks normal and proportionate to me. Size depends on how often and what it's been fed and obviously on its age as well. It will continue to grow slowly throughout its life if taken care of well.
But again, looks pretty normal to me.

[STCxB]

Alright, thanks everyone! We really appreciate the quick responses on all of this!

[Clavietika]

What a lovely skink! She has a dainty face.

[STCxB]

Well, she is settling in quite nicely and has a big appetite! At first she was hesitant about eating her vegetables, but she's really on board with them now. She still picks around her lettuce a bit but oh well. Her current protein source is crickets which we will be weaning her off once we start to run out. We had about 30 or so and she really enjoys hunting them even if they aren't terribly nutritious. She's also gotten way better at hunting, it seems.

When I find time in the next few weeks, I plan to modify her current home. She is currently housed in a 55 gal aquarium that measures 48x12x20ish. I plan to turn it on its side so she has 48x20ish of floor space instead of 48x12. I'm going to remove one glass panel to make an opening for the top and then close off what would be an open side with some coated wood.

Once I do this I was planning to make her a small little hide/burrow that would be partially sunken into the substrate. I scoured the forum but I haven't been able to find anything about anyone making a more permanent burrow/hide/tunnel for their skink, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas for materials or designs that they may have tried. Thanks!

[Clavietika]

If you're just looking for something to bury, I've seen people just use lengths of PVC tube wide-yet-snug enough for their reptiles to slide into. But it's not really that necessary if you have deep enough substrate I think; my lizard uses a combination of his hides and also likes to burrow under his substrate to sleep from time to time. People also make dens out of tiles and bricks that can easily be buried in substrate. The trick is mostly not to make them too tall, since a)skinks like their living space to be snug and secure and b) it saves cage space since they can go up on top of the burrow with ease.

edit: I also have This rock looking cave in the tank and it's presently half-buried, I'll take a picture once I get home. The reason it's half buried is because it's actually too tall and sheer for my skink and he just slides off the edges when he climbs on it. Which is funny for me, but frustrating for him I'd wager so I buried it, now he has a little path around the back and he can chill out on top.

[STCxB]

One thing I was considering is making something that would fit into the tank before putting any substrate in, then fill substrate to about half its height. Something she could get on top of to bask and get under to "burrow" provided it didn't get too toasty inside.

[DianaBlueTongue]

I made my northern, Burrito, a hide box out of a piece of melamine and some 1x3's so the top is a big flat basking platform and the interior is low and snug. Ill see if I have a pic somewhere...

[DianaBlueTongue]

....

[STCxB]

Yeah! That's almost exactly what I was thinking. It doesn't get too hot in the hide?

[DianaBlueTongue]

nope The interior stays around 75-80 or so and is lined with forest moss that's kept moist to aid in shedding. There's a 75 watt zoo med infrared basking bulb above it to keep her warm while she sleeps but it's pretty high over the box. If the bulb on yours would be closer id probably suggest a 50 watt bulb. Best way to see what the temps would be in your box would be to put a digital thermometer probe inside and wait an hour to see where its at, that's how I got my temps right inside mine