I've been reading up for months and researching, then more researching, and saving to get everything I need to get my first reptiles ever I live in New Zealand, where we have an abundance of native reptiles (mostly very tiny and endangered), the only exotic lizards we can have here are Eastern & Inland Bearded Dragons, Leopard Geckos, Eastern Water Dragons, Cunningham skinks, and Eastern Blue Tongue Skinks. When I started getting interested in keeping a lizard at the beginning of the year (my original fascination was with snakes, but alas, every single species of snake is illegal to keep in my country, and there are no native species), the choice to get a Blue Tongue was easily made. I quickly developed an intense passion for the species, just by researching and watching videos and hearing stories from people that keep them. I was hooked haha! Though i'd never even held a reptile in my life, let alone a foot long lizard, I knew that I was going to have one.
After a month or two of researching, I decided I knew enough to keep one as a pet. I quickly set to drawing up plans and looking into everything I would need to buy, whilst trying to find a breeder of the beautiful creatures (the reptile trade in NZ is ridiculously small, there are no major breeders, no 'lines' or morphs to speak of). I decided it was best to go all in and buy everything I thought I would need. I went to the local DIY store and talked to one of the very helpful team members, who happily helped me get all of the materials I would need for my custom built terrarium. I wanted to build it out of White Melamine as I had seen a few online that were made out of it and looked amazing, however he informed me that the MDF inside the white melamine actually contains formaldehyde, and suggested I use an untreated plywood instead, which was also a third of the price. I ordered lights off Amazon, and lighting fixtures from a pet store in the closest city to me. I found water + feed dishes, 4 thermometers, along with Aspen substrate on our national online trade site (pretty much New Zealands version of ebay) and ordered them. I made a few reptile hides myself out of stones
Once everything to have my enclosure completely setup was in motion, I'd managed to find a decent breeder (it was very difficult to find a petstore that didn't buy their animals in from random breeders around the country and the only private breeder I found seemed far too dodgy & wouldn't answer most of my questions). The guy I got them off is a man named Grant who owns a pet store, but breeds his own lizards. I rung him up and ended up talking to him for over an hour on the phone, he answered every single one of my questions and was amazingly helpful. A few days after talking to him I had decided that I was sure he was the breeder I wanted to get my bluey off. In fact I had decided I wanted two haha. Grant has 4 breeding pairs and I asked him to select me two that were from different litters (just incase they end up being male and female and I decide to breed them in later years, i've read and heard that inbreeding is not necessarily harmful unless it's done repeatedly, but I decided i'd just rather not if I had the choice).
As my terrarium was still being built, I asked Grant if I could pay him in advance, and he would hold onto my lizards until I was organized to have them (it ended up being over 7 weeks from the date I paid for the till I was ready for them
)My terrarium was literally only finished the day before the arrival of my lizards (bad organizing on my part) and when I plugged in my lights, they all blew, when I plugged in my spares they all blew. I quickly read up on a solution, (I got house lights as I read they weren't harmful, and ordered another UV light and Infrared heat light from a more local supplier who I got my calcium and vitamin powders from).
The terrarium is 2400mm X 600mm X600 mm, made of ply, with a plexiglass front that is made of two individual pieces with a barrier inbetween. In the middle of it there are slots for my 600mm X 600mm middle piece to slot in, which divides it into two seperate enclosures. I have 6 lighting fixtures, four that go up to 150w and two that go up to 50w, all of which are movable, 3 for each side. I read cohabitation was not the best idea so I thought a customized terrarium would be best for that. (though I went hundreds of dollars over budget).
Finally, after having a million things go wrong, they arrived on Wednesday the 23rd of July
Meet Tannis and Tumnis my Eastern Blue Tongue Skink Buddies!
It was literally one of the happiest moments of my life, so much time, effort and planning went into getting these fine specimens.
They arrived with all fingers, toes and tails intact, in what appears to be perfect health
I know that cohabitation has a really bad rep, but the guy that sold me these kept all his babies together,ever since mine were picked out he has kept them in an enclosure together, they were shipped in the same box, and even though I may just be naive and ignorant, they seem happiest when they're hanging out together, though i've only observed them for just under two weeks. I make sure they're seperated if it's night time or if i'm out of the house, but even though they have seperate enclosures (via a secure and custom ply 12mm thick partition) once it's all open they tend to stroll around together and bask in the same areas (this could very well be because of temperature at certain points when it's opened up into one enclosure, though they're still very tiny and there's a substantial amount of room for them to leave one another alone), sometimes I even look over to them to find them asleep on one another. I'm always close by them if they are out adventuring together or the terrarium is opened into one enclosure, so if they ever did start to get aggressive toward one another I would be able to seperate them straight away. Hopefully it's not just me being silly thinking they can be friends
Has anyone on here got any GOOD cohabition tales? I'm nearly into two weeks having them and have seen not a single sign of aggression between them. Though I am aware that could change at an instant and in the wild they are solitary animals. I haven't got any good pictures of my terrarium that don't reflect my messy room in the plexiglass, but I shall fold my washing and take a decent photo this week
We have an excellent array of native ferns that are not toxic to the blueys, so I have been collecting them and making sure they are insect free and lining the walls of my terrarium with them My blueys love it, it's like being in a mini forest for them, I also have multiple basking spots and hides set up, all made from rocks I collected from the beach and cleaned It looks lovely and I think they're both very happy. They've eaten nearly everyday since I first got them, not big amounts, just a nibble or two (except for when I gave them some scrambled egg each, they both loved it), but i've only seen them drink from the water a few times each, and I have yet to find any poop. From what I gather it takes them a couple of weeks to get completely settled into their new lives, so i'm not particularly concered at the moment. They're both quite active and seem quite healthy. I have a little diary that I write information and notes in about them, mainly what i've fed them, how much they ate.
I measured them yesterday, Tannis the slightly bigger and lighter coloured one who has a break in his markings on the top right, is 22.5 cm, and Tumnis the smaller darker one with breaks in her markings on the bottom left and right is 21 cm. I'm going to get some food scales this week so I can start weighing them.
Anyway, enough with my crazy, here are some pictures, most of them are of Tumnis but the face shots are of Tannis
Any criticism (as long as it isn't nasty) is welcome! I would love to know what I could be doing/shouldn't be doing (I know i'm going to get told off for allowing them to chill together, but hey). Hopefully all you Americans and Australians realise how easy it is for you to actually get a reptile pet compared to here haha! I live in a region that is over 300km (not sure what that is in miles) and has three smallish towns with heaps of tiny towns, that add up to a population of around 50,000, and to my knowledge i'm the only one that has Lizards for pets.
Just look at those beautiful temporal strikes
