BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Does anyone know whether or not the blue tongues at petco are wild caught or not?

What species of Blue Tongue Skink are they and how old do they claim they are (or their approximate length) ?

I personally wouldn't doubt they are wild caught. Most reptile vendors that stores like that purchase from only offer wild caught or captive born.. I do the ordering for my store, not a petco, but I'm pretty sure we deal with many of the same vendors. Though maybe there are exceptions..

Yes, the blueys being sold throughtout PetCo stores right now are wild caught. I've seen quite a few folks on the facebook group post pictures of their new PetCo skinks and all of them have been irian jaya type bts. If by some miracle there's a true northern at your PetCo then THAT one would be captive bred, but id put money on any others being wild caught. Also, keep in mind, captive born and farmed are just two others ways of saying wild caught.

Well the vendor is cal zoo and he/she is an Indonesian I think...not really sure on that though. He/she is just labeled as a blue tongue. He/she is by the looks of it just under a foot long. I don't own he/she. I'm just curious .

Ok thank you diana

Sounds like an import there are very few, if any, breeders of Indo's in North America.

Cal zoo only has imports right now. They recently offered a Gravid female for sale too. She disappeared off the list this week.. Wonder if a store bought her.

The subspecies Petco currently selling are Meraukes, Irian Jayas, and Halmaheras.

Around here right now (Long Island, NY) they have farmed IJs, as do many other pet shops in this area.
Couldn't resist bringing one home from Repxotica yesterday, as friends of mine own the store and there will be no issues if I have a problem. There are still 2 left, very cute and out and about, not afraid of anything! Not a fan of imports, but sometimes I just can't help myself!

I know captive bred are definitely better, but it's it really abad thing to get an import? What would ihave to do differently?

Truthfully, never had an issue with one. I prefer Indonesian species and most are imported. My worries would be parasites, stress from shipping, the whole nine yards of usual issues with WC anything. 40 years ago most everything was WC so I have plenty of experience with such things. Would be wary and pay close attention, and you may not have a problem. If you are a first time owner, however, I would definitely go with captive bred.

Personally I don't buy WC for these reasons (from a previous post)

Health wise internal and external parasites are the main issue with imports.

Temperament can be a problem with adults as they are basically wildlife forced to live in a cage - they may hide more, or pace the walls trying to escape, sometimes they are tricky to feed but I think this is less of a problem with skinks

And then there is is moral issue of depleting wild populations and holding, packing and shipping live animals over X amount of days/weeks/?months? and the percentage of animals who die in the process compared to each one that survives to be sold overseas for $100 U.S. when the Indonesisn who caught it gets paid less than a $1 U.S.

At my petco they had secured a Northern from a local breeder. It is possible for them to get reptiles from the local area but it is not common. I know with mine you can put in a request and they'll try to find what you're looking for. I really trust them though as 3 of the employees are reptile owners including the main 'reptile guy'. He gets some say over their ordering and really does try to meet the requirements for all the species they have.

The babies available now are farm raised in their country of origin for the pet trade, not 'wild caught' animals that would deplete populations. Have never had a problem with such an animal, and have had many over the years. They just need to be watched more closely for issues, and more patient and gentle handling and in a few months (or even weeks in the case of mine) you will not even be able to tell they were ever anywhere else but with you. My Indos have become as tame as my Northern, and not a single health issue ever. Just using the term WC a bit too loosely I guess, as I was just referring to anything imported. There are times when there is no choice as my personal favorites are not being captive bred by many. Adult wild caught animals should be avoided, however, for the reasons Dood explained. And to add to that, you will never know how old they are.

I work at a Petco at the moment and yes, they are wild caught. Most of the reptiles Petco gets are imports.

I used to work at a Petco here in Louisiana, and we were lucky enough to get in a blue tongue skink. Here is my story:

I had never kept a lizard before at that time. I was hired as the "Aquatics Specialist" as I have many years of experience with fish, but I was surprised to find out after being hired that I was to be in charge of the reptiles and amphibians as well. I had kept native box turtles in an outdoor pen as a kid, but that is hardly enough experience to have when people come to you for advice, so I decided that I wanted to keep a lizard as a means of teaching myself the basics. Twice a year, Petco puts on a one-day only Reptile Rally, in which they place all of their reptiles on sale for half off of their normal price, so I was instructed to place an order for an assortment of "miscellaneous reptiles" for the event. Surprisingly, in that random order, we received one blue tongue skink. It was definitely an indonesian species and about 6" in length. It was love at first site. She was very active and healthy and eating like a champ, but covered in snake mites, so I kept her in quarantine in the back for the week leading up the the rally. When the rally did finally come, I couldn't bring myself to put her out for sale, so I bought her.

That was 2 years ago. I have since discovered that she is a Merauke and she is just over 20" at the time of this writing. As far as whether or not she was captive bred, I really have no idea as I did not order her directly. I just remember it being a company based in California and that I ordered a reptile assortment. The fact that she was covered in snake mites might be an indication of captive breeding since these animals may be kept in close proximity leading to the spread of parasites and disease, but then again, she very well may have gotten them in the wild so I just wouldn't be able to say either way. We only got one other blue tongue in after that, and it had a crooked back. He was about the same size as mine was, possibly smaller. In my opinion, this is a more solid clue that they are being captive bred, because the curved back issue was clearly MBD, a condition which could only develop in captivity in my opinion, especially at the size that he was. Someone bought him about a week after we got him though, so hopefully he was properly cared for.

I hope some of this might be helpful. I'd very much like to know as well as to whether or not these are being raised in captivity or not.