where to purchase

[871ajohnson]

I was originally thinking of getting a blue tongue off of this site, but I just want to weigh all my options. I won't be getting one for a little while, but I am preparing everything beforehand (im working on some custom hides for his/her enclosure right now). I want a captive bred bluey. I live in Massachusetts. I want to know about people's experiences with places. It can be online or an actual store (although I am a bit skittish about ordering a live reptile online). I want to know what my options are for getting a nice healthy captive bred.

[lucasrusinak]

your best bet is ordering offline from a breeder. pet stores that have them usually have imported wild caughts which isnt a terrible thing, but its something you should know.

Ordering a bts online is probably your best bet, unless there are any reputable breeders near you (which Im unsure of). It seems a little frightening, but people ship reptiles all the time through reputable shipping companies with no issues. its not as bad as you think

[Susann]

I agree, online through a breeder is your best bet.
When you are dealing with someone who breeds primarily BTS you are much more likely to get exactly what the seller claims he's selling, and the babies are more likely to be bred and reared with a lot of care.

Most of us who breed our skinks do it out of love and have put a bunch of money into our breeders and babies; some may have started out doing it to make money, but most of us have soon realized that you need to do it for years before you even break even with what you put into it.
--I guess what I'm trying to say is, pet stores and snake breeders at expos selling a few blue tongue skinks usually are just trying to make a quick buck, telling you whatever you want to hear, usually that the skinks are from breeders and were bred in captivity... A BTS breeder will be able to show you pictures and history of parents and will certainly know the date the babies were born.

A breeder will also give you all the help and support you'd ever need with any animal you purchase from them, and that can be invaluable.

[JoshChimera]

Ray Gurgui, he is so informative and he cares about the reptile so much! He is a breeder, I found him online back in 2009, I didn't know he was active on forums at the time. He emailed me pictures of my baby Tanimbar that year. He placed a AA battery to give me an idea of the bts's size. My Tanimbar will be 7 years old in May.

[jdheff1982]

Donna @ Captive Bred Excellence @ captivebred.com usually has a good selection of Northerns. I bought mine from her and he is doing very well.

[starscream3232]

I got my first two from Donna at captive bred. Great person to deal with. Loves her skinks. Then I found an adult on Craig's list which after talking with Donna came from her also. My other two came from James Wilson last year from the classifieds on this site. I bred my adult female to my male last month and she putting on weight so hopefully I'll have a litter this season. First time breeding so I'm very excited. I see that you are in Massachusetts. I'm in Rhode Island so if you don't find a skink and I hopefully have a litter, we can work something out and take shipping out of the equation.

[splashy07]

My landlady got her northern from Captive Bred Excellence also. Absolutely incredible animal and the nicest people on the planet.

[871ajohnson]

Wow thank you so much for all the replies! Everyone is so helpful on here! Thank you for all the suggestions. I will definitely look into everything

[aron77]

I would recommend buying from a breeder. I just got mine from a pet store and other than the fact that I got them now I wish I had gotten them from a breeder because eventhough this was the best reptile pet store in my area they still didn't even know what they were selling and may have outright lied to me. I was looking for two, one for me and one for my sister, so that we could breed them eventually but I was having a hard time find even one, find them outside of breeding season didn't help. I preferred not to have to deal with shipping, the logistic do suck and it has to be stressful on the animal, so I continued to just stop in pet stores as I was out. Long story short I finally called the pet store that I knew carried the most reptiles in this area and they said they had not one but two, turned out they had three, so I rushed all the way out there to go buy them. I asked them what kind they were and they just said "common", I think they thought they were selling bearded dragons as I believe they meant just not a color morph. Two of them looked exactly alike and the third was larger and appeared a little different but to a BT noobie it looked as tho it might be the same species and I asked specifically if they were the same species and told them I preferred nonrelated ones because I was planning on breeding them if I was lucky enough to get opposite sex. They said yes that they came from the same breeder but certainly not the same parents for the size difference. But I still confirmed with them that they were in fact captive born and they assured me that they only buy captive born. So I assumed that because they were "common" and captive born that because the most common captive born in the US were northerns that I had just gotten two unrelated northerns that might make a great breeding pair. I got them home and got them set up and the first thing I did was take a pic of the two of them and posted it on here and it was unanimous that people said that not only were they not northerns but that one was an Irian Jaya and the other a Merauke and there was a high probability that they were both wild caught or at least that their parents were and these were born from wild caught parents. And it is frowned upon to mix breed species so now when these two grow up I'm either going to have to find one more IJ and Merauke each or trade one for the other to breed. Plus I paid $250 each, well I talked them down to $475 for the pair, and I could have probably gotten them from a breeder for $200 (maybe less) plus shipping, so probably a wash but at least I would have known what I was getting and felt better about the health of my animal.

The moral of that story is that eventhough I love my Merauke and in some ways am more happy with her I wanted two unrelated northers, they appear to be the easiest to breed and have the largest litters, but I got two different species of unknown origin. You are already planning on waiting and BT's will be being born in the coming months so you should just buy from a breeder even if you have to ship. Shipping sucks because you have to do overnight shipping, which isn't cheap at all, and you must be there to receive it which with work schedules etc... can be hard and it has to be stressful on the animal but it is a necessary evil and most likely unless you find a breeder in your back yard that animal got shipped at some point. Years ago I purchased a bearded dragon online and had it shipped. I wasn't thrilled with the idea but I worked out the logistic and was there to receive it and the whole time I was worried I was going to open a box with a dead animal inside but it all worked out fine and she was healthy. While I still don't like it for the stress on the animal it is a necessary evil and if done with care the stress can be mitigated and I don't think there is a high mortality rate as long as it isn't done in extreme whether.

[Dood]

can be hard and it has to be stressful on the animal but it is a necessary evil

remember that domestic shipping is a heck of a lot less stressful than the 16 hour flight across the Pacific not to mention how long the imports spent crammed in crates and waiting at the airport to be loaded into the cargo section !

The buyer must beware as in an importer and pet stores eyes "captive bred" in the backyard of someone in Indonesia is legitimate use of the term

I wonder how may other animals are sold as CB but imports

Maybe a new term like "Domestic Born" is needed but many of the pet stores would likely lie about this as well just like labelling IJ or Meraukes as Northerns to make a sale

[NickBrahz]

can be hard and it has to be stressful on the animal but it is a necessary evil

remember that domestic shipping is a heck of a lot less stressful than the 16 hour flight across the Pacific not to mention how long the imports spent crammed in crates and waiting at the airport to be loaded into the cargo section !

The buyer must beware as in an importer and pet stores eyes "captive bred" in the backyard of someone in Indonesia is legitimate use of the term

I wonder how may other animals are sold as CB but imports

Maybe a new term like "Domestic Born" is needed but many of the pet stores would likely lie about this as well just like labelling IJ or Meraukes as Northerns to make a sale

Yeah the problem is no matter what terms you use people are just gonna lie out of their ass to make a quick buck or they are ignorant knowing nothing and just saying random stuff.

[Susann]

With live bearing reptiles the term CBB stands for Captive Bred and Born and is supposed to imply that the parents mated in captivity and gave birth to offspring without an importation in between. With live-bearers CB simply means that the offspring were born in captivity, mating could've taken place before female was captured from the wild or before being exported by a reptile "farm".