Updates on our little buddies

[aaronhouts]

Hi, everyone!

So far so good after about 3 months. Thank you to everyone on this forum for sharing their experience and knowledge.

Here are Zipper and Scout. We've put a lot of work into them and have learned a lot. We know that we still have a lot to learn.

The top two pics are Zipper. We suspect she's a female. If you guys have any guesses as to sex, we tried to get a shot from the top on a flat surface. We're pretty sure she likes the West Wing as evidenced in the second pic.

We think Scout (the last 4 pics) is a male. Surprisingly, he didn't really like the raspberry.

Now that I've got the hang of posting pics, I should be able to get more pics and updates up soon!

Thanks for looking!

[Susann]

They are both so gorgeous! I hope you do keep posting their pictures, I for one can't get enough...

[kl]

They are beautiful looking skinks. I like axanthics and hope more breeders will take an interest in working with them so we don't have to rely on the very small numbers coming in from Indo. Few people get to see them and they are much more unique looking in person than in pics.

KL

[splashy07]

They are just spectacular! I can't get enough of them either, keep the pics coming!

[Dakota]

Lovely skinks.

[aaronhouts]

Thank you all so much!

We REALLY love these things. Though we have lots of experience with reptiles, these are our first Blue Tongue Skinks and I can't believe how cool they are! Over 20 years as a boa guy and I have to say BTS are the best animals I've ever worked with.

We hope they're a pair and that we can get them to breed. I would love to see CBB Halmaheras in the US. I have experience as a Veterinary Technician and we dealt with imported snakes quite a bit in the past, so we have our deworming game down and are pretty well set up for imports. We dewormed these guys back in August and will probably hit them again in December just for good measure since they were imported earlier this year. I agree with KL, if people could produce CBB Halmaheras, it would be better for all of us-calmer, healthier pets and less stress on wild populations.

They each weighed about 60 grams when we got them. Zipper last weighed in at 260 and Scout was 290. Funny enough, we got them 2 weeks apart and Zipper was bigger than Scout. Scout eats more, grows faster and is now bigger than she is which is another reason we suspect their sexes. We've even had to cut them both down a bit on food since I was afraid they were starting to look a bit chunky.

We get them out pretty much daily-often more than once-so they're pretty well socialized, but they had great personalities from the start.

Thanks again for looking, everyone! More updates to follow!

[Dakota]

I know you asked about weight on my guys, so I thought I would include this:

Maxx
449 g
26 cm SVL
51 cm total length
SVL is 50.9% of length
96.15% of SVL = tail length
21 months old

Riley
295 g
22.5 cm SVL
45 cm total length
SVL is 50% of total length
100% of SVL = tail length
15 months old

These are weights from a while ago, though. Riley is a runt; he is now just a tad over 18" at 23 months. I am getting a scale next week to keep track of my girls. Maxx is still on loan, but will get a weight on all the Halmaheras of varying ages for you guys. I hope you don't mind me posting it here; I know you guys have been asking around for weights and such.

[aaronhouts]

Thanks, Dakota.
That's really helpful.

I've been keeping an eye on the other Axanthic Halmaheras that came in on the same shipment and ours are clearly bigger. Ours also look more like subadults where the others that are not in our care look like juveniles. The other ones are 8"-12" and I just pulled out the tape measure on Scout and he's 16"-17" nose to tail. That makes me less worried about his weight.

They eat well and obviously grow from each meal. They're not aggressive but are also not afraid of us in or out of the enclosures. I can move them around and spray them down inside their enclosures and they don't seem bothered. When they're out, they'll actively come to us if we're sitting on the floor and use us a hides for a nap.

We're still fine tuning our cages and practices.

[Karen]

Very beautiful animals. I wish you luck with getting them to be a pair! It definitely would be great to see more CBB gigas, and certainly gigas like these!

[aaronhouts]

Thanks, Karen!
Here's hoping!
More updates and pics:
Last night, Scout weighed in at 304-he finally broke 300 grams and Zipper was 268. Zipper is also about an inch shorter. Again, Zipper has been bigger until recently, but Scout has been catching up and now is the bigger of the two. Here's a recent pic of him with the tape measure. Here's Zipper's pic again without the tape measure. I think they're both about 7 months old. They have each had several perfect sheds in the past 3 months.
Anybody have thoughts on sex or is it too early?
Thanks in advance for looking!
Aaron and Susan

[Susann]

I'm stumped on both, but I probably wouldn't guess even if one or both looked clear as day as I'm a bit gun shy after finding sperm plugs in Lucy's tank today... Only baby I've ever felt confident enough on to name early on. That'll show me!

I CAN tell you though that I'm a bit green with envy over both of them, as I am sure are many others. Keep feeding those puppies so they'll be big enough to mate next year! Just kidding, no rush. Just know that there are many people waiting eagerly... No pressure either!

[Jeff]

Both are great looking skinks. They are still a little young, but to me Scout looks likely female, and Zipper looks more male.

[Susann]

Scout looks likely female, and Zipper looks more male.

That was my feeling as well. I could also lean towards both being female, but they are very young still...

[aaronhouts]

Thank you both so much, Jeff and Sue!

We keep going back and forth. We originally thought Zipper was the male and Scout the female as well exactly as you both have said. I saw some adults being sold on this forum and Zipper looked like the male and Scout like the female. It's crazy that we can't sex these things better! I even checked with my zoo and vet connections about DNA sexing but no luck.

Regardless, when we got them, we bought them with the mentality that we may not even be able to breed them at all since Halmaheras are so tricky and that they may just be pets. We work with them a lot as far as socialization and enrichment. They have fantastic personalities and are very comfortable with us. They are well loved without a doubt!

That being said, we are going to do everything we can to get them to breed. CBB gigas is nothing but good!
If we don't have a pair between these two, I guess we'll just have to get more! The only one that's going to have hurt feelings is our bank account. (We're both teachers.)