South-Hemisphere Bluetonguess

[NickBrahz]

Just wondering how other people in the south hem's bluetongues are going, mine have already started to shut down starting to only see them for a short time each day or even every few days the rest they are burrowed and sleeping, night temps in my region have been getting as low as 10C so set up some 50W ceramic overnight heating from 20:00-05:00, will be the second winter for these bubs.

[alichamp]

Yep, definitely slowed. Now late autumn here. Haven't seen much of Treasure for probably the last month. Spends most time sleeping under rock hide at the warm end. Comes out every 5 days or so to look around for food, or will come out at the smell of food. Will bask a bit that day and come out to bask for short periods the next 1 or 2 days until a poo, then back to hidey hole for another 4 days or so.

I've had night time heat too but outside temps finally dropped below 10 this week so now we have our house heating on will probably cease night time heating in enclosure, her being a blotchy. Probably won't drop below about 12 in there anyway.

Our second winter too, was in two minds about brumation, considering keeping warm again. But I think she looks in beautiful condition (*proud beaming*) and probably nice fat stores so am probably happy to let her decide. Might leave her with ambient night temps, continue shortened day heat/light and see how she goes from there.

What are you going to do with yours Nick?

[NickBrahz]

Last year i had them on 100W 24/7 seeing it was there first one, i was considering not giving them heating this year but there is no harm in doing so, so going to give them 50W overnight heating, im not 100% set in what hours i will be having the overnight heating on, currently day heating is 07:00 - 19:00 so was thinking nighttime heating to be something along the lines of 22:00 - 05:00, heating for them also gives me the added bonus of not worrying about the food they eat during the day making them sick through the cold night, and the 3 enclosures are in my bedroom so it keeps me very toasty aswell.

Zippo is still fairly active, being a blotch i imagine it is because he is used to the lower temps, Myra has all but disappeared i dig her up every few days to make sure she is fine and Louie is out for a couple hours in the mornings then disappears again.

Any opinions from the long term keepers on here is more then welcome of course.

[Richard.C]

I normally do a full shut down for 2nd winter,but some seasons if smaller ill keep them warm an active to,usually my goal though is to get size on to add them to outdoor group,not so much for breeding

I also only do short cool downs indoors,4 to 6 weeks of zero heat,they usually have an inactive period either side of the full shut down as well due to me having low ambient temps,some of mine actually shut down even with a hot basking spot because of those cool ambients,but doing it that way is not with out its risks,some cant decide what to do and are prone to developing infections under those conditions,much safer to cool right off or try and keep ambients up enough for them to remain active and feeding

[alichamp]

Thanks Richard. When you talk about those that "can't decide what to do", what behaviour do you mean here?

I'm wondering if Treasure is one of these 'in between' ones that sleep for 4-5 days and then spend 2 days to eat/ bask/ digest, back to bed for 4-5 days etc. Or is this normal slowing?

[Richard.C]

Ones that cant decide often spend time doing both,they dont really eat though,and remain sluggish but in between full activity ones and slumbering ones

Some may be active for a week or two then sleep for a similar time down cool end,and if they do eat ,they can be at risk

Majority of them though choose one or the other,ive just had the odd couple that end up suffering infections and they are typically the few that cant decide,some have died,others have been lucky and have come good again after being moved to a warmer cage.

[Dakota]

Sorry, Northern Hemispherian chiming in.

Wow Rich, that sounds nerve-racking. I've considered "brumating" my Northerns, but I think I'm just gonna let them do what they want. My region's climate is exactly like the upper part pf their natural range, so it will be interesting to see how different they respond in contrast to my gigas under the same conditions.

[Richard.C]

Dakota,northerns cycle just like gigas,they just have a more distinct dry season i guess,but day heat is consisten year round

In darwin,its alot hotter year round then florida,people dont seem to understand northern australia is alot like png,australia isnt a desert,in summer in north oz its a hot sweaty climate like indonesia,its very monsoonal and much of northern aus gets flooded during the wet season

Again northern species as like indos dont brumate

Thats when they actually typically are mating and brumating skinks dont mate

Winter breeders arent brumaters,spring breeders on the other hand are,as they brumate over winter until spring warmth picks up for them to get active enough to mate,let alone get active

[Dakota]

I actually did a fair amount of researching various localities last night, and the middle to southern part of their range is like my climate. Halls Creek, Mount Isa, Elliott, etc. all got down to the 50s some months (July mostly) on average. Mount Isa even has a record low of 26°F in 1984, which I found pretty cool. Darwin on the other hand stayed quite hot. However, the southern end of their range was not as humid, 40-80% being pretty consistent. So as far as humidity goes, I would say we are similar to Darwin, since we live on the ocean similar to Darwin.

[Richard.C]

Dakota darwin makes florida seem like antartica,its pretty much identical climate to indonesia,day heat consistent year round,30 plus degrees,just gets cooler nights in dry season,but 14 to 15 degrees is considered a frost for them,half of winter thats not even are day high down here,lol

What your missing is north qld is a more rainforesty area,still holds a decent amount of moisture over winter and is on average cooler day and night,northerns in qld are typically on the inland side of great dividing range in more open areas/dryer areas

But yes its typically cooler in north qld,still warm and monsoonal but cooler then darwin and even north west wa

North qld is probably alot closer to your climate,as it can get some coolish nights in the dry

I always think of florida having south east qld type weather,warm humid summers,distinct cooler dryer winters,not freezing but a fair wack cooler,have u compared to climates like brisbane

[Dakota]

Richard, Richard... I know lol. I wasn't arguing against the fact Darwin was hot. I know Northerns are a tropical to sub-tropical species. I'm speaking of the Northerns outside of Darwin, the localities at the bottom of their range. They do range quite a ways from Darwin, too. But that is why I keep them in high humidity as I do my others. I was just saying the southern end of their range is like my climate. I don't live in central Florida where it gets cold, I live just two counties from the very bottom. Florida ranges from full on tropical to quite temperate in the panhandle. In the winter it is mostly 50/60s at night for a few months in my city, and a few nights here and there are cool nights. I believe this last "winter" the lowest it got was 47 for two nights only. We also go by a wet and dry season here. Wet season should be starting soon. Rain showers almost every night during the summer here, can almost set your clock by it.

I wasn't disagreeing with what you said, in fact I agree 100%. I was just comparing the southern end of their climate to my climate.

Sorry to go off topic, but I guess it was a nice little discussion.

[Richard.C]

Northerns are tropical,there range is across the top of australia

I just said darwin as thats close to centre of range,other areas to look would be broome in the extreme south west of there range and kunnanurra in wa and perhaps weipa,in the east which is western qld

[Dakota]

According to this, Northerns range in tropical and sub-tropical climate zones.

http://www.australia.gov.au/about-austr ... he-seasons

Brisbane is very similar to Jacksonville in north Florida. Both get down to the high 40s on average a month or two in "winter". Click here for Brisbane climate, and click here for Jacksonville climate.

Darwin is definitely in the middle as far as their horizontal distribution, but not in the middle vertically. Yarralin seems to be in the middle vertically and horizontally, referencing from the range map on the main site.

[Richard.C]

Ha,ive ot heard of yarralin before,so had a look to see,yes its probably drier there being inland,but i dare say even there is affected by mondoonal weather,we are 3 weeks out from winter here,so temps are cooling and up north its drying up,if u look at the forecast there this week day temps are between 30 and 35 degrees celcius,nights vary between 15 and 17 degrees celcius,thats tropical climate winter comditions here,dry but just as hot during the day,cooler at night with out being cold cold,thats hotter then blotchie weather down south over summer

Coming into there natural breeding season,which is winter

Climate that far inland may be similar to the kimberley area,i dare say centralians would be close to if not occuring there as well,theres quite a fair amount of range those two share,centralians go further south though but not as far north as northerns

[Dakota]

Still a humidity loving subspecies, no doubt. Does irk me a little bit when I read someone saying they need lowered humidity.

Good luck on winter. I felt like we were cheated out of it because of El Niño this last winter. I have a feeling next winter will be quite brutal for my country.

Also, if you look up Ty Park, he houses all his Northerns in pens made out of cement blocks. He's in Punta Gorda, which is about 30 minutes north of me. A lady in Orlando said her Northern escaped from her garage in October, and found him crawling in from outside in February when they had the garage door open for the day. And this was the year it got down into the 30s, probably upper 20s in Orlando for a weekend. Amazing what even Northerns can endure, and they are the most tropical subspecies! Well, apart from the Cape York region Easterns of course.

[Richard.C]

Yep seen tys arrangement,i know guys whom keep northerns outdoors in brisbane to,well south of there range,northerns are highly adaptable it seems,very tolerant of different conditions,mine have gone as low as 6 degrees celcius over night lows,usually sees them out basking in the morning,indoor cages here

[Richard.C]

20160511_135729.jpg

For those curious,this is my rendition of brumation for temperate form skinks indoors in melbourne

Today i chucked a group of 1.3 vic alpines into a tub on floor of garage,uninsulated tin shed in melbourne,thers a 5th animal in there,a nsw southern highlands male,hes been in there for two days for being naughty and fighting with a bluemountains male,because ambients have already dropped here the males often get swollen penes already and start niggling,normally i wait till june first to cool them but its cool enough now,typically i keep them with out any heat for 4 to six weeks

[Dakota]

I've even had my Halmaheras and Meraukes get down to 5.5°C a few nights before — on accident, of course. I was on vacation, and a cold front moved in out of no where. Thankfully the Halmaheras had around 6 iches of substrate at the time, it seemed they just borrowed down. The Meraukes only had a few inches of substrate, and not one of them got sick. Even when it was cold at night, they were always up to soak up the early morning sun's rays. I certainly won't let that happen again, but I think we don't give them as much credit as they deserve when it comes to resiliency.

[Richard.C]

Thats true,we often dont give them credit,thats one reason i like to offer choices

Ive had blotchies curled up for 3 days in 3 or 4 inches of hail stones in the outdoor cage,i used to get paranoid and pop them in a brumation hide in there cage but the buggers would drag them selves back out into the open to continue brumation,so i just leave them be now and they wake in spring perfectly fine

[alichamp]

We started Treasure's brumation yesterday - clean substrate and heat/lights off. Weight 347g.