Handling????!

[Slightlyshyextrovert]

I am hoping to get a blue tongue skink when I go to a reptile expo in October but can’t can’t spend the $300.00 + on a northern. What I’m saying is are there any other skinks that like being handled that aren’t so expensive

[splashy07]

Yes, there are but not by much, and you'd be better off saving the extra hundred or so for a captive bred northern. Most expos have predominantly imports, although the sellers may tell you they are captive bred. They may have been born here, as a result of an imported gravid female. Very common in the trade. The imported species are Indonesian, such as Halmahera and Meraukes, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with as far as tameness. I've had many as tame as northerns. Problem being, the conditions these animals suffer in the importation process often leads to stress, disease, and parasites. A cbb (captive born AND bred) Indonesian would be quite a rarity and would command a price about the same or possibly more than a northern. I'd save up some money and go for the northern, they are never imported (Australia closed out in the mid 70's) and are just about foolproof.

[kingofnobbys]

And don't forget the captive bred easterns …. much more common in the hobby (even here in Australia) than northerns , and they are great pets.

[starscream3232]

And don't forget the captive bred easterns …. much more common in the hobby (even here in Australia) than northerns , and they are great pets.

Easterns are rare in the hobby outside of Australia. Northerns are the most common captive bred Australian species outside of Australia. There will never be enough easterns to challenge that.

[splashy07]

And, they will set you back a mortgage payment.

[kingofnobbys]

Well I guess that means Australia's restrictions on exports of native reptiles are working then (at least along the eastern states)…. I can't complain about that .
Unfortunately the northwest and NT are more porous / leaky and it's too easy for crooks / animal traffickers to smuggle reptiles out , on ships mostly , this needs to be tightened up on with the threat for most our northern omnivore / carnivore reptile species being impacted by cane toads now (they've reached Broome and the Pilbara now) and have devastated native reptile populations.

This will make you envious, my George the Eastern BT was having his free range time on the floor this afternoon and was transfixed on something he could see through the front window - he'd spotted a wild eastern BT in the long grass under our big gumtree in our front yard …. from the way he responded I think the visitor is female because he responded the same way he does to Mildred when he visits her tank (I never let the two eastern BTs (siblings) physically meet each other.

So I now know who has been polishing off the occasional dead silkworm that's been dropped on the grass near my front steps - I thought the magpies or kookaburras were taking them as we've not seen any wild water skinks at the front since about March, they've all been under the house and under the back steps and patio.
I'll be putting more dead insects on the grass near the front steps from now on , more regularly to encourage that big female Eastern BT to hang about rather than going elsewhere.

Was unseasonally warm today and very still and sunny for mid winter (25 degC this afternoon) so I'm guessing this wild BT has come out of brumation with the warm conditions. The water skinks have been active here since about 1 week of July (quite early for them).