BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi all! I’m a first time bluey owner (Northern named Toaster Oven) who lives in Colorado. For the last few years, winter here has gotten VERY cold, amd my house unfortunately has terrible ventilation because the vent system was poorly planned out back when it was first built. My room gets the worst of it, and tends to be the same temperature as it is outside unless I have a heater or fam going 24/7.

What worries me is how I’m going to keep my bluey warm once it starts to get cold in about a month or two. Should I buy a heat pad to put underneath the tank? Or a night heat lamp? Which would you all recommend?

What are you ambient room temps in winter? I do not use any kind of night time heat, my ambients in winter are about 65-67 at night. If your place doesn't get any colder than that he should be fine. They normally cool down a bit in winter anyway, and he may brumate whether you want him to or not. Just make sure he doesn't have anything to eat for at least four hours before the lights go out.

If you want to keep your BT awake over winter , this is what seems to work for all my bearded dragons, bluetongues and the water skink
>> keep the photoperiod long (summer like , I have my timer set to turn my lights and the heat on at 6am, and off at 10pm , I don't change this.
>> my home is climate controlled, so never colder than 20 degC overnight even on the coldest winter night , I run my reverse cycle split aircon 24/7 in winter.

In 10 years of keeping pet skinks and dragons , none of my pet lizards has shown any interest in actually brumating. Everyone is up and basking by about 10am most every day and looking for a feed and daddy time and fun time.
The wild outside dragons, skinks and geckos all disappear about the start of May and I don't see any of them again til late June or July (if it's warm and sunny).

Radiant heating panel on a thermostat works well for me. In a plastic cage, so it is fairly insulated.