Newbie Owner of an Indonesian Blue Tongued Skink

[fatherofdragons]

Hello, I just bought my first BTS after wanting a reptile for a few years now since owning a bearded dragon. My kids were really wanting to get a pet and since we all have issues with allergies a lizard was the best bet. I was shopping at Petco for supplies to setup my enclosure and came across a BTS they said was a rescue (wasn't a rescue I found out just them BSing i guess). After a week and a half of thinking of what to do I bought him for $300. It's been a few days of owning him and I've been actively on the website researching everything on BTS. He's been hiding and just ate last night which is good. I wanted to know if owning and Indonesian is good for a first timer with kids or should I take him back and purchase a Northern from a breeder that I know is CB?

[Janella]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new pet. Skinks can make amazing companions for adults and children. Yours looks like a Halmahera. The key with them is high humidity. You need to shoot for at least 80%. As for personality, how does your skink seem so far? All skinks are different and have different personalities. There has been many great Halmahera's out there that make great pets. You could end up getting another skink and that one could turn out not being so. So I would just give it time and see how this one does. Good luck.

[mb606587]

Yep definitely Halmahera as Janella pointed out. Pretty much took the words out of my mouth here. Some wild caught skinks will adapt very well to captivity. Some never will. The ones I own and personally have experience with are as mellow as can be, although they were all long term captives. I don't want to try to make it seem like I am advocating for buying wild caught skinks here, but I'm being realistic by saying not all captive bred skinks come out immediately making great pets. It comes down to the individual skink. I also agree that now that you've already purchased this skink, give it a chance.

[fatherofdragons]

After talking with my family and wife I ended up taking him back, hopefully someone will be able to handle him better. The deciding factor was my kids and wanting them to have some good interactions with it and taking longer in training him since he was wild even to the store people. I ended up ordering a Northern BTS from a captive breeder that lets them be handled by their family and are super tame (though they are still babies and frigidity)

[mb606587]

Beautiful Northern. Congrats on the new acquisition. Baby skinks tend to be skittish by nature. As hard as it may initially seem, try to avoid handling the new guy unless necessary for the first few weeks until he becomes a bit settled into the new environment.

[fatherofdragons]

Thanks for the suggestion! I've been watching ReptileMountain.TV for info on enclosure prep and lighting.