Some photos of February Alpine Blotched Babies

[Scotts1au]

These guys are shaping up nicely.

Just a few photos from a number of babies that I have left. Getting a bit big now.

Here are some photos.

Baby 1 - One of Liz's babies.






Baby 2 - This is one I bought from another breeder to add to my genetics. Nice colours but face not quite as nice if I say so myself.





Baby 3 - This is another of Liz's babies


[img]http://bluetongueskinks.net/forum/userpix/1728_baby3_3_1.jpg[/img

Group photo of some babies

[StaceyLeigh]

Wow, great colors!

[Linnea]

love them all <3 The orange colour is astounding.

Are blothies available for sale in Europe too? Ive been htinking of two ( possibly) IJ from a swedish source but blothies like these are so awesome....

[Alioop]

They're all gorgeous and I'm insanely jealous, as always! Thanks for the pics Scott!

[Jeff]

They sure are putting on condition well! They look amazing.

Is it correct that all the wild babies are already brumating? It seems like such a huge advantage for the captive babies to stay warm over that first winter. I would think by spring, yours would look much older than the wild ones that were born at the same time.

[Scotts1au]

Yeh Jeff I would say the largest is nearly 40cm long and somewhere between 300-400 grams, it was born 50g.

I live outside of their natural range on the lowland plains of Northern Victoria. Our daily temperature variation is much greater than their natural habitat, having low temps that are about the same but day temps sometimes in the 20s C in mid winter. i.e 68F+ I have found previously under these conditions the babies are awake during the day for most of the year but not eating and tend to waste away - becoming weakened, prone to disease and possibly long term organ damage. Others have reported them failing to thrive if not kept eating, often losing several babies by spring.

In Melbourne however it is not such an issue as day temps tend to be cool enough that they will stay in brumation and happily emerge in Spring. I find however that up here the adults brumate early and emerge later than Melbourne.

Last years babies had grown to 45cm by September when they were put outdoors. I did the same thing with the babies from the year before. No losses and very healthy adults - proven by 100% breeding sucess last year.

All up I find the best strategy is to keep them eating and resilient and growing steadily until their first spring. Like anything a degree of commonsense needs to be applied with their diet - attention to Ca:P ratio, Ca supplementation. None of them get additional UV light - never had a problem with this despite high growth rates!

Yeh physiologically they are much older than their brumated counterparts. I can say that there only appears to be positives in keeping them warm in their first year and probably sets them up for longer, healthier lives as long as it is done properly.

[Katrina]

Wow - gorgeous!! They are all looking really great.

How is the profile pic baby turning out?

The new addition to the gene pools has a really interesting pattern. I love it. Will be interesting to see the results.

[Scotts1au]

The profile pic one is actually baby no. 3 in the photos above. Still has quite a bit of red on the head but I need to take some better photos in daylight.

[Jenn]

[Scotts1au]

Some of the babies crack me up with their bad teenage beards. I believe that the bearded ones are males - true story.

This one has the goofy lip scale on both sides.





Just another shot of another baby.

[Katrina]

Love the beards. They look way better on juvie blotchies than on human guys!

Off topic, but some of the playoff beards for the NHL finals were pretty bad!

[Scotts1au]

Here is a recent photo of the one from my avatar, has lost some of the red tones from the head. Watching with interest to see how it's colours on the body turn out. Should be bright pink when older from Liz with Norman's head patterning.



This on is in a photo above as well, you can see the lines that run longitudinally down the body at the base of the tail.

[Zach]

So adorable! Holly died over this one:

http://bluetongueskinks.net/forum/userp ... y1_5_1.jpg

[mark_w]

You have some truly beautiful animals Scott.

Mark.

[JoshChimera]

I am jealous! What colors. I love the orange with the black. Solid.

[El Lobo]

I see the facial difference in the one from outside your bloodline. Liz's babies in particular have the look of the wild blotchies I see around here.

I am constantly amazed how these highlands survive their first winter. Here they are born from either very late March to early April and almost immediately go into brumation. Food sources such as insects and other small lizards have dried up and vegetation is of poor quality. Daytime maximum temperatures rarely reach double figures yet they brumate close to the surface. A week ago we had a light fall of snow associated with high winds. The snow hardly settled but the wind chill was -4.4°C. They have to be hardy to survive.

[Ectothermicfauna]

<wipes drool from mouth> jealous!

beautiful babies scott and coming along nicely.

[Richard.C]

looking great scott,im still amazed at there growth potential,the 3 i got from you are tiny in comparison,though i did cool them for 2 months,they are bigger than my litter ones from last season though,but they did get a good head start,should start seeing the adult ones soon,only seen one active blotch this brumation period outside,its the nsw alpine male i have with the pale head