Bazinga! I got a blue tongue skink! =o

[ShannyBeard]

Wow Happy Birthday, Bazinga is really cool!! I've seen bts at reptile expos and online. What is their care like, feeding, housing, lighting? I'm glad you got your request, I do the same thing to my other half. For our anniversary we got Frank, for my Birthday I got Sunny, For Christmas I got Lulu, and I got Doug for him as a surprise at the reptile expo. His Birthday is coming up in March, he's getting another beardie! hahaha

-Kaleen

Oh boy. :laughing6: I think that's how we are going to be, too. As long as I have the space for properly sized vivs and the money for everything they could possibly want to eat, then I would be thrilled to give and received reptile gifts. :mrgreen:

 

[ShannyBeard]

THIS episode and THIS scene is why he is named Bazinga. :laughhard: I don't think I could have lost it laughing any harder that I did seeing this episode.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Otto made a hard boiled egg for Bazinga to eat today and he tore it up and enjoyed it. He eats very slowly and is snake-like in the way he swallows.

After eating we let him hide behind an ottoman for a while, and then let him explore. He likes burrowing and hiding in blankets.

 

[Gail]

He is a very pretty bluey, you should try feeding raw eggs some time

 

[ShannyBeard]

Ahh, I'm SO jealous! He is adorable!!

LOL, when I get a BTS I plan to name it Sheldon. I don't watch Big Bang Theory, I just think it's an awesome name! You have to let me know how he is compared to a beardie! I really want one and someone even offered me one, but my mom says no more pets that need huge cages. Sadness.

I have sadness for you! Different kinds of reptiles are so...different :lol: we can't help but want a few kinds. Sheldon would be a good name, too. I would even like that name for a skunk (something I want but can't have LOL).

 

[ShannyBeard]

He is a very pretty bluey, you should try feeding raw eggs some time

Thank you! I love his coral/red belly. We almost fed this one raw but I wasn't sure how/where to feed it so it wouldn't be a mess. :silent: :shock: Or maybe they aren't messy when they eat raw eggs...I have no idea what to expect. We had never seen a skink eat until today.

 

[Gail]

Raw egg is messy how ever you feed it. I put it on a plate on the floor on a towel. It will still get all over though so have a washcloth ready. I had to stop feeding my old skink raw though, he was prone to aspirating it.
Any chance you have wild snails where you live? Your skink will love you if you can get ahold of a few. They need to be kept in a container for a couple days with fresh greens though to clean out their system.
Looks like I will be getting a pair of baby northerns as soon as it warms up a bit. I miss have a skink.

Can't remember if you know this place or not but its great. http://www.bluetongueskinks.org/forum/index.php Did you ever get him IDed? He looks like a IJ to me. They generally have dark legs and red bellies.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Gail, thanks for all the information! There are wild snails here but I have only seen them during the rainy summer months, but that is out on the sidewalks and such. I've never looked for them, so I need to start. I saw the canned snails in the store but they don't have the shell! That's no fun!

His next egg will be a raw one and I will post pictures. I can't stand egg, especially raw egg, so we'll see how disturbing that whole mess is going to be! :roll: :? I'll do anything to make him happy, though. I know of a few people that I can get fresh eggs from, and they always tasted better than the store bought when I had them as a kid, so I'd like to get him some. His Daddy may need to be in charge of the egg-eating, though. LOL!!! That's who cooked the hard-boiled egg for him.

That website is definitely the place to learn about skinks. It's funny because people here think they pamper their beardies and spoil them, but there are other reptile specific forums and they all love and spoil their lizards. I thought beardie owners were the only ones because they are supposed to be so personable, but no they are not. There are so many different kinds of reptiles to spoil!

Last night at about 6:00 I brought Bazinga out of his viv and laid on the floor with him on my chest, under my blankie with me. He was such a good boy and laid with me without moving for 30 minutes before grunting and slowly moving off me in search of a dark place to sleep. If it is at all possible for a skink to be precious and sweet, then that is what he was.

:love5:

 

[ShannyBeard]

Looks like I will be getting a pair of baby northerns as soon as it warms up a bit. I miss have a skink.

How old will they be when you get them? Is it like bearded dragons where some people sell them so tiny but others sell them a few months old? I haven't seen a baby BTS myself, but I will be keeping an eye out to see how teeny they are at the upcoming ReptiCons.

Northerns are beautiful. Otto has been researching to try and figure out what kind we have. Yes, IJ is one of the types we think, but also maybe a Maruke...? They are the two kinds that have the red belly! There is some reason Otto thought it was IJ, but I can't remember. Maybe something to do with the pattern on the legs. Their little legs and feet are so cute! They remind me of a leo!

 

[Gail]

Remember, egg is a occasional treat and if you don't know yet, it makes really nasty poo. Its really gross when they eat them raw, kinda like a big booger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7XRWoDaNE&feature=related
If you do collect snails, try to find them out in the wild or at least as far away from civilization as you can. Less chances of pollutants in then. Never try slugs, they are sticky and taste bad.
They is always a chance you guy is Ij/maruke cross, he does have a awful long tail for a pure IJ. You should post some pics over at BTS.net, they would be able to tell you for sure and they LOVE pictures.
The ones I am getting are 6 months old, they were hold backs but the lady who has them needs room for the upcoming season. Most skinks are pretty big when born (born live, no eggs) maybe 6" or so. Lots of picture of babies or bubs as they are know, on the skink forum. I believe general rule is at least one month before selling.
I swiped pics from kingsnake of my babies, will have to keep me happy until it warms up a bit here.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Oh WOW those skinks are beyond beautiful. I got the chills looking at them. I had no idea skinks could be so gorgeous. :shock: I have just always been afraid of them, like they would bite my arm off. Even the little ones, the ones outside, made me cringe. Now that I have one, I see that they have sweet faces, and I can see the expression in them. I'm only just into reptiles this last year, with my first reptile purchase having been Feb 2011, an anole.

Bubs :love5: what an adorable thing to call a baby. 6" seems much more manageable than the little 3" babies I see some people buying (beardies). I think a 6" baby would be fine to handle and not to worry so much about. I did know about live births, and I read how skinks are more rare to find than beardies because they don't give birth to so many at a time. At first, Otto really wanted to get a bub, since we could raise it from a little one and it would know us, but I am glad we got the adult. He seems to have been properly cared for and is well-socialized. I hope he lives a long time, I already love him.

Thanks for the advice on the stinky poo and egg correlation. Now I have something great to look forward to after that egg he ate yesterday. :silent:

 

[Gail]

You got a exceptional skink, he sounds like really sweetie. Reptiles are great, I'll always love dragon but will never own them again. I feel they are becoming really unhealthy due to such bad inbreeding and disease. Skinks are tough as nails and are easier to care for, I read that blueys can live 30 years :shock:
If all goes well, I will be breeding mine next year. Northerns have the most babies, usually around 10 or so and only one litter a year which makes them more manageable then getting hundreds of eggs.
My first skink was around 6 weeks when I got him. He was already really sturdy, never delicate like a baby beardie. You should look up fire skinks, they are beautiful.

 

[TASTIGER]

i was thinking my next reptile would be a leo but now im thinking i want a BTS :shock:

 

[ShannyBeard]

i was thinking my next reptile would be a leo but now im thinking i want a BTS :shock:

YES. This is a cool pet. I am so glad we got him, I can't tell you just how fascinated I am with him. My leo is awesome, don't get me wrong, but there is just something crazy cool about a big, fat snake-lizard. And the diet is very liberal. They can eat almost anything, and as adults they eat twice a week.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Gail, I will for sure look up fire skinks! You have me curious. I also think we have an exceptional skink and I am lucky someone traded him back so quickly. Seems to be how the reptile trade is around here. The local store says there is a guy always getting free things off CL and then trading or trying to sell to the shop. These poor things aren't always seen as forever pets. I'm a cat person originally, and we don't just bring our cats in and trade them back and forth. That's considered cruel. I think it's cruel to the herps, too.

There do appear to be people breeding beardies just for the heck of it without knowing what they are doing. And yes, inbreeding does weaken genetics. I see that people want to make some really cool morphs, and I recognize you do have to do some inbreeding of the HETS to achieve this, right...? But when I think in terms of the small dogs that have been inbred to the point of health problems - well, it seems like a useless thing to have done, all things considered.

I can't imagine having room for one more skink, but if you do breed those two amazing skinks and you can ship to Florida, I would love to have one. That's one of those long-range-we-shall-see things, a future possibility. I can only imagine we would want to get a baby some day.

I definitely would not want to risk getting a wild caught.