Blue Tongue Skinks

[Tom]

Anyone know much about these guys? They are one of those lizards that I've been looking at for years, but I just recently "discovered" them at the recent reptile show in Pomona. I had no idea there were so many types. Teresa over at Tarantulas Inc. had a whole bunch of them. There must have been 10 different types. I fond a pretty good website on them here:
http://bluetongueskinks.net/

So which type is the best one? Color doesn't matter much to me. I like big size and good temperament. The website says they need to "hibernate" too. I didn't know that. I was considering housing them in appropriate outdoor enclosures with underground shelters. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Kristina]

I don't know much about them, but I agree - they are a big, fat, neat looking lizard.

 

[exoticsdr]

Great Lizards!!! I have owned both the Northern and the Irian Jaya blue tongues and both were wonderful pets...full of personality. Make sure to get young animals and handle them often and you won't be disappointed. Never had to hibernate them, but have to have a cool down period, like other lizards and snakes, in order to gear up for breeding.

 

[Sirius]

They are one of my favorite reptiles. period.

There are a bunch of different types, but only a few are readily available.
The Northern, Irian Jaya, and Indonesian. The others are a bit harder to find/cost more.

Northern and Irian Jaya's are your best bet for temperament. They are usually excellent and are excellent pets. The Northern's do tend to be bigger and they have nice coloring, they are my favorites.

Bluetongueskinks.net is pretty much the blue-tongue bible. The caresheet is excellent and has everything.

Hibernating (or cooling period) is only necessary for breeding. Otherwise its not needed, they will only hibernate if induced (lowering temps, reducing food, ect. All explained on the site). An outdoor enclosure would be fine, but you can definitely take them in for winter. But make sure its completely protected against predators.

 

[Cameron]

I had a Northern for a while. Real cool lizard. They love to burrow and hide, and are very personable. I never hibernated him, had no need of breeding him. Like "Sirius" said, bluetongueskins.net is a good website with some good info. I miss mine, he was like a big fat sausage with little stubby legs, real cool.

As far as keeping outdoors, I don't know. I guess it would be like anything else, don't let them get too hot or too cold. I'm sure they would enjoy being outside as long as you could provide the right type of climate for them. I bet they would also LOVE the underground burrow. Interesting idea....

 

[JohnathanO]

I've had large groups of Notherns, Irians and Indonesians, The Northerns were my favourite, but I loved them all, they are great for handling, great personalities and eat everything. Mine LOVED snails.

Never had to hibernate, just the normal cooling down when it came to breeding.

The outdoor enclosure sounds great, as long as temps are all good I think it would be really cool.

 

[Tom]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I guess my question is what temp ranges can they handle. We get up to 110 in the summer and down to the low 30's or high 20's on a cold winter night. With an underground burrow, the summer high would only be 75ish and the winter low would only be in the 50's, which is what the big care sheet recommended for breeding. They could always move in or out of the burrow to thermoregulate, but we have spells in the winter where the daily high is only 50-60 for two or three weeks at a time. Right now its sunny and 70's everyday for at least a week.

These temps are working great for my Blackthroated monitors and Argentine tegus. Anyone wanna guess how well A BTS would do with them.

 

[Sirius]

Those temps sound good, they live in Australia so they can definitely take the heat. You'll have to be careful with the cold though, it seems like its a bit complicated to get them ready for hibernation.

 

[DeanS]

I had one back in the late 80s...it belonged to a friend and he didn't want it anymore...don't know why! It was easy as hell to take care of...feed it a variety of fruits and veggies and keep it warm...and give it plenty of hiding places...they like to hide and they aren't overly active. That's all I can remember...NEVER heard anything about hibernating them!