Looking for a positive ID!

[Herptiles.net]

Hello!

I'm looking for a positive ID for my BTS...

Meet Indie, I've had him/her since May '07 (about 3 mos. old at purchase from a herp expo in Ontario), a totally sweet-hearted lizard

S/he was sold to me as a Northern... having a bit of trouble deciding if this is true or not! Any ideas?

A few baby pics from May:



Pics a few weeks ago:



Enclosure pic:


Mmm... food time...

[evil pixie]

I'm no good at ID'ing, but looks more Eastern than Northern to me. Very cutie skink at any rate; I love the name Indie.

[jasjmm27]

can't give "positive" ID...I would say somewhere between IJ and Merauke...checking out the bottom 5 or 6 pictures on the Merauke page it seems Indie could be kin...however, there are mostly IJ features there, especially the solid banding...I would put my biggest bet on IJ.

[shingleback aus]

dosnt look northen at all to me it looks kinda eastern or eastern mix nice skink any way

[SailleSkinklover]

Looks Merauke with the colouring, black speckly legs, and the temporal scales slightly darker. My Merauke looks similar.

Is the tail really long, and can you get a full body "bird's eye view" shot?
If not Merauke, looks Indo to me.

[Herptiles.net]

Thanks for the compliments! S/he is indeed very cute (like all BTS... haha), and very, very calm. I figured Indie was a pretty unisex name since I don't have a sex on him/her, either.

Here are a few better full-body shots...




SailleSkinLover, your Merauke looks very similar to mine... Nuchal stripe, speckled legs, faded temporal stripe, and the body striping looks almost the same.

Her pattern looks a bit "cleaner" and/or less busy than the IJ's on their page, and her tail looks a bit longer relative to body size than theirs, too. Her tail is about the same length as her SVL.

To me the Indo's patterns look too mottled... but again I'm a newbie at Tiliqua

I've got my fingers crossed that I can nail down a species, I've always been enamored by bluies and this has probably been one of my favourite herps, to date. I've worked with breeding a few other herp species, and would love to get into BT's... but I definitely wouldn't breed her if she could be a mutt.

[Tattoo]

Not a Northern. My vote is Merauke or Indo. That is a really pretty skink whatever it it. Love the tummy!

[Herptiles.net]

Her personality is amazing, too. I do herp presentations for small school groups (big kids and little kids, haha) and she is just amazingly relaxed with people. I run the reptile wet lab for the college I did my vet tech at, bringing her there in a few weeks with others from the "zoo," I'm sure she's going to do great

[NomadOfTheHills]

Looks like an T. gigas evanescens.

[SailleSkinklover]

She's a Beaut, anyways. I see a difference in the belly scales from my boy, yours has more black on her belly. ChuffChuff has pretty much solid pinkish-orange belly scales. I'll try and get a pic tomorrow night. (charging up my old and stubborn camera batteries at the 'mo!)
Mine is a total sweetie too, and I got him as an adult rescue. ( he's wild caught and was very badly treated until I got hold of him)
Definitely not a Northern from what I can tell.
Where are you located at, by the way?

[Herptiles.net]

Sounds good!

I'm on the south shore of Montreal, QC. I'm hoping that I can swing by an Ontario herp expo in the late spring/summer to seek out one or two more like her... I bought her from the Kemptville, ON herp expo (from Port Credit Pet Centre, if anyone is familiar).

[Funda]

I reckon shes Merauke to me, but doesnt really matter what breed it is because shes wonderful anyways

f.C

[SailleSkinklover]

I don't know what the border rules are about transporting herps, (Fatal, you'll have to let us know!) but it'd be so cool if I could "stud" Chuffers out and make captive bred baby Meraukes!

[reefs2forests]

omg soo beautiful! what an adorable litttle skink what ever s/he might be

[Fatal_S]

Tis Merauke, I do believe. And a nice looking on at that. However, as an indonesian species, he's likely wild caught as a baby. Did you go for a vet visit? Wild caught BTS or Captive Born (WC mother) can often have parasites and worms, something you'd want to check out before breeding. Good luck in finding a mate for him/her.

Saile, I could easily bring Chuff in, but I've yet to look up how to legally send him back. I'll be looking into it soon though (in case I breed my indos this year), after I move, so I'll keep everyone in the loop.

I'm thinking of starting a small business with both my herps being sold in Canada and US, as well as import/export between our countries. Thing is, it seems to be less hassle for a business to do it at times. I'm going through yet another set of hoops to get my 3 indos now -.-'

[Dragontears]

I'd definitely say Merauke (T. gigas evanescens) and a cute one at that!

[Herptiles.net]

I did a few fecals the first weeks I bought him/her, only finding nonpathogenic Monocystis sp. (earthworm protozoan-- not surprising considering she gets nightcrawlers regularly).

That's a bummer that she's probably wild caught, the place I bought her from now has two strikes against them (wrong species, and they told me 100% CBB!). Ah well, if they are not very commonly CB, what can you do for now, eh?

I will definitely be looking into finding a mate once I can confirm the sex.[/i]

[Fatal_S]

Hey, you got her looked at, treated and she's clean. Therefore, she should be good to go. You already said the personality is great, so for you, it's a good skink. And once you get a mate, you can be the one making the CBB babies, and you can be honest.

[Blotch]

It's definately not an Eastern or a northern. I'd be more inclined to say a merauke, But could be Indo or even a cross of the two. I'm in Australia and we don't have the luck of having those guys here.

But as I said earlier - Definately not a northern or an Eastern - actually - it's not an Australian brand at all!

[Zach]

Merauke! Still a young one and Indo's and Merauke's tend to look VERY alike as babies (as do kei islands) -- but this one I think is safe to say Merauke.