BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

hi guys. my friend told me that he has an Eastern for sale. Its an old animal that one owner is trying to sell. I know that its uncommon in the US and im sure that most of the BTS i saw over the years here are IJ's and Indo's.
anyone can give ne tips aside form the onesthat are in the info here about Eastern on how to ID them?
anyone can post pics?
If their sub species are the northerns do they grow as big as them?
Hows the temperament for these guys?
Any price range in the states?

thanks alot

Hey are you buying from USA ?

If ya post some pics i certain a few ozzie,s could have an educated guess @ sexing .Be certain if ts old that no sighns of MBD is in the pics.

I would ask for pics of the skink , with the date onthe camera ..These guys can get preety shifty if ya get my drift ...Really chekit out dude


Yes beware of ripp offs
best luck

Check the "Eastern" link on the left hand side of the main page (Not the forum page...)

KW

got pics already will post soon

Andrew has an article that he wrote on his website, http://seikereptiles.com/SeikeReptiles/ ... cation.htm

this is the "Eastern" that i have been talking bout guys. Enlighten me please. I find him a little thin and a questionable health.

what do you think guys? selling here about 150 USD, onwner says he about 4years old.
thanks again everyone.
*yes i know his nails are long.

Drew that is NOT an Eastern. It's a typical Irian Jaya import.

Stay away from it.

=)

Best of luck,

Andrew

Yay! I saw it and right away thought IJ. I'm getting good at this whole ID thing. It's only taken me 3 years.

100% I.J...

...you are right about the questionable health, that does not look like a happy animal. Try not to buy it out of pity... It's a mess.

KW

Definitely an IJ. I'd imagine almost any BTS you get there in the Philippines will be an import, so if you really want one, it might be the only way to go.

Out of curiosity everyone, what makes this animal look to be in bad shape? Besides the slightly kinked tail, he looks fine to me....

Long nails, kinked tail, strange scale markings (the bluish ones on the left side), the fact it's lying flat on it's stomach (I don't know about you, but Rollie holds himself up a little, the animal looks "limp"), there's a lack of lustre in the scales overall, and because I suspect it is a wild-caught, on top of what I've seen which might indicate neglect for a long period of captivity, I say no-go. Also, I was the only one that really said it looked questionable...

...call it a gut feeling or intuition as well, Zach, something isn't right.

KW

Hmm...

Looks fine to me, needs a nail trim but thats about it. Looks nice and fat, his tail looks kinked but other than that I don't see anything wrong.

whew! thanks alot guys!

Zach, not all BTS here are imports. Boris is a CB here.

anyway, i figured that it couldnt be an eastern since the head was too large for an Eastern thanks

why "stay away" from an IJ? something wrong with them?

also, what if someone found a wild-caught BTS, had it checked out, and decided to keep it. what's wrong with that?

additionally, is there a reason someone shouldn't take in a skink to give it a better life? what do we do with mistreated animals? leave them in their condition or try to rescue them?

Irian Jaya's actually make very good first blueys IF you get a captive born one. They weren't warning him of IJ just the fact that it's an import. Most of us on this site support buying from a breeder and we know what we are getting and it doesn't support the people who are stealing these animals from the wild, making a quick buck and caring about the health of the animals. If you do chose to buy a wild caught animal then you have to be prepared to get a bluey that is possible sick (can lead to be vet bills) and not social. Out of my eight blueys one is wild caught and the other is a long term captive. I purchased my indo, Izzy knowing she was wild caught. I kept her seperated from the rest and had a fecal done. Luckly she was healthy. She was my fifth skink so by that time I had a lot of experience with handling and taming skinks. I've had her for over a year and she still doesn't like to be held but will tolerate it if I need to clip her nails and things. She is definetly my look at the pretty skink vs. being a cuddle bug. I'm okay with that because I have 7 others to play with. If I purchased her as my first skink, I would have been scared of her and probably been turned off of skinks. My long term captive is my female kei. I purchased her because I would like to breed my male kei and CB Keis are very hard to find. So now that I've babbled for a while, no one is saying don't rescue a skink but know what you are getting into and make an informed decision.

Agreed!