Science & Keeping | Blue Tongue Skink Care - Ep. 101
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- Опубликовано: 29 июн 2024
- HOW and WHY does the science behind how I keep my skinks work in my favor when breeding blue tongue skinks? Find out in this episode. Hint: Enclosure size, enrichment, Infrared heat, and ultraviolet light are just part of the formula. #bluetongueskinks #reptiles #science
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ReptileMountain.TV RUclips Channel:
Dr. TC Houston, former professional AZA zookeeper, SKINKAHOLIC, and reptile fanatic, shares his experiences and passion for keeping and breeding Blue Tongue Skinks and other reptile species for the educational and overall betterment of the hobby. Subscribe to stay updated on more evidence-based, current, professional information about the reptile hobby and Blue-Tongue Skink care. Enjoy! Watch! Like! Share! Woot woot!
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Животные
I was using only a heat mat on my rescued Indonesian and never saw her out and she was almost always in her warm hide. I saw your videos and put a heat lamp and UVB in (and put her in an XPVC enclosure to help with humidity) and now she uses her whole cage. I see her basking a couple times a day and she uses both hides. Great advice, keep up the science based education!
Yes!!!! Excellent 👏
@@ReptileMountainTV Would you be able to link where you find or obtained all of your equipment in a video or something? I am having the same problem as the og commentor and I feel hyper picky to what I should be getting. I don't want to be getting the "wrong" item, and would prefer highest quality. At the very least, I find your setups and trusting your reputation and think the items you have set a good standard to follow or deviate from slightly. Really want to thank you for your work though on these videos. They are high quality and I am so grateful to you for doing them. I understand how much work is involved and really appreciate you doing this!
I feel so down about my lighting system 😕
Some people use a water bath in the cool side to drink and help with shed. May i ask why you just use the water bowl?
Love it!
THANKS!
i just got my first northern blue just over a month ago shes only a baby but shes set up in 48 by 24 by 16 and shes so interesting to watch and so amazing, gotta buy that hat soon
Amazing and deeply helpful, important video! Don't feel bad about the length. We want the information! ❤
Awesome! Thank you!
Awesome job. You're videos are always full of information.🤙
Thank you Ray!
Great video 👍
🙏🙏 Thank you 😊
Great breakdown of your setups!
Thank you 🙏 😁👍🏼
Always love seeing your blue tongues
Thanks Melissa!
Awesome video, TC!
Thanks Dillon 👍🏼
Really enjoyed that, well explained
Thank you 🙏👍🏼
I love your videos
Gratitude :-)
Awesome video my man! Defently love how you keep your breeder skinks
🙏👍🏼 thanks man!
@@ReptileMountainTV No doubt thank you for being such a positive part of the community! My blue tongue skink thanks you for your knowledge and teachings as well.
This is absoluteley fascinating! I love that you mention Kenan and Tai! Thst video really was super neat to watch. I love how you explain the science and reasoning in such a matter of fact way and its easy to understsnd. It makes me so excited to own a skink some day. Thank you for all you do and how you present factual information over opinionated kind!
Thank you so much!!
Your videos are so very informative. It is my goal to have one of your blue tongues in my home. You animals are beautiful and healthy.
Thank you 🙏🙏🙏
Great video. Almost lost you there when I thought you were going to breakout into an arcadia commercial 😆 but very informative.
Ha! Right lol.
I bought a Kages Reptile cage for my Blue Tongue Skink and he loves it!
Great choice
how do you know did your skink say that?
I am very happy you push for halogen. keep on the good work .
Thanks 🙏 😁
When i get space to move around, i'll buying a eastern/northern bluey from you!!!
Great stuff TC. I've been thinking about trying out an array of multiple lower watt halogen bulbs instead of one typical high watt incandescent. Try and spread out the basking spot a bit.
That is a great way to heat an animal evenly!
Never been this early🥳
Hay mate, sorry this comment has nothing to do with your current video, however, my 4 year old and I found 2 hypo eastern Brisbane shrinks in our yard (we live in brizzy). Ive seen loads of skinks in my life time BUT I’ve never seen this coloured skink before (thanks for your video, it cleared up what type it was). Thanks again, great education for my daughter (and me😬)
Thats awesome! Lucky find indeed. 👍🏼👍🏼
makes sense
Wow i saw notification right away lol. Very informative as always.
Thanks man! Looks like your breeding group is getting quite robust and stocked full of color! Can’t wait to see what you produce next year.
ReptileMountain.TV thanks tried getting a wide variety of colors, produced by different breeders from unrelated stock. Aiming for color and strength in the future. Have 3 I still have to get some good pictures of. Once they’re out of quarantine
And those small white upside down cups? Ive wondered for awhile now lol.
Thanks for all the info and its science :))
Dry food bowls for just after brumation and after birth for females
Just got a blue tounge and was wondering what your day/night on/off cycle was. Thanks a lot.
14/10 summer. 6/18 during brumation. I adjust 30 min increments daily up/down in the transitions. 😁
Another good one!
A couple important questions ( your video answered most!)
The halogen is a "flood" right? So as to not pinpoint the light too much?
My Vision 4' setup will have similar heights to your tubs... is the halogen on a dimmer and what brand/wattage are you using?
Thanks TC , hope you have the time to respond, I know you're busy. I'm making plans to get some again. ( Easterns) 🙂👍
VERY helpful video!
Yes indeed. They are “flood” not “spot”. Im using 39w PAR20 34deg angle flood bulbs. They don’t need dimming in this set up as full blast put the hot area between 98-110 based on air temps which is a natural range of temps they experience. I have them on an emergency thermostat to ensure if for some reason the room air temps get way too hot they also won’t over heat. If they hit 120F they turn off (they never have yet).
Thanks! 🙂👍
Hi there! I plan to get a Northern bluey in the upcoming months. I don't want to use a uvb light since it will be easier on my budget. I watched one of your older videos about uvb lighting v.s supplementing it in. Do I have to use any extra supplements for my skink if I don't plan to use the uvb lighting? Or should I only need the given supplements? Thanks!
I would love to read more on this topic, but had no luck on google with Roman Murin (Muran? Miuran? ) and his research. I link would be great!
Check out my literature cited page I believe there’s a link to one of his papers www.reptilemountain.com/literature
@@ReptileMountainTV Fantastic thanks! Can't learn too much about our wee beasties.
Thanks !
Good Video, now return to work its boring here without you
Deal!
Sorry if u have covers this in another video already, but what floor do u use because I heard that sugar can maltch (I don’t know how to spell it) sugar can become dusty which makes them sneeze what do u use?
I use cypress mulch or coco husk.
First bro
hi TC! so just to clarify, do you recommend using UVB even if you are supplementing with d3 every other feeding? In the past, i heard only heat is sufficient enough as long as d3 is there but if both are needed, i will change that.
Hey, I am recommending quality UVB (zoomed/arcadia thats measured with a solarmeter 6.5) and supplement calcium without D3. I recommend providing a small amount of calcium with D3 once a month.
Hi I've been watching you channel and wow, great videos. I need some wellbeing information please. My daughter has a 10 year old, male blue tongue skint he is beautiful , yet he now has skin over his eyes and a mild crustiness to them. The vet has advised bathing them with warm water and there doesn't seem any improvement. Can you advise me what to do? Thankyou. Lesley UK.
I would recommend a humid hide box. I've made a video about that on the channel. Check it out. I bet if you provide one of those on each end (warm and cool) of the enclosure it will help if he uses it.
Thankyou, I will pass the info on.
Hi, sorry, I wanted to ask you a question, why don't you use a Hid lamp like solar Raptor that provides uvb and heat at the same time?
The out put of heat and UVB doesn’t usually match the right balance for BTS. Plus they are self ballasted and thats not the most ideal if its an animals sole heat source.
Hey tc I have a question, so.... a couple weeks ago (2) I ordered a northern blue tongue from cb reptiles, maybe you’ve heard of them? Well anyways I have had her for a while and it’s great.....but today I was doing more research and I saw a bunch of pictures for halmahera or however you spell it blue tongue skinks and......they look almost identical to mine except the stripes on mine are lighter and so is her skin though not as light as northerns, although there were some halmahera pictures that were almost as light so I went back to cb reptiles to see if they sold halmahera
To see if maybe they sent me the wrong kind and they do! And the pictures look just like mine this isn’t a huge deal I know the care for most blueys but I know most about northerns. So what I guess I am asking is, do northerns as baby’s ever look like other species, I don’t want to return her to cb and I don’t have any beef with them because they sent me an amazing lizard, I am not worried that she is captive bred but... I just need to know if she is definitely a halmahera and I definitely need to change the care.
If you email me a photo I can ID it for you. Sounds like you have something other than a Northern. Northerns don't have much ontogenetic change in pattern really (baby to adult).
@@ReptileMountainTV I am taking her to an exotic vet who specializes in blue tongues and make sure that she is okay from the lack of humidity and heat that she was getting as a northern, but from my relatively untrained eye she seems pretty good, but we are nearly 100% as she is a spitting image of halmahara baby's with the black legs, thin black stripes, and their tongue turns pink about halfway
Can you do an In depth for Indonesian blue tongue skinks? I’ve noticed many people have them yet There are zero videos on RUclips that have even a fraction of your credentials explaining proper care, and instead just explain their opinionated suggestions
I do plan to do an Indonesian set up video in the future and I will talk a bunch about care as well.
Can I ask you and maybe some people in the comments a question? I am looking into getting a blue tongue skink as my first ever reptile and your videos have helped me a lot, a lot more than a lot of the bigger channels actually. Now my question is. I live in the Netherlands where the avarage humidity is around 83%. Does this effect how I take care of humidity in the enclosure? Does this mean I have to mist less? And would a humidity meter be a must? Thanks in advance.
It will depend on the actual humidity levels in the enclosure itself. Do you use air conditioning inside your home where the enclosure will be? If it is 80% humidity inside the enclosure then I would recommend getting an Indonesian species such as a Merauke (Tiliqua gigas evanescens) or a classic or Halmahera type Indonesian (Tiliqua gigas gigas). You could also keep a Northern (Tiliqua scincoides intermedia) if the enclosure is well ventilated for good air flow (but not breezy). If you have air conditioning and the humidity is lower inside the home then that changes things. I hope that helps.
Nice to see this question since I was thinking about the same thing (I am from Belgium). I am getting a Merauke blue tongue skink this Thursday. I contacted a breeder who breeds both Indonesian and Merauke skinks and I asked him if he uses a hygrometer. He told me "not to listen to everyone's advice" since in his opinion/experience the skinks don't need it, they should be kept 'dry'.
This is of course very confusing. On YT you see many videos about how these subspecies need high humidity levels and that low humidity levels can cause dehydration and other bad things.
On the other hand, the breeder has had these skinks for years now and they are (obviously) still alive and doing well. So I suppose that means it works. (The breeder also lives in The Netherlands by the way and he still has Merauke and Indonesian skinks available.)
It's a bit conflicting but I also noticed that Americans sometimes have another way of keeping reptiles. I par example received some comments on using a heating lamp (and sand) for my Hognose snake. I've also seen videos of people who for some reason keep their Hognose in terra with high humidity. (I have always kept mine completely dry and he never had any problems with shedding)
@@thisname2320 Hi, I ended up getting a northern from belgium, so very coincidental! Haha. I monitored the humidity for a while in the enclosure and found it does get a lot dryer than de avarage humidity here. I now mist a little bit every few days. The breeder from belgium did so every morning.
The anti-bacterial , viral and fungal effects of UVB should not be overlooked either.
Hi ,,,What Halogen light do you was use in..? what brand and how many watts ...? please let me know for I can use it right ....Thank you ReptileMountain👌👍😄🙏
I use 39w PAR20 bulbs with the widest angle the store offers. I think they are 34degs.
Hi I appreciate your videos as I am a new Northern BTS owner. The breeder that I purchased my BTS from suggested 120 degree temps for my BTS...I haven't heard you mentioning this on your videos - maybe I have missed it. But I am wondering your thoughts on this? He seems to be hiding out a lot and doesn't typically go in the area that is 120 degrees. It is difficult to not go over 120, and keep it also at around 30% humidity at the same time. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!
Hi, The max temperature my skinks bask at is 116F and that is rare. Usually, around 102-105F has been their preferred temp whereby they bask and then either roam/forage/hunt or go rest/hide and later return to bask again.
I hear many people suggesting those high temps which I disagree with. Skink behavior indicates that is too high from my experience. I've never had any BTS bask at that temp (even with 24/hr video to watch). The animal is your best indicator. If they are basking often then the basking area is likely too cold. If they bask occasionally then the basking spot is likely correct. If they aren't basking at all (and there aren't other influencers such as brumation/shedding/fear/etc) then the basking area is likely too hot.
In the wild they will bask for a few minutes to a couple hours in the morning then either forage/hunt/explore/hide/rest and then bask again in the late afternoon depending on the season. Natural behavior is what we want to see. My guess is that 120 too hot.
Many folks get married to a temperature because "that's what it gets in the wild" which is although accurate a misguided application. Another example of this is the gila monster. It gets well over 130F for surface temperatures in their habitat in the SW USA however, gilas ideal core temperature is 86F and they rarely bask at temps above 95F. Therefore, anyone who would give a gila a 130F basking area would likely overheat that animal and kill it.
@@ReptileMountainTV , thanks so much! I had wondered because I saw his behavior was a bit different with basking.
I should add that I don't know of any evidence or data that demonstrates that 102-105F is insufficient. Animals allowed to bask at those temps thermoregulate (natural behavior), have healthy digestive tracts, are alert, are energized, have solid muscle tone, and their metabolism is on par with their outdoor kept Australian counter parts. I fail to see the need for the higher temps.
@@ReptileMountainTV , is there too high a humidity for northerns? I can't seem to get my humidity levels to stay at around 30%...?
They can handle 30-50 easily and upto 80 if well ventilated
I wanted to use the same reptisun for my tortoise babies but it puts out only 2.3uvi
Not enough for the hermans tortoises
Yeah its not enough for tortoises for sure. I use much more powerful bulbs for my hermanni
Saving up for some arcadia uvb lights
That's going to be a great upgrade
I noticed some bugs in their enclosures. Are those desired in your enclosures?
Some are springtails (desired) and some are just gnats (not desirable but it happens).
Do you think the benefits for uvb, halogen heat and ceramic are beneficial to just breeding females or the males have the same benefits? Just wondering your setup takes a lot of space and is it possible to condense it for males but give females an 'upgrade'
I keep all my adult skinks this way. The UVB and IR via halogen is fundamental to maximize overall health including DNA heath. So I would say it’s foundational for females and also beneficial for males since half the zygote is a male gamete.
The more I dig into the biological workings of these guys the more Im discovering that there really is no way to maximize biological capability AND save space, time, and money. The industrial lightless racking systems work, yes, however they cut corners that fail to maximize the biological efficiency of the animal. Im starting to see it is more like having a high end sports car being driven on cheap tires and the least efficient fuel. 😁
yeah yeah but where do you get you light thingy
The solarmeter? Amazon 👍🏼
I have question again, which is better for BTS food, is it dog food or repashy Bluey?
Dog food
hey i have a 1month old merauke blue is it normal the he burrows to bottom of substrate and how long should iv leave him there
Yes thats common.
3-4 days
What is your opinion of the Arcadia deep heat projector? Would you recommend a halogen bulb over the deep heat projector? I’m asking because right now I am using the deep heat projector and I’m just wondering if I should change to something different. I am using T5 high output UVB bulbs.
Yes halogen is way better for basking. They did a study on the deep heat projector and it only put off a tiny bit of Infrared A and mostly Infrared B and C. Its basically a more efficient heat emitter.
b8511c69-ef84-4b93-881f-a9b48edf3b89.filesusr.com/ugd/b36381_09d52c12d60f4ffd94c5b5746165d6de.pdf
ReptileMountain.TV Thank you!
ReptileMountain.TV so it sounds like this would be about the same for snakes and tortoises also. In other words I need to change out my heat bulbs in my whole reptile room. Yikes.
It is. Darn researchers costing us a fortune..lol hahah
Just curious, how many albinos have you bred? Or have you already made a video on the topic?
I don’t breed albinos. I focus on pure wildtype Easterns.
Hi there, I have a question about my northern and I was hoping you could help me out. He is about 4 months old and he is already about 15 inches and is looking pretty girthy, is this normal? Idk if I’m over feeding him or not, but I feed him once a day to once every other day. I feed him a variety of different cat foods and some mill worms and other feeder insects.
Sounds like you already have the answer 😉 Trust your gut. If you start to think he’s overweight then its likely you are correct. At 4 months they can slow down on the frequency of food for sure. Especially if they have grown a ton. Id would cut back to 2-3 times a week and smaller meals.
ReptileMountain.TV thank you so much, I really appreciate it😁. Also his poop has been pretty runny and he craps all over me every time I get him out. I thought about taking him to a vet, but I thought I’d ask you first. Any ideas as to what is going on?
Sometimes runny poop is from too much calcium in the diet but it could also be lack of variety of proteins or something else like parasites etc. I know that if you are feeding insects some carry coccidia which can make an animal sick...rare but happens. If changing up the food protein doesn't work then maybe run a sample to a vet. Pooping/peeing on you is typically a stress response.
Hello do you know where I can get my blue tongue skinks from and what breeder would you recomend
There is a list of reputable breeders at www.bluetongueskinks.net
You repeated calling these racks for breeders, do you do something for your non breeding northern blue tongues? I started keeping last year and I'm not happy with my setup and looking to change things up . ... again. Also the flat black lights you have on top I think you called them t5 10 Uvb but I cant find a fixture like that other than aquarium hoods. What fixture is that?
Those hoods are the Zoomed Reptisun 14” T5HO fixtures
Hi, can you tell me how to teach my BTS Merauke eat dog / cat food? And how routine give BTS food, is it once every 2 days ok. Sorry for my English is bad. My BTS is 5 month
www.reptilemountain.com/husbandry
Thanks bro, 👍
I need help, my merauke blue tongue skink will not eat I have had him for more than a year I don't understand please help!! I've been giving him food but he never goes for it. I put the food right in front of his face then he trys to eat it but never the food in his bowl I don't know what to do. I've tried giving his favorites but still nope, I've tried different bowls I've tried different food I've tried so many things I but he still never goes for it. I need help please!!!
Have you watched my video called “My Skink Won’t Eat” ??
Yes, but it didn't help my baby's situation.
He isnt eating in over a year? I would get a vet check then.
He has been eating but not from his bowl. I have to hold it for him, I've tried just leaving his food there but he never goes for it. so I have no choice but to hand feed.
Sounds like he has you trained well. Gove him a fast. It should help.
Sub indo pliss
👀 Hey buddy!! How's it going!!! Loving being FB free! Still got messenger though. Hit me up for a nice tort pic exchange! Dying to see how your sons doing.
His tortoise is really doing great! Love the gold in the shell. I will shoot you a photo