Reptiles

Merauke Bluetongue Skink,
Tiliqua gigas evanescens.

The beginning.

Please click on the pictures.

My interest for bluetongues skinks began one day late April 2003, I happened to be in a pet store, were I saw a young girl carrying a blue tongue skink on her arm as the most natural thing in the world, the animal seemed very calm and trustful with this situation, which I found very fascinating.

Later the same day / evening / night I 'googled' the internet, to read and learn as much as possible about this fascinating creature.
The day after I announced my new fascination and interest to the rest of the family, to see what they thought about keeping reptiles.
The next week we went to the pet store, to see and touch the animal in order to make sure that everybody was ready to live with a reptile within our house. Since everybody was OK with this, I began to make the first terrarium ready.

Since I was not quite sure, whether in the long term it was a good idea with a blue tongue skink in our house, I decided to start up as cheap as possible, for eventually to reinvest later. I found a cheap 128l terrarium with heat matt and heat lamp on the internet, and bought the rest of the equipment in the pet-store. As the terrarium was ready to receive its new habitant, were there only one blue tongue skink left in the pet store, which unfortunately had lost its tail. I was offered him at a reduced price, so I bought him and he was named 'Stump'.

May 2003, Stump on his first day in the new home. A snail! Is it eatable?
     
May 2003, Stump 'fighting' an edible snail from my garden.
   

In the beginning of June 2003 I began to build 2 new terrariums sized 140x50x50 cm (LxDxH) of plywood, wooden plates with holes (ventilation) and sliding glass doors. The idea was to place them on above each other, since I wanted to bye more skinks later. Now I have finished the first one and the old 128l is kept in cellar for reserve purposes.

June 2003, Stump in his new and larger terrarium.