Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

My trio of BTS lived indoors alll
their lives. They even bred indoors. They were given
to me last and bred for me. This summer I figured I would build
them a big outdoor enclosure. See the photos below. When they
were put outside they were perfect not a scar or missing toe!
Since they've been outdoors they have become VERY territorial.
They are now fully scraped and scared, but all wounds were VERY
minor and healed nicely. I added additional rock piles and that
seemed to help.

I am now worrieed that they have to come indoors for the winter.
Do you think they will return to their once peaceful nature
or are they destined to be sepparated for the winter?

Thanks,

Brian

Your pic has some text on it that I will address. Your skinks are Irian Jayas, and are not really a subspecies. They are an undescribed BTS from southern New Guinea, but are only imported from Irian Jaya, hence the name. If you bring them in, you are going to want to keep them separated. I feel very strong about this. It is just not fair to force a solitary species like a BTS to live in constant close quarters with another BTS. It is very stressful, and most indoor situations offer no out for the animal that normally would flee if the encounter were to happen in the wild. This can be very stressful, and possibly even fatal for the less dominant animal, even if they do not actually fight. Do you know your sex ratio?

It would probably be a bad idea to breed those blue tongue offspring together since there parents are sister and brother. Thanks for clearing that up. If your not able to set up cages right away for your blue tongues, I dont see the problem with keeping them over winter together if you will be cooling them. They probably wont be moving around much anyways and be hiding were they cant see each other. But if I were you I would have them seperated by next year before you cool them because it is probably better for them. About your outdoor cage: Skinks must think there in skink heaven being kept out there. Where are you located at that your able to keep them outdoors? Nate

I am in southeastern MA. They will need to come in soon. The days are still 65-80 but the nights will start dropping to 50 in the next few weeks. I'm looking to build a 4-6 foot cage for them.

Brian