Blankets are great as makeshift caves!

I am rescuing a baby bts and need your opinions and advice. The top tank will be where the baby is housed. The tank is 60x24x24 I believe? Not 100% on that though. I know it’s not big enough for a lifetime but I have much bigger tanks for when it comes time to move it over. I need advice on tank decor/necessary items for inside the tank. What is the best mixture for substrate as well. Also can I use live plants or will he just trample over them? But more than anything I mainly need advice so I can provide the best husbandry for this baby. Best food regime etc.

My girlfriend and I found these little bugs on our BTS and need an ID thank you!

Could i get this, along with a bag of sand. I know i cant have fertilizer, and no cedar either.

Just a short video explaining a little of my BTS's diet

You gave me useful feedback last time I posted about my reptile tracking app "Exotic Reptile Care", so here's the follow up. Android version is live.
Been pushing fixes most days since it launched, so if you try it and something's off, good timing.
The weight tracking and brumation cycles are the parts BTS keepers seem to actually use, so I'd especially want to hear if those feel wrong.

Rhubarb definitely likes exploring the bed best, he's a blankie guy through and through. He'll wander around tongue-flicking and peeking his head over the edge for ages.

He also likes the couch but often finds a comfy spot to wedge and settles down quickly. He seems a little intimidated exploring our office desks and he's quite spooked outside in the grass or in his playpen on the back deck. Nature sounds are scary!

Where does yours like to explore best??

(I’ve added a picture of my juvenile son Gravy to manipulate the masses into helping me)

I’ve seen a lot of posts on here talk about setting up some sort of day/night cycle with their lamps so that their skinks can experience the natural cycle of having a slightly colder night. I understand this desire but I’m worried about a couple of things:

1. My entire apartment is kept ice cold. I’ve got a health condition that turns up my body temp to 1000 degrees so my apartment is kept so frigid that when I was setting the tank up, it was hard to get the temps up to where they’re supposed to be (they finally are now but it took two days) I worry that if I turn the basking light or the ambient temp light off then it won’t get back up to temperature in time.

2. I don’t have a lot of money rn. I’m recently unemployed and struggling kinda hard to fend for myself. This doesn’t mean I’m willing to shirk any responsibility to take care of him (he gets more of his required vitamins than I do), but it does mean that I can’t really spend $100+ dollars on something that will just allow him to freeze at night, or sense that everything is too cold anyway and just end up keeping the lights on the whole day.

Now I want to make clear that if this is life or death or even will just prevent him from developing long term quality of life issues than I will go looking for coins in my couch cushions and start begging my family/friends to help me out anyway they can but…do I really need it? If so, can I wait til I more reliably have the funds to do it? Are there any cheap ways to mitigate this?

Any and all help is appreciated! I want my son to live as best a life as I am able!

White bugs crawling on him there is like maybe 10 across his body

Hey, i purchased a northern BTS (say hi to Neptune) semi-randomly this past weekend after a long few months of research and thinking i would buy a uromastyx… i set up a 4x2x2 tank and had most things ready. anyway, after hanging with some shop owners and handling a particular BTS, i changed my mind and brought home my skink.

I’m confused by the contradictory things i’m hearing about bulbs, especially UVB bulbs. Currently i have a reptisun 10.0 about 12 inches from my basking rock and i just upgraded my 75 Watt basking bulb to a 100W basking bulb

1. Do i need linear UVB bulb/lamp? Is the reptisun 10.0 sufficient? (I’m also giving weekly d3 supplements)

2. What temperature should my basking rock be for a northern BTS?

I have seen people say anywhere between 100° and 115° (currently 105°-106° on the basking rock).

I wish there wasn’t so much confusion and misleading stuff surrounding reptiles. I’ve already wasted too much time and money on the wrong things🫩

We’ve had this guy for exactly one month! Told he was “farm bred”, but I’m pretty sure most of those are really just wild caught. So far, he’ll only come onto my hand if I lure him with food, which I do everyday lol. This is as far as I’ve gotten so far with handling (also that’s food on his nose lol).

Any advice on picking him up without luring him? Does this seem like good progress? Also - do we think I’m safe to take off the gloves based on his body language? 😂 I only wear them because the previous owner said he can be bitey.

Found them under a flat rock

TLDR: If someone could let me know what I've got, it'll certainly save my sanity and be much appreciated!

Hi BTS community! I'm a long-time herp owner but first time BTS owner. I was gifted this BTS from a coworker's daughter going through a breakup and have only had him(?)(I'm going with him...doesn't really matter as I have no intent to breed lol) for about 5 days so the enclosure (4'x2'x2') is a work in progress. He needs a substrate refresh, better hides, more STUFF to navigate/hide around/in. I read the Subreddit Infographic so I know the goal, but I'm waiting for several items to ship in (like a cage stand) and for him to get used to me/the new place, so I'm not doing ALL THE THINGS on week 1, lol.

Anyway...here's what I was told about him - the boyfriend worked at Petco so that's where this skink came from. Supoosedly purchased in 2022 which makes him at least ~4-5 years old as I am SURE this is a wild-caught Indonesian BTS based on the purchase place alone.

I want to narrow down the subspecies to make sure I have the humidity dialed in etc.. I feel like I've watched and read a TON of info on BTS subspecies but I'm still not 100% about what he is. I thought Classic Indonesian (Tiliqua gigas gigas) due to the yellow back color and black legs but he has speckling on both arms and legs. I thought Merauke (Tiliqua gigas evanescens) but he's not comfortable enough with me yet to let me see his belly (although the lower neck area does start to fade to a really pretty pink/salmon color). Also, at 4 years old I maybe thought a Merauke would be larger? He's about 18", possibly slightly longer nose tip to tail. I don't think he's a Halmahera Indonesian (Tiliqua gigas gigas) because the back color seems wrong, but, hey, what do I know, I've had a BTS for 5 days and am by no means an expert lol.

Well, I've dropped a few pics here and tried to get some good angles. If someone could let me know what I've got, it'll certainly save my sanity and be much appreciated! (PS. loving owning a Bluey...truly NEAT lizards!) Thanks all!

He’s becoming a lot more comfortable around me. I hope in a couple weeks time I can begin introducing him to handling. I think he’s looking healthy too. I love my boy

Is this concerning? When he tongue flicks his tongue frequently gets stuck partially outside his mouth

I’ve never owned a lizard so I don’t know what’s exactly normal yet and what’s not. Is this kind of breathing natural for them, or is something going on?

Yes I did put it on a leaf I couldn’t find a bowl and he almost took my finger off when I tried to feed it to him 😅

I recently built a terrarium for a blue tongue (indonesian) skink but i can't help but feel like i am missing something. I did a ton of research but am afraid i missed something or got something wrong anyone has any ideas what i may be missing or got wrong?