Babies? Maybe?

Merauke blue tongue skinks are notoriously hard to breed in captivity (intentionally and repeatedly), producing live babies. In Canada it doesn't happen very often and for the past couple of years we have been determined to figure it out, dedicated to increasing our merauke family, trying new things and to keeping good records. 

We have 3 females that mated successfully from January - March 2017. On May 19 we took photos of each of them, today we took 6 week follow up photos and things are looking promising! 

Zoe looks the most likely to be pregnant, she mated with Angel only once, 104 days ago.

Buffy first mated with Angel 170 days ago and last mated 106 days ago. She is recovering from a burn when she broke her heat lamp in May, so the red you see on her back is from the iodine ointment. We see some signs that keep us hopeful that she is pregnant.

Charlie first mated with Angel 171 days ago and last mated 104 days ago. 

Blue tongue skinks are great at showing signs they are pregnant and not producing anything (they simply had a huge spring appetite), or producing unfertilized eggs. So, although we are hopeful, we won't know anything for sure until those babies start popping, which will likely be in July. We will keep you updated!

Basking in the sun.

I love the toasty warm, sunshiny days when I can take the B. Boivinis outside. It's fun to watch them all line up on the sunniest wall to bask, and follow the sun around throughout the day. Our large front deck has full access to the eastern morning sun and the full southern sun of all afternoon. It is wonderful!

Do you want to see our gecko room?

We promised you walkthroughs of our reptile spaces and we are keeping that promise :-). This first one is of our gecko room. The blue tongue skink room, the Boivini habitats, and the stink pot turtle aquariums will be coming over the next few weeks. Enjoy the quick glimpse into a bit of what we do :-)

A new addition!

First, we want to say thank you to everyone who came out to Edmonton's Reptile Expo three weeks ago! It was one of our best yet, we met some fantastic people, got to see some old friends, talked about reptiles for 2 whole days, and made some great sales! Thank you!

We have been pretty busy since coming home and I will try to update you little by little :-)

9 days ago we welcomed Matrix into our blue tongue skink family. He is our first IJ, all the others are Meraukes, and we adore him. He is almost 3 years old, is captive born and bred (from a breeder that we know personally) and is quite the charmer. We are excited to expand into the IJ (Irian Jaya) species of blue tongue. After 2 preventative mite treatments, 9 days on paper towel and a 40 gram weight gain (530-570), we moved him onto our regular coco husk substrate. He is still in the quarantine tub for a few more weeks, but will soon move into his permanent home. 




IJs come from Indonesia, just like our Meraukes, and have the same care requirements. We have heard from numerous keepers and breeders that IJs tend to have the laid back, chill, friendly attitude of a Northern from Australia and the social inquisitiveness of the Merauke and we have certainly seen this to be true with Matrix. While none of our Meraukes are aggressive, they do huff when you reach into their home or bother them, but they love to watch us (from the safety of their tank) when we are within eyesight. This guy definitely likes to keep an eye on what is going on, he is always out basking and hardly makes a noise when we go into his home. 








We have also heard that breeding IJs is much easier to figure out than Meraukes. We will continue with our dream to crack the code on successful, repeated Merauke breeding in captivity in Canada, until then we are excited to possibly delve into this new world of IJs. 

Welcome home, Matrix!

3 days to go!

As promised, here are the updated photos of the juveniles that will be coming with us to the Edmonton Reptile Expo this weekend. They all weigh 5 grams - 11.5 grams and are in great health.

We are also bringing a 25 gram sub adult, Halo. When using a loupe we see pores, but there is no male bulge yet. Sex is not guaranteed for Halo. 

Lily (a proven female breeder) will also be coming. She is a spotless red and throws red and spotted red babies.

Iced Capp will be coming to the show as well. He is a proven breeder male who throws flames and harlequins.

These photos and descriptions are simply to get you excited about the show. We live too far from a major center to ship and only sell at Edmonton AB (possible Regina SK) expos at this time.

5 days until the Expo!

We have 5 days until our first Expo of 2017! Today we are weighing geckos, deciding who will come with us, and taking photos of those who are ready for new homes. Are you ready to see some? 

** I apologize for the poor quality of these photos, it's much easier to post right from my phone, but it looks like the photo quality suffers :-( . I still have more juveniles to take photos of and I will take the time to upload them onto the computer first. If time allows, I will redo these 8 before the show. **

These are our Tiana and Titan babies who are ready to go home. All are over 5 grams and unsexed.



Lily and James babies that are all over 5 grams, unsexed and ready to go.



These 2 were purchased from Live Harmless Reptiles in BC, but have not grown into what we were hoping for. They are unsexed.

We do not ship our reptiles, are currently only selling them at Expos we attend and due to issues in the past, we no longer take deposits or hold an animal for pick up. These photos are to show you who we are bringing and to get you excited to come.

Only 6 days to go!

In 6 days you will find us hanging out at Edmonton's Reptile Expo! Until then this place will be humming with preparations as each family member pitches in to get things done. This is our 10 year old drilling holes in the grow out habitats we sell. 

See you at the Expo!