Western and Centralian skinks

[NGold]

Hello,
I'm getting skinks and I want a male and female. However I am stuck between the Western and Centralian skinks. I live in WA.

Any advice? I know that you can't keep two males together, but I heard sometimes males and females can be kept together.

Also lastly, will centralians and westerns be able to breed? I think these two are the best looking skinks and would be interested to see a cross.

Cheers.

 

[Nero Egernia]

Both skinks have fairly similar housing requirements. Westerns will be easier to source and are a little larger compared to Centralians. Pick the species you like best. Or maybe go for both if you like them and have the space.

Can't say for sure whether males should be housed separately or not as when I was keeping them I didn't know their sexes, but they all appeared to live harmoniously. According to some sources they're less temperamental compared to Northern and Eastern blue-tongues when living with other cage mates. As a rule, most male lizards tend to not like each other, particularly in the breeding season so it's probably best to keep males separate if you're not sure. It's also worth noting that it's strictly against WA's licensing conditions to interbreed between species and subspecies.

 

[Molerat52]

Caring for westerns is pretty straight forward, just find a good guide or book and you should be fine. I would suggest keeping them outside in a “pit” style and they will appreciate the naturalistic space. I found centraliams need a bit more specialised care than the other Tiliqua. They cannot he kept outdoors outside of their natural range so if you are in Perth you will need about a four foot enclosure. They also get extremely overweight from regular blue tongue diets so I suggest going for diet with a higher content of inverts to keep them lean.

Keepinbfg males together depends on the personality, I have a mix of six and they get along fine but I have known males owned by friends that will dominate and try to kill males and females so needed to be kept separately.

In previous years both of those species were relatively cheap and easily a aquirable, unfortunately the price of those two species has skyrocketed recently due to demand from eastern states keepers. You may be able to pick up a Western from a pet shop if you call around (Pet Magic Cannington had one a few months ago). Otherwise northern blue tongues are relatively plentiful as the Armadale Reptile Centre breeds them fairy consistently and much cheaper than getting a western or centralian at the moment.

 

[dragonlover1]

We have Eastern,Western and Northern Bluies here but most live separately except for 1 pair of Easterns who have been together for over 2 years and just had their first clutch.They get on well so I don't see why any other variety would be different. They all live in a 5 bay Tiliqua tower with exactly the same conditions and food except for the Western who was born deformed with a twisted skull and only 1 eye so she is a special case who only has astro turf and not substrate like the others.I would keep males separate though.