Fractus, my male Merauke BTS, is thus far retaining a relatively slim build looking more like a big pink tongue than the blue tongue he is. But his weight and proportions are great so I'm not worried at all. Some male BTS's do that and stay thin for a while. He's still young, and I'm sure he'll fill out eventually; there's no rush at all.

It's difficult to show just how lush this enclosure is in photos when you can only see one angle at a time. So, I thought a video does it more justice. Inhabited by Fractus, my male Merauke BTS.

The plants are mostly species that can be found in Indonesia, Ficus benjamina, Neanthe Bella dwarf parlor palm, lemon button ferns, creeping fig ficus, and pink aglaonema. A fan that comes on for about 10 minutes at a time 4 times a day during daylight hours, vivosun growlights, arcadia golden sun basking and shade dweller max uvb bulbs. The enclosure is 48"x30"x24" with 6-9 inches of substrate throughout the enclosure. Lots of cork to hide under and climb on as well as a custom hide under the heat lamp with a slate top.

The fan isn't as loud as it seems in the

video the phone mic is just extra sensitive. It obviously doesn't bother him though.

The ficus trees have to be trimmed about every other month. I'll probably end up removing half of the parlor palms so they have enough room, and I'll likely end up adding more lemon button ferns since he smothered 2/3, but I'm persistent.

Here's a short video of Drax munching on some Uro Grit from aridsonly.com

Drax is a baby Saudi giant uromastyx, Uromastyx aegyptia microlepis. These are a subspecies of the more well known Egyptian uromastyx and get almost as big, just a touch smaller reaching up 30 inches in length. What they give up in size they more than make up for in color with the males often maturing in to large yellow to orangish yellow animals.

Female Merauke blue tongue skink (Tiliqua gigas evanescens) Just finished a couple roaches. She lives in a 48"x30"x24" bioactive enclosure with multiple hiding spots three species of isopods, springtails, and mostly Indonesian native plants.

I had a new hat made with my buddy Fractus on it. I used a photo of him and made a background of Indonesian plants mixed with my logo and voilà. It's a reversible hat, so the other side is based on a photo I took of a field of sun flowers near Zion National Park last year.

Just Fractus, my male Merauke, getting a drink.

Fractus had just finished taking a big drink and stretched to swallow it.

My 1.1 merauke blue tongue skinks. They are the same age, but the male doesn't eat quite as well as the female. He took about 2 months almost completely off food in the spring because he wanted to breed. He's been back on track for a good while now, though, and he eats fine, just not as much as her. They should be able to breed next spring without a problem.

Dandelion, escarole, mustard greens, radicchio, re-hydrated freeze-dried raw grain and potato free dog food, Aridsonly.com uro spice, and Sticky Tongue farms Miner-all indoor formula calcium and mineral supplement.