Look whats in my garden!

[Petra]

Hi guy's,
i was delighted to find these baby's in my garden yesterday. I beleive they are the offspring to the pet bluetongues that we
released in the garden a couple of years back.Their'ved stayed here in the gardens since. And for those who didnt know, bluetongues are live born,& not from an egg.They are prediatorial,so i guess these too will hang around.

janry bonsai Bluey'sBabys 014.jpg

janry bonsai Bluey'sBabys 017.jpg

janry bonsai Bluey'sBabys 018.jpg

I dont think they are from the same batch,as you can see there colours are diffrent. cheers!

[Japh]

They're beautiful! And how lovely that they decided to stick around

[Gumnuts]

Thats cool!

I found two little ones in my garden last week about 10cms long. They are born around late Janurary.
I have kept my two in large tubs and feed them on snails and meal worms.
I want to release them soon -I am just keeping them from the cats at the moment.

They are territorial so my garden belongs to the big female who has lived here for years.
The males come and go. The little ones will have to find their own patch soon enough.

They can give birth to 15-20 babies so variation in a litter would be expected.

Cheers

[Japh]

They can give birth to 15-20 babies so variation in a litter would be expected.

15 - 20 from such a small creature and live birth? That's really quite incredible... they must be so so small when they're born.

[Petra]

Not really Japh, they are 10 or more cm's long and 2cm wide. They do have big litters, and one has to wonder how they fit them all in. As i have never seen a pregnant bluey before. Have seen dragon lizards with belly's full of eggs, but vaigly rember how wide she looked.
Usually the gardens inundated with dragons this time of year. Havnt seen any this year yet.

[MattA]

Hey Petra,

They are absolutely beautiful and bonus you will never have a snail problem....

I have one that was here when I moved in, she disappeared for a long time & I thought my dogs may have gotten her. Then I spied her last spring wandering the front garden. Now I see her often & during spring she spends alot of time sunning herself on the drystone wall just outside my office window, unperturbed by me or the dogs... I didnt realise they could have so many young at once, maybe I will end up with a tribe like you have.

I released some baby water dragons at my parents place in Sydney many years ago, one can still be found in their garden, resting in one of the many trees.

Matt

[Glenn C]

Fantastic Petra, they are beautiful. I too have had them breed in my backyard but I haven't seen a blue tongue for a few years....neighbours cat has driven them off or killed them I reckon. This year we've had copper tailed skinks breed and these little folk....this shot was taken last weekend and it's the second time this summer these black ducks have bred in my pool area.

P1070200 (Medium).JPG

[simonm]

None of the babies eve seem lucky enough to escape my cats and dogs, they get a few a year,

[dragon]

all i am new to this forum and this is my first post my name is dean i live in berkeley/wollongong i was just reading about the bluey'syou folks have in back yards
and i must say a female blue tounge can grow upto 45 to 50 cm long and the male can grow upto 60 cm long and even thought they do give birth to live young the young actually dont stay with the family they go straight out into the wild on there own straight away and even if they have different markings they will still come from the same parents as i had 30 bluey's in my enclosure and they all had different markings but were all from the same parents
dean

[Joel]

Here's something that visited my garden recently. Can you spot him?

Joel

[Bougy Fan]

Are you talking about the Banksia Integ or the echidna ?

[Joel]

Are you taking about the Banksia Integ or the echidna ?

They are both prickly but hopefully the Banksia is here to stay! (Echidna is more than welcome though).

[Damian Bee]

No snail pellets if you have blue tongues

[Pup]

After reading the replies here to these wonderful pictures of our Native fauna, and what destroys them. Have we not learned that our domestic pets are destroyers of them.
Thus they need to be controlled. We had a dog that used to chase ( cats are not welcome in my household or garden) the lizards, so I sat out in the yard with a spray bottle with some water and cloudy ammonia. Every time she got near one I sprayed her, she stop after one day.

So please protect our fauna from domestic animals, PLEASE. The usual answer when I tell people to control there cats, is but we keep them in at night, Hello when are birds active? during the day when your little darling is prowling. Keep them in an enclosure, so they do not offend people like me, who have to pick up their feces, yes they do in fresh turned soil, where the seedlings are ruined, even in the kids sand pit, if it is not covered when not being used..

After they wander into my garden where my dog is not allowed to go into yours, because he is controlled and confined to mine or on a leash, when I take him for a walk and pick up his feces.
Being a responsible pet owner, is what it is all about. I know I am going to get some flack for my comments, mostly from the people who do not control there pets, so save your time and breath, as I have heard all the arguments none are relevant excuses, as when I was a wildlife ranger I have heard them all even those for justifying why they had killed it.
Controlled animals do not kill wild life.
A grumpy wild life lover Pup

[craigw60]

No Flack from me Pup I am 100% with you on this one, last summer I had a cat coming into my garden hunting eastern spinebills, these little birds come here to breed every summer and I love them, after asking around the neighborhood I finally found who owned the cat and told them if they didn't control it I would trap it and take it to the pound, it seems the birds are safe this year.
Craigw