Endless energy?

[PlinkoPachinko]

Hi everyone!

My baby Plinko was born on July 17th, so she's 6 and a half months old. I've heard stories about people's skinks wandering around the room, exploring, and then falling asleep. The thing is, Plinko will endlessly wander around the livingroom for up to 3 hours without really resting. She's constantly curious and looking around! Is this normal? She's always so active, sometimes I wish she would just chill out. She does wander over to me and climb up on my butt/back/legs though.

[SFBlueTongue81]

Mine is usually the same! I usually put him on a low laying coffee table we have, he'll walk side to side but not jump off.

This actually relates to a topic I was going to post today anyhow. I'm a trainer by profession and I was thinking about ways to exercise our skinks. I know in the wild they would spend most of their awake time in the search of food after basking and getting a lot of excerise in the process.
I've tried a few things to tire mine out for about 10 min at a time:
Holding one hand above the other high enough to make it do a skink pull up
Putting him on an incline and having him walk up.
And before he shed I gave him a lizard bath, he climbed frantically at the sides even though the water only went half way up his sides and a comfortable 85 degrees. Only for about 10 mins after a few times he's calmed down a lot but it really tired him out!!! After that first time he was so exausted he could barely keep his eyes open when basking later.

Does anyone have any good tips for lizard exercise?
I know it sounds kinda funny, but every other pet needs exercise. Dogs go on walks, cats chase toys, ect.

[Katrina]

It isn't not normal - not all skinks will do this, but some will. I don't usually leave mine out for that long because I don't have the time. Males tend to be more of the wandering / exploring types, but that isn't necessarily a rule.

For exercise - reptiles don't really exercise a ton in the wild. They will bask if cold and eat if hungry, but otherwise the best thing for them to do is hide and not attract attention from predators. They certainly get more exercise than most captive ones. It is great to let them out to wander and let them have enough room in their enclosure to move around comfortably and climb over stuff, but I would't worry too much about setting up an exercise program for him or anything. I wouldn't worry about trying to tire them out or get them out of breath or anything - they can't breathe and run at the same time (varanids are the only reptiles that can), so they would only run in short bursts and otherwise move around fairly slowly and deliberately (like you would see when they are out exploring).

[PlinkoPachinko]

It isn't not normal - not all skinks will do this, but some will. I don't usually leave mine out for that long because I don't have the time. Males tend to be more of the wandering / exploring types, but that isn't necessarily a rule.

For exercise - reptiles don't really exercise a ton in the wild. They will bask if cold and eat if hungry, but otherwise the best thing for them to do is hide and not attract attention from predators. They certainly get more exercise than most captive ones. It is great to let them out to wander and let them have enough room in their enclosure to move around comfortably and climb over stuff, but I would't worry too much about setting up an exercise program for him or anything. I wouldn't worry about trying to tire them out or get them out of breath or anything - they can't breathe and run at the same time (varanids are the only reptiles that can), so they would only run in short bursts and otherwise move around fairly slowly and deliberately (like you would see when they are out exploring).

I was more wondering if she'll calm down with age. I don't really mind that she has a lot of energy, I'm just curious if it's something more common in young skinks.

As soon as I get off from work, I take her out, feed her, and let her wander around for a few hours while I browse the internet/play games. She really seems to enjoy being out and about, I wonder if she'll ever get bored of wandering over to the router and laying on it

[Katrina]

What pretty colors!! Post more pictures!!

[SFBlueTongue81]

Thanks Katrina! I didn't know about the breathing, that's really good to know! I'll just let him explore around for exercise and see how that goes.

Sorry to hijack the thread with my question!
The picture is great!!! yes post more!!

[Richard.C]

he looks like a whopper,nice coloring to,i find it depends on temps ect with how active they remain to,if a cold house,once body temp drops its bed time,if they can stay warm enough they will happily explore,though even when warm,some will happily curl up somewhere and rest