Newbie Skink Owner

[Mere]

Hello all! I'm a brand-new owner of a two-month-old Northern BTS. I love her! I'm still setting up everything, though, and I have a few questions.

First of all, do type of vitamins matter? Repashy SuperCal (http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/supercal.html) looks good but I can't find anything saying if they need a certain level of D3. Would moderate work? Or should I get something else altogether?

Also, right now she has a kleenex box with a little door as a hide and a PVC tube. They look too big for her. What do y'all use for baby skink hides? Do they like to feel enclosed (like ball pythons) or will she be fine with things she can grow into? So far she seems content to either bask or burrow in the shavings, ignoring the hides. She's about 8 inches long.

How well to skinks safely thermoregulate themselves? Her stone basking spot has been a steady 95 degrees, but her climby branch is up higher and near the same area. Should I worry about her sitting on it and getting too toasty, as it's hard to monitor the temp right there?

And here's Hazel! Don't worry, she only got straight catfood as an emergency meal (as I wasn't sure if she'd be hungry straight off the FedEx truck, which briefly lost her (GAH!). She was quite hungry).

[Jeff]

Nice looking little northern! I can't speak about the other brands of vitamins because I have only used Rep-Cal and Reptocal. These have always worked very well for me.

I think your hides are probably fine as long as you have 2-3" of aspen (guessing that's what you are using from the picture). Babies seem very content to hide under aspen. Also, that way they can pick whatever temperature they want and still be hidden. They are generally very good at thermoregulating. Just don't let the max temperature be too high, and he won't have the opportunity to overheat.

[Linnea]

hello and welcome thats a cute little bts you got there.

about the hide, ive found mine prefers a long hide that is very close to the ground, like cork bark hides. but i dont see anything wrong with providing slightly spacier hides, as long as you cant see in to them they will probably be okay.
substrate hide works too xD

about temperatures, it might be a good idea to invest in a temp gun, to measure the temperatures of the surfaces, rather than just the air temp close to it. it can be very different.
skinks wouldnt feel if the surface they walked on was too warm, if i remember correctly, thats why it might be a good idea to have it checked, if you keep the branches n the same place.

no worries about the catfood, theres plenty of vitamins and minerals in there for an emergency feeding some feed only dogfood as a staple with no problems, with occassional veggies.
might be a good idea to use dogfood in the future though, to avoid the taurine supplement in catfood.

[tylociraptor]

1) I believe what I have at home is from repashy, and the calciume is repcal I believe. I buy what I can get at my local pet store.

2) My skink has... 2 manufactured hides, lots of aspen, an industrial sized paper towel roll... and her little basking platform has a ledge under which she can hide... and I still think it's too few, or at least I worry that it will be. Luckily reptiles aren''t super finicky. They will hide in all sorts of cardboard boxes. If you have spare feel free to use them!

3) if you are concerned, you could move her branch. I wonder what kind of branch it is, though... skinks are not really climbers! They don't need any tall climbing areas. But reptiles have done this for millions of years, they will be okay. So long as you provide her the proper temps, she will go to them and from them when she feels she needs to.

Your skink is BEAUTIFUL! Grats to getting her to eat right off the truck, that is what I hope mine does tomorrow!