Discolored Tail

[Fortuitous]

Hello everyone I am new to this forum and this is my first post so forgive me if I am not as informed as I should be. I have a nine month-old Northern his name is Drogo. I love Drogo and I spend as much time with him as I can, I follow instructions listed on the care sheet and I do my best to take very good care of him. Drogo appears to be healthy the only concern that I have is that his tail and hindquarters are discolored and are lighter then the rest of his body. I noticed that he had this "white" tail when I first got him, about four months ago, and I assumed it was because he was still young, and that it would go away after a few molts. He just finished molting a few days ago and he is still growing. He still has a discolored tail and I am worried that it might be a sign of MBD. I am attaching pictures below, if anyone can offer advice, or diagnose this it would be much appreciated. Thank you!

[Kurt]

Unless i'm missing something here I'd say the tail looks normal. Tail colors are often washed out like that and I don't believe color has anything to do with mbd. A profile shot from the side with the skink flat on something would be a better shot for us to judge if there is any mbd.

[Dakota]

Babies get their true color as they get older. What you seen when he was a baby was not his true color, this is about what he is going to look like for the rest of his life with few minor shade changing.

[Fortuitous]

Thank you I was not sure, a woman at pet smart told me that discolored scales can be a sign of malnourishment.

This is a better picture of Drogo below

[Dakota]

As long as you are supplementing and has a good, varied diet, than no I wouldn't worry. He looks healthy.

[Ophidiophile]

That looks like a healthy Northern Blue Tongue to me.

You obviously haven't heard of the first rule of reptile-keeping:
NEVER listen to anything a PetSmart employee tells you.

[Jeff]

The truth is, you don't need to worry unless the tail does NOT vary from the body. Northern tails are supossed to look like that. Here is a picture I took for someone about 30 minutes ago:

image-26.jpeg

[Fortuitous]

Ok great! Im glad drogo is healthy. I have been changing up his diet every week to keep it interesting for him. I have also been supplimenting him. I know his previous owner did not take very good care of him. For the first six months of his life he was only fed crickets and mice and did not have a basking lamp. So now he is not interested in vegetables. I often have to blend the greens up into a fine paste with suppliments added to it, and then i coat lean chicken, or gizzards and hearts with the green paste. Feeding has been difficult since he is very picky, I try to give him 40 percent veggies, 40 percent meat and 20 percent fruits, but he will try to pick out all of the meat and fruit if he can. He does love the green leaves on the top of strawberdys so i feed those to him often. I know these are hardy animals but i am still worried that his previus treatment could cause problems for him down the line.

[Richard.C]

a lot don't like toeat there vegies, even when fed that from juvie stage

welcome to the forum

nice looking perfectly healthy looking northern, solid looking one

[Fortuitous]

Thank you for the information, i really appreciate it.