Newbie Skink Owner With a Few Questions

[Ezealan]

Hi everyone!

I've been browsing this forum for a few days now and I have most of the basics down. I've never owned a reptile before and I've had my almost 1 month old BTS for 3 days now. I have a few questions!

The day I got him, he was fine with me petting and picking him up, but yesterday and today he hisses when I get close to him. I can still pick him up and he doesn't hiss at all when he's sitting on my hand. I'm guessing this is just because he probably hasn't settled in yet? Other than that, he's very nice and allows me to pet him and feed him by hand sometimes.

My second question is how often would a 1 month old poop? I've only seen 2 so far so I'm guessing like once a day or so which is quite convenient!

I've gone over the food chart a hundred times, before feeding and after feeding to make sure I'm doing everything correctly. One thing I'm not too sure about is how often I should leave food in his bowl? For example this morning I made him a meal and he hasn't touched it so I moved him to it and he didn't seem interested. I took a few pieces out and hand fed them to him and he ate them. Should I be worried about this? Could he just not be hungry?

One last question for now: Is it possible to tell what kind of BTS he is just by looking at his markings? I asked the man at the store and he had no idea but thinks he's a hybrid or something along those lines. If it's not possible to tell, I'll ring the store I bought him from and speak to the woman who bred them.
Here's a picture of him:


Thanks in advance!

[Ainslie.L]

Hi. I was in the exact same position only 7days ago. I was putting out 3 meals a day and all of them not getting touched. I was told to try cat food as babies love it, also dog food and a runny poached egg. None of these worked for me but they may work for you. In the end i got canned snails from the aquarium and hand fed and then mixed in the vegies also live silkworms he loves them.

I added a hide close to the heat lamp too as he would get stuck at the cold end and they need the warmth to get motivated to eat and do their business, which is a definate if they have been eating, sometimes more than once a day. It meant he was already at the warm end in the morning. I now put food out just after lunch, and he.ll have a go.

But what i was told is that they need time to settle into their new surroundings. So if you keep doing what you are doing, your bluey will come around.

He is super cute! I dont know what type it is? Anyone else got an idea?

[Snowysmom]

Hi. I am very new here and a new Skink mom for only a month now to a 2 1/2 month old. When I got her she did not eat for a few days and went through this again last week. Turns out, shedding does this. Seems like just before and during a shed she does not touch food at all. I give her one meal a day and remove after 4 hours because sometimes she'll eat right away and sometimes a few hours after the food is offered.. Also in the begining I wasn't finely chopping fruits and veggies and she would try to eat and drop it because it was too much of a challenge due to the size....lazy girl. Chopping same foods helped her to enjoy them later.

As for food I am feeding her mostly wet grain free cat food (Wellness). Vet told me to get Dubia roaches and said they were very good for Skinks so I will start giving her these as an alternate protein source. I have tried boiled chicken and ground beef and raw and hard boiled eggs. She loved the beef, chicken and hard boiled eggs only, but any egg gives her loose stools so I will not give her eggs for a while and revisit months from now maybe. So, mixed with the protein I usually do carrots, a green (endive, collard greens are my stapels), squashes, green beans, pea pods for veggies so far and blueberries, bananas, grapes, apples so far for fruits which I give a 2 or 3 times a week.

Hope this helps you a little.

[Susann]

Welcome and congrats, you have a cute little Eastern.

The behavior you're describing with the huffing sounds very normal. Most of my very tame adults always huff when first approached and touched, but are totally fine once they've been held/been out of their tank for a bit.

They generally poop 12-24 hrs after eating. But it depends on how warm they've gotten and how active they've been since. If they've been laying low it can take a lot longer before they poop. But if you're feeding every day it's a pretty safe bet he's going to poop the previous day's food out when he starts moving around. Just because you don't see the poop doesn't mean he didn't poop; many of them are great at burying/hiding their stuff.

If he doesn't eat when you go as far as stick him in front of the food it's a pretty safe bet that he's just not hungry. You're fine to leave it for several hours if that makes you feel better, making sure he's not just waiting until you leave so he can eat in peace, but you certainly don't need to leave it at all. You can totally just remove the food and try again the next day.

Sounds like you're off to a good start getting to know each other!

[Ezealan]

Thanks for the replies!

I couldn't log into my account so I remade it. O.o

[Ezealan]

Hey guys! Today I bought a cool little log for him to hide in, some fake vines for him to use as cover/hide and a nice big rock for him to soak up the heat on. He explored around for a while and just now while watching him look around he started to claw the glass with both his front legs as if he was trying to escape! It looked like he was scared. Is this normal when you change their home around? I turned off his light as it's getting late now so I hope he settles in.

edit: he wasn't moving much, usually when I touch him he tries to get away but he was just sitting on his rock and hissing. I moved him to the log hide and he went halfway in, came back out and started to eat from his food bowl. Is this a good sign? I'm a bit worried how he wouldn't move and he was on his rock and getting pretty warm. :/
Another edit: He's back on his rock and sitting under the heat lamp. I'm not sure if this is normal... Does he just feel he doesn't have a place to hide now? Maybe he just wants to sit there and I am overreacting?

[Susann]

Yeah, everything you're saying sounds perfectly normal.
Reptiles rarely enjoy being touched. Most BTS's tolerate being handled very well, so it's hard for some of us to not continually want to try to pet their heads or bodies like we do dogs. If a lizard is trying to get away it's probably either because a) they would rather check something out somewhere else, or b) because they want to get away, i.e. they don't like what's going on. If they aren't moving and are huffing, it either means they are terrified or they are ticked off; it's their way of telling you to back off, and is often what happens right before they bite.

A skink that is climbing the walls trying to get out is generally a skink trying to find a better place to hide. (Or a bored skink trying to find something to do. Or a boy skink trying to find a girl skink.) Where you had just put in new things in the tank I'm betting he spent a while checking things out but then wanted to find the same place he was used to before, not the one with logs and vines, so he started trying to climb out to go find it. Doesn't sound to me like he was scared per se, just insecure. When you then started to touch him while he was basking I bet you pushed him over to either terrified or ticked off.

Also, reptiles are exotherms so they need to heat their bodies up from an outside source after they eat in order to digest their food. They are very capable of knowing when they need to warm up and when they need to cool down, so no need for us to try to guess and move their bodies around for them. Our job is to supply their habitat with the right temperature gradient with lots of places to hide in between the hot and the cool, and then just leave them to pick the spot they need.

[Ezealan]

Thank you so much for the reply. He seems to have settled in now an accustomed to his new things. He's also much more active now. He used to just sit in his old hide all day, now he's walking around and even managed to climb on top of his log He's very smart!