Blue tongue not eating well

[Ccrestedgecko]

He's only eating egg and that's only occasionally, his poop comes out mushy and green and when he eats egg he swallows like 4 or 5 times to get it down. The vet said he looked fine and didn't do anything. What could be wrong with my skink?

[Susann]

Did they do a fecal on him at the vet?

[Janella]

I would also recommend having a fecal checked for parasites. I am new to this forum as well and what worked for me was buying the food processor like what was mentioned on the main site. I then had to finely process everything together. If I just cut and shredded my foods I chose, my guy would pick out all his favorites and leave the rest. By using the processor he eats like a champ now. Hope you can figure it out.

[Ccrestedgecko]

He did a fecal and all that and didn't find anything

[Dakota]

Did you take him to a reptile-specific vet?

[alichamp]

Hi. Sorry, I can't seem to recall much about your skink. Could you post a pic please?

What food do you offer and how often? How long has he not been eating well?

And what is your setup for him/her? (Substrate, cool/warm/basking temps, humidity).

[Ccrestedgecko]

He's not been eating well for a few weeks I offer a large variety of food everyday and he's in a 50 gallon with aspen bedding and hot side 100 cool side 75. He went to an all animal vet named dr Joel Murphy. Who is usually very good.

[Ccrestedgecko]

Does anyone know what this could be? I see nothing like it online.

[Dakota]

How old is your skink, and how often are you offering food?

[alichamp]

We still don't have enough information to be able to advise you at this point. We don't know how old your skink is, what species, and what condition, what humidity, and what food. If you can please post a current pic and tell us what food you are offering we might have a better idea.

There are many possible reasons your skink may have gone off food, which is why we can't give you an answer without more info, and probably why you can't find the answer with a Google search. Reasons range from normal seasonal variation, to being offered too much food or too often (ie it is simply not hungry because it is overfed), being offered the wrong tyoes of food, being in conditions that aren't right, or illness, sometimes serious. Your temps are OK so that is good. The vet has done a faecal and ruled out internal parasites so that is good. A current picture and the information we asked you about will help us to rule out other things and hopefully nut down a cause. It is a puzzle and to put it together we simply need more info.

[Ccrestedgecko]

Ok he's still not eating well. But he is a merauke blue tongue. I've tried many different kinds of food and did used to offer him to much food to be honest. He has a big water dish in his cage and drinks quite a lot. He is not pooping regularly at all and I haven't seen a normal poop from him in about a month. He is a young skink maybe a year or 2 old.

[Ccrestedgecko]

He is the pic of him

[alichamp]

So from what I can tell from the pic he looks OK weight wise.

Egg can give them sloppy poo so if that is all he is eating then it is not surprising his poo is a bit gross. They poo 24-48 hours after eating and that's about it - that is 'regularly' for a skink. If he's 1-2 years old he should only be eating once or twice a week. I still don't know what food you are offering ("many different kinds of food" doesn't help us) and if you are offering every day I think your expectations of how much and how often he should be eating is probably just too high.

Try offering food every 4-7 days of dog food with a little finely chopped green or veggies mixed in. If he doesn't eat what you offer, take it out at the end of the day and offer a fresh batch of the same food (dog food with a little veggie mixed in) again 5 days later. He may very well just be stuffed full and not hungry. And if he's offered food too often - and offered this and then that and then that, he can wait until the really yummy stuff without having to eat his staples. Read through carefully the following threads.
Diet Chart
Feeding your BTS

Also check out this thread on Humid hides. As a Merauke he will need a boost of humidity. It's also recommended you switch from aspen to another substrate that can hold humidity better next time you need to buy a bag of substrate.

It doesn't seem from your description or the vet check up that there are any signs that he is unwell other than your concern about his eating. Please keep us updated and let us know how things go.

[Edward]

Great post, alichamp.
I'd follow the advice given and let us know how things are going after a few weeks.

More pictures of your skink are always welcome.

[Wiwaxia]

Hi, I'm also new in here though even if I don't have insane amount of experience with blue tongues I did my PhD on reptile diseases (especially on virus infections). Try to press the sides of his skull gently, just right where his jaws meet. It should feel firm and stong so should the whole skull and the jaws themselves. If it feels a bit soft or mellow, then take him back to the vet and tell him to give him and injection of calcium and extra D3. Even if metabolic bone disease is not so well-progressed as having apparent signs of bone malformation the bones are still weak and rubber-like hence he can't eat properly as feeding hurts his jaws. He only eats the eggs because they are mellow and easy to chew. It can very well be that I'm totally off as I know basically nothing about your animal, but still, it is worth giving it a shoot.