BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Well, I planned all week and finally brought this little guy home.

Meet Jarvis!



His home, completed.



He has not eaten, I offered him a tiny horn worm, nothing. then made up his food of butternut squash,collard greens,chicken dog food,grated carrots. he was not interested at all.
Hes currently hiding, and hissing

Probably normal, yes?

Congratulations! Yes, not eating and hissing/huffing is very normal when a skink first gets home. With regular handling, he should calm down a lot. I would just leave him alone for 3-4 days until he has settled in. Some will say longer, but I think a few days is enough.

Ok,

will do.

Now, what about him eating? I read from the care sheet babies need to eat daily.

Shall I just leave him food outside the gray cave? that's where he is hiding.

Just, make it up every day and leave it for a few hours etc?

I moved his water nice and close to his hide too for the time being.

Also, his basking rock is 100-105 degrees, and around it varies from 75-85

The cool end of his tank in some spots is 67 degrees, like up on that suspended rock for example, is that ok?

All advice is greatly appreciated, first day.. new pet.. im stressing myself out a bit

For the first couple of days you should leave him alone. He will be alittle bit stressed so don't be suprised if he doesn't eat for a week.
He may eat the food if you leave it out, but then again he may not.
I would leave it there for about a half an hour everyday if your that concerned about him eating.
His basking rock is alittle bit too hot for a baby. See if you can dim the light so it is 90-95 degrees.
I'm not too sure about the cool end but I would think that is too cold.

looks good

xxmonitorlizardxx wrote:For the first couple of days you should leave him alone. He will be alittle bit stressed so don't be suprised if he doesn't eat for a week.
He may eat the food if you leave it out, but then again he may not.
I would leave it there for about a half an hour everyday if your that concerned about him eating.
His basking rock is alittle bit too hot for a baby. See if you can dim the light so it is 90-95 degrees.
I'm not too sure about the cool end but I would think that is too cold.

Okay ML, I dimmed the heat light, 250 watt infrared (which I am next week going to buy a 150 and bring it physically lower to see if it will suffice instead)
The temp probe beside the basking spot is now reading 96.4 and I also invested in a temp gun, and aimed right at the rock it says 95ish.

I also took an old, small dome and 75 watt infrared bulb and put it on the cool side and its now 73ish, except for the deepest darkest spots in the very corner under that suspended rock, which are still 65.

Is that okay?

Maybe try a UTH for the coo, side- 65 is low. If you have a heat pad, you may not need a second lamp. Try that out!

Wow what a little one, very cute I'm sure he will come around, when we first got our now 10month old skink he hid for 3 days straight! Now he is out more than he hides

Should I be worried about him not eating during his first week home?

neurotic88 wrote:Should I be worried about him not eating during his first week home?

ABSOLUTELY!!!

.. Not. No worries about him not eating for a week, or even two weeks. He might just BARELY survive, though.
He'll be just fine.

WanderingChai wrote:

neurotic88 wrote:Should I be worried about him not eating during his first week home?

ABSOLUTELY!!!

.. Not. No worries about him not eating for a week, or even two weeks. He might just BARELY survive, though.
He'll be just fine.

Ugh.. He better survive..

Don't worry - some spots of 65 will be fine, the average is higher. And they can go for months without food if in good condition, so a few days or even a few weeks of barely eating will not do them any harm. Just keep offering food daily or every second day and don't stress if he doesn't eat much.

Love the name Jarvis!

In my experience, with any lizard. Food always wins out when they get hungry enough. Right now I dont even see mine eat since it is still getting used to me and its new home. But I put the food in there, leave him alone, come back later and the dish is pretty much licked clean. Plus you dont know what type of feeding schedule who ever you got it from had it on. What I did to figure out my BTS preferred eating schedule was just put food in every day for a week. Doing this I figured out my skink likes to eat every 2-3 days (its an adult).

Thanks Stormy,

Jarvis hasn't eaten yet, but he just came home yesterday. he was in the middle hide, but made his way out and basked out on his rock for an hour, and all night and again this morning was under a shrub right beside his basking stone, so at least he has not burrowed.

I placed food beside him for 30 min this morning on the other side of the shrub, but I dont think he could see it.
Didn't want to spook him.

Maybe ill try again tonight.

He doesn't have to see it. He can smell it.

Yup they got amazing smelling ability! So using some mashed canned dog food that is nice and "stinky" with whatever you are feeding him will get him to come to it *if* he is wanting to eat. It never fails to pull my guy from hiding and I sometimes use the trick if I want to look at him. Bring in a little dog food mash let him get the smell of it and then move it to move him.

NennaMeerkat wrote:Yup they got amazing smelling ability! So using some mashed canned dog food that is nice and "stinky" with whatever you are feeding him will get him to come to it *if* he is wanting to eat. It never fails to pull my guy from hiding and I sometimes use the trick if I want to look at him. Bring in a little dog food mash let him get the smell of it and then move it to move him.

Okay, well I guess he definitely doesn't want to eat yet then, because his food was about half a teaspoon of chicken dog food, shredded carrots and mustard greens all mashed up, (sprinkled a tiny bit of the calcium with d3 on it too) and it was 3 or 4 inches from him, and he didn't even move.

That's ok - it is completely normal! Right now he is more scared than hungry. Try again in a day or two, eventually that will change. Sounds like a great meal, eventually he will go for it!

Is your skink in a place with a lot of "traffic"? Sometimes moving a tank animal to a less busy part of the house will allow them to open up a little more and be less afraid.

NennaMeerkat wrote:Is your skink in a place with a lot of "traffic"? Sometimes moving a tank animal to a less busy part of the house will allow them to open up a little more and be less afraid.

Jarvis is on the back wall of my living room, the only traffic is me.

And I only tip toe up and peak at him a few times a day.

I just turned his light off, and he was curled up in the same spot hes been since last night, in a lil circle near his basking spot.