BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I need help, my first skink Norman's toes are falling off. He has just had his first shed and everything went fine except for around his toes and tail. One toe has fallen already, another one is hanging on by a thread and three more don't look like they are doing good. I feel really bad for the little guy and any advice would be appreciated!

I've been bathing him regularly to help with his shedding because he seems really itchy around his face. His diet consists of mostly strawberries, blueberries, hornworms and a mouse once a month. I tried feeding him crickets but he doesn't seem to like them anymore.

Thanks!

I am definitely not an expert, but I know this is something talked about here. You can try going into the search bar, and type in toes and see what comes up.

Also, you may want to take a look at the care sheet for feeding - sounds like your guy needs more greens etc

Deffinitely agree. Are you supplementing his food? He should be getting lots of calcium and D3, some say UV is not necessary if supplementing. Definitely needs more greens and protein.

Maybe you could post a few photos of your skink to get a more visual idea of the problem?

the diet you are giving your bts need to be changed immediately.
to put it simply you are giving him water and sugar, candy every day. that would be the same as you eating water and sugar every day.

do as the others say and look over the caresheet. stop feeding berries and fruits as a staple, they are treats and not to be fed in large amounts, if at all.

go buy greens and good salad and a can of dog food, chop it up and mix it well. add calcium + vitamin d3 supplement.

if your skink doesnt eat it do not despair and definitely do not go back to the old diet. it is perfectly fine for your skink not to eat in a few weeks. 60% greens and 40% proteins.


about the shed. you should not bathe your skink if hes shedding by himself. leave your skink alone to shed for at least 24 hours before doing anything. bathing and constantly picking at him when hes working his hardest the first day of shed is supposedly very stressfull. if you have not had your skink for very long his shedding issues are not your fault, but there are numerous things to do to prevent further toe injury:

- correct humidity
- less stress
- proper food
- good temperature gradient
- good sheds
- good substrate

please, check your temperatures and humidity levels and write them here. we could also help more if we are given photos of your skink and its shedding condition.

There is a detailed thread about toe loss here:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=20085

If he has shedding difficulties it can be exacerbated by soaking in water and reducing the natural oils he produces to aid in sloughing. Something you could try is rubbing areas of stuck shed, or even his whole body with emu oil. It is a natural animal product derived from the feathers of emus and has been used by a few members with shedding problem BTS'.

His diet doesn't look the best so a read through the caresheet diet suggestions would be helpful. Depending on his age and species he will have different requirements for protein and vegetable matter. His current diet is not likely to be providing him with sufficient protein and almost certainly insufficient calcium. Calcium can be easily adjusted by the use of a low/no phosphorous calcium supplement powder with vitamin D3. If he is a young growing skink he will need more protein, as much as 60% of his diet would be appropriate.

Wow thanks everyone! I have been giving him calcium and vitamin supplements with his food but I will make sure to change his diet. I will post pictures and more details about the temperature and humidity i really appreciate the help, I have had Norman for 2 months and he is around 6 months old. When I got him he had a calcium deficiency but I will make sure to post pictures!

Could anyone recommend some dog food?

"Wellness" dogfood seem to be popular in America and Canada, then theres "Caesar" and such too ( i hope other people will help with brand names, sorry). some prefer to feed high quality dogfood (containing what the package says) and some prefer feeding lower quality with mixed content. both seems to work fine.

watch out for rice/grain fillers in the dogfood though, theyre not dangerous at all but theyre not really nutricious, being fillers and all

I use Cesar moist dog food. Since your BT isn't used to eating greens (per caresheet) you can get a chopper and chop up the veggies together and camouflage it with the dog food.

When I got Skeeter a few months ago, his diet was bannanas, strawberries, and dog food. He would look at me like "am I supposed to eat this??" when offered greens or squashes without the dog food. Now, he will eat them "naked". I still give him the dog food - the naked veggies are for his mid week treat.

Yeah, when I first brought my skink home, he was reluctant to eat any veg (even thought he had been fed it whilst in the care of the pet shop) so blending it with othe foods is a good way to get them to eat it, Slowly making it more apparent each feed.

Good luck with your little guy, mine has been loosing toes aswell but is due to another problem and can relate to how freaked out you are now. It might not be a bad idea to have him checked by a vet to make sure his health is ok, but a change in his diet is deffinitely necessary.

I use Pedigree dog food, and mix it into the veggies.

I wouldn't use pedigree or caesar personally. I've read the ingredients and they are really not high quality. I would look for a dog food without all the fillers and pulps. it's just not healthy. When looking for a dog food, read the ingredients. You ALWAYS want the first to be an actual meat (ie chicken, beef, etc) NOT something (even in the first few) with "pulp", "broth", etc. I would go with Merrick which I use, Blue Buffalo (which i haven't personally used), or Holistic Select which I have also used, and Wellness is good too. I'd go with one that is top quality so you aren't feeding a bunch of fillers that are not healthy to your animal. Many dog foods are not even healthy for dogs. In the long run with many foods that are not high quality, the animal will end up eating more (making you spend more money) because there is less nutrition and more additives and fillers in what they are eating and then not getting as much as they should out of it, then they end up not as healthy as if you buy something high quality.

So I would feed high quality/organic soft dog food with mixed in veggies (which should make up about half of the diet). Dark greens like collard greens, arugula, swiss chard kale, watercress, romaine lettuce, mustard greens, etc which are some very healthy options. Also squash, zucchini, kiwi, apples, and others are healthy. (chopped finely) with multivitamin supplements added as well as calcium, and then calcium with D-3 about 2 times per week. Feeding all berries is just not nutritional at all. Dubia roaches are great feeders you can use sometimes also, very healthy.

Also if there is stuck shed, another thing to make sure he sheds better is spray the tank down a little while he is shedding to help, and if there is stuck shed on the tail or toes DO NOT just leave it there, it will cause them to fall off due to constriction from the dead skin. A warm bath, or at least warm/wet wash cloth can help a lot. My Merauke used to get a little shed left on his tail or a toe or two sometime and I would just gently rub it off (but not scraping off) after he soaked in warm water. This usually will help, but too much bathing isn't good, so another thing you can try is olive oil gently rubbed on.

LarissaLurid wrote:I wouldn't use pedigree or caesar personally. I've read the ingredients and they are really not high quality.

you sure? caesar heres got over 60% chicken or meat/liver or meat. its the most high quality brand sold, and also has vegetable versions available.

Linnea wrote:

LarissaLurid wrote:I wouldn't use pedigree or caesar personally. I've read the ingredients and they are really not high quality.

you sure? caesar heres got over 60% chicken or meat/liver or meat. its the most high quality brand sold, and also has vegetable versions available.

Hm I mean maybe I looked at just 1 lesser quality one, I may be wrong with that brand since I have only read ingredients on one of their wet dog food products a while back. So perhaps my opinion is not the best to listen to for that one. Although I do stick to what I said about pedigree.

LarissaLurid wrote:
Hm I mean maybe I looked at just 1 lesser quality one, I may be wrong with that brand since I have only read ingredients on one of their wet dog food products a while back. So perhaps my opinion is not the best to listen to for that one. Although I do stick to what I said about pedigree.

there must be some difference between the eu produced ones and the american ones though, so you may also be right. i just saw they had an egg and bacon version(kinda terrible even for dogs)....but it definitely is the same brand O__O;;

Linnea wrote:

LarissaLurid wrote:
Hm I mean maybe I looked at just 1 lesser quality one, I may be wrong with that brand since I have only read ingredients on one of their wet dog food products a while back. So perhaps my opinion is not the best to listen to for that one. Although I do stick to what I said about pedigree.

there must be some difference between the eu produced ones and the american ones though, so you may also be right. i just saw they had an egg and bacon version(kinda terrible even for dogs)....but it definitely is the same brand O__O;;

Yknow, there very well could be. I just know that when I looked at one type it just wasn't good quality. So unless they have changed it recently or if it was just that 1 line of products, then idk. I do know that with certain products, even with human food, from the same company are made differently in different places. (sometimes even as close as a different part of the country making theirs differently, nevermind different continents.)

i use pedigree pal,or chum ,im in australia though,so not sure u get that,have used it with out issue for more than 2 decades,i dont add veg either,sometimes i even use poxy brands,but mostly the first 2 mentioned ones, never had health issues with it,even raising babies on it,some of which are well over 10 years old now

I recently purchased a merauke BTS and I've had him for about a month and he's about 4-5 months old at this point and he has been eating and healthy and everything but when I got him he was just finished shedding so of course it takes awhile for him to shed again and he's been shedding the past and I've left him alone to make sure he sheds and doesn't hiss or get angry at me feeding him as this happens if course and I figured that today has probably been long enough to handle him again and look for any stuck she'd because I heard that can happen but when I looked at him he seemed perfectly fine and didn't act weird or out of the ordinary or anything and no stuck shed but while I was going around the toes I noticed that he was missing one which before shedding he had all his toes still it doesn't seem to be fresh I made sure to wash it and make sure it doesn't get infected or anything but I just want to know what could've caused it I've heard stuck she'd can do that but he didn't have any before and he's been eating been feeding him every other day a bit if high quality wet dog food mixed with vegetable and he slices it and eats it and so I don't think it would be like a defecency of any kind but I think it'll grow back I know the bone won't but it should be fine it's only that one toe also I've been spraying it every morning and night making sure his substrate is moist and humid especially during him shedding so idk what's wrong like I said he's fine I poked at it to see if maybe it was stuck shed he didn't seem like it hurt him or bothered him or anything and it doesn't look like bleeding or anything so it's not fresh but I still disinfected it carefully to the best of my ability and I just wanted to know if anyone else has had problems with toes just dissapearing like I said he was fine up until he shedded so idk

What's the humidity kept at? Toe could have previously been damaged and lost after a few sheds. Either way, toe loss is common and won't adversely affect your skink. Ensure humidity stays over 50%.