New baby Show & Tell (plus some health questions)

[Cvalda]

Hi all!

As of Thursday I am the happy owner of a baby Northern Blue-tongue (apparently born on the 4th of July), whom I have named Dil (no, not because of The Rugrats )

Dil was delivered to the office where I work, much to the curiosity of my fellow cubicle drones. I was prepared for a squirmy, frightened, hissing little thing, but when I opened the box and peeked into the sack inside, this is what greeted me:



I reached in, took him out, and this completely calm baby casually sniffed my hand with that gorgeous blue tongue. I instantly fell in love. I figured he must have been terribly thirsty after his overnight journey, so I filled up a bottlecap with filtered water, held him up to it, and voila--he drank it down. Later, after enduring the incessant cooing from my-coworkers over what a sweetheart he was, baby Dil and I went home. His enclosure was all set up--MV bulb, aspen bedding, hide boxes, etc. I tried feeding him--mealworms (refused), raspberries (refused), greens (refused), canned omnivorous lizard diet (also refused). I could tell he wanted to eat them though, because his little tongue was tasting up a raspberry like crazy. So I left his little food dish in the enclosure, set him in, and hid where he couldn't see me. After a minute or so, when he was quite confident I wasn't watching, he attacked the raspberry and canned food, and disappeared under his bedding, ha.

The next day at work, reading Blue-tongue caresheets instead of actually working, I discovered I'm not supposed to be using aspen bedding this early and promptly freaked out--when I had taken Dil out to check on him that morning, he had sneezed, so I assume he inhaled some aspen dust. As soon as I got home, I removed Dil straight-away and trashed all the aspen, and instead ransacked the bathroom for toilet paper and old paper towel rolls, which is what his enclosure is now bedded with. All the while doing this, Dil was watching perched on the dining room table (which he took his inaugural poo on, ha). Seeing as he seemed more or less used to me by this point, I decided to try feeding him there and then with me watching. Here is Dil right before mealtime:


Here was the table 15 minutes later...


And no, I didn't go crazy with the calcium powder--the stuff did not adhere to the mealworms, try as I might, and they spread it all over the table as Dil rampaged after them. I don't think he even got much of it, to be honest. It was quite a fun time, though. Dil loves his canned lizard food and still refuses to eat his greens, but from what I understand he should prinicpally be eating wet premium dog food at this stage, so I'll get some of that tonight.

Seeing as he was a mess after dinner, I gave him a warm bath to get all the muck off of him, and much to my surprise he started shedding! Here's where my first health question comes in, though--he's not shedding too great. He's managed to get it off on his belly and sides, but it's still all down his back and he's having trouble getting it off his feet (it looks like he's wearing little gloves now). He also has the "ear plugs", which I tried to help him remove with no success. Did I perhaps start his shedding process too early by bathing him? He's only a week and a few days old, so I'm very concerned about his first shed going alright. Also, he is still sneezing a little--will this go away on its own now that I've removed the aspen bedding? I'm very concerned about keeping him as healthy and happy as possible, and I'd be absolutely devastated if he came down with an infection because of aspen dust inhalation or somesuch. Thanks for any help you can provide!

[Linnea]

please, instead of mealworms as a staple, use canned dog food. the vitamin rate is much better and they would eat dead carcasses naturally in the wild as well.
mix the chopped veggies into the dog food - voila, he cant avoid them. but as this bluey is still growing, add more dogfood than veggies for better protein content.

remember you bluey should have a settling in period. he is tiny tiny and needs to feel secure in his home. dont try to feed him up front, leave the food for him to look at and investigate, and dont go heavy on the treats (berries, mealworms, fruit are treats).

sneezing is totally natural, they sneeze because they dig with their head straight into the substrate, any bluey sneezes when they get some sawdust in their noses, so it wasnt at all that dangerous. when your bluey has grown a little, introduce the substrate again. i think you can do this pretty soon....but let the others get back to you on this topic.

you cannot hurry up or slow down shedding, by any means. it happens because the bluey grows, depending on the food amount it may be quicker between the sheds.

if your skink is just a little dirty after a meal, you will notice he will dry himself off in the substrate a wet towel or bit of paper might do the trick too, rather than a bath. but sometimes it is very much needed......like sometimes when they have went to the toilet in a messy way......

do not remove the earplugs. they are easily mistaken for their inner part of their ears, sometimes, and poking there is not a nice feeling for them. it will drop of by the next shed (or he will do a very cool move with his nails and pick it out in less than a second).

keep an eye out for stuck shed on toes and tailtip, these are the only ones you need to worry about after the 2 days have passed. gently peel off stuck shed, or rub with a small piece of paper or soft wet towel. ig nothing works, try a bath with a little emu oil in it~

leave the shed alone for at least 2 days before helping. bathing should be the last thing you do. letting your bluey work on the shed gives it muscle practice and other important things, and is a natural behaviour. theyre just very slow

signs of RI infection:
- runny nose
- heavy, rustling breathing (do not mistake the hissing for this sound)
- crust around eyes or nose
- snot like liquid (after having drunk some water, some might come out again since theyre often not perfectly aligned to swallow it...this is normal)

welcome to the forum stick around so the other members can correct me if im very wrong, or add additional good information or extra tips you might need. it looks like you will have a very beautiful northern.

[Cvalda]

Thanks for the reply! I read about the canned dog food and will be picking some up tonight As for his shedding, while I was typing up that message, it turns out he went on a shedding spree in his enclosure, and has got off everything but the stuff on his head!



So good to know the sneezing thing is normal! That's a relief.

[Karen]

The more time you spend on the forum the more you learn! If the aspen makes you nervous you can also try other substrates. I have my baby on a piece of fake turf right now and it's actually proven very helpful in shedding. He even managed to get all his toes and feet shed by dragging it against the turf grain. I picked up a huge roll of it at a hardware store for $30. What I like is that you can cut it to size and have multiple ones so when one gets dirty you can swap them out and clean them.

Substrate is one of those things that has many right answers, so it's all about what you're comfortable with and what works with your bluey. Enjoy your little one! He's adorable.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

Who bred him? For some reason I think he looks Northern x IJ
Cute anyway

[Cvalda]

He was from Underground Reptiles in Florida

[AnnaMonroe]

Awww !! He looks SO cute! Congratulations !! :-)

[Cvalda]

Thanks! He really is too adorable!

Here's him having his morning drink (took something like 30 shots to get a decent shot of that quick tongue, ha):

[AnnaMonroe]

I'm in love with his high maintanence facial expression in the last shot lmao!!
If you can make a YouTube video of him, that'd be motts;

[Kbell31]

That looks like an IJ to me....very lovely little one, congrats!

[Cvalda]

Gah! The second person to say he looks IJ! It's not a big deal for me, really, if he is--even though I paid an extra $25 for a Northern >:/ Granted, a lot of these photos are color corrected. This is the least touched-up one I have:

[Karen]

He does have some Northern blood in him I would say, but he doesn't look like a pure Northern.

As sort of comparison, here is my purebred Northern baby. I think he might be a bit older than yours, but you can see the pattern and color difference.

DSCN4020.JPG

[Cvalda]

Erggghhh. Ah well--I think he's beautiful regardless, and he has the most fantastic little personality!

[Kbell31]

No doubt, you love him! He is a cutie and personality is important so Id say you have a winner (:

[Snickers :)]

Awe he's beautiful!!! Congratulations

[Linnea]

If your baby is but a week old, give him some time to show his adult pattern.
regardless of its origin, it is a beauty.

but keep in mind, if he still shows signs of being mixed, to not label him as a pure northern yourself, even if the sellers did. it is very important
mostly since there is no true register of the skinks all over the world and their lineages, and mixes can sometimes be very hard to determine whats in and not.
to make matters harder, they can have incredibly individual patterns even of theyre siblings, though of course there are some set visual differences between the subspecies.

in order to help explain and not just see the statements:

what makes people think hes got IJ in him, is because his forelegs are lightly speckled, his tail pattern "whole" (though northerns are usually born that way and then it dissappears a bit) and his back pattern is also whole, in bands. the last is the most distinguishing.
what makes me say im certain hes got northern in him, are the sides. orange or yellow nyances in a bit "rounded" side patterns.
northerns can be more or less "black/brown" around these side patterns.

sorry if i got anything wrong in the description here, i tried to put it together well, but the other northern owners should probably correct me x.x

he is special, wether hes an odd pure northern or mixed doesnt matter. take good care of him and he will be most rewarding

[Susann]

I look at the pictures Fatal posted of Mama Evita's babies, and I see LOTS of similarities between many of those babies and Dil. I would absolutely say Dil is Northern. I had an IJ with VERY orange "portholes", but his stripes vere still not as Northern-looking as Dil's.

[Cvalda]

...this is all very confusing!

Northern, non-Northern, mix, what have we, I still love him no less <3 Thanks for all the input, everyone. This is definitely a fascinating debate!

[Fatal_S]

IMO he is either an IJ or an IJ mix. It will probably be easier to ID him when he's grown up.

However, I can say for certain that he is adorable and gorgeous!

[Cvalda]

IMO he is either an IJ or an IJ mix. It will probably be easier to ID him when he's grown up.

Maybe I should start a poll

However, I can say for certain that he is adorable and gorgeous!

Thanks! Itchin' to get home and feed him his dinner