How (in)active are your skinks?

[Buddy]

Simple question, how active are your skinks? Some of you may remember our story, when I first got my bts "he" was pretty skinny and grew so sturdy over such short time that I thought "he" was gravid. He's still..... fat! Or massive might be a better word. But the one thing that worries the me the most is his lack of activity. Over the past months he's become more and more lazy, to the point now where he just lays in his blanket (he looves his blanket) and only comes out every now and then, sometimes it can go 2-3 days.

He still has a huge appetite and has a good diet with a mixture of greens, vegetables, fruit, meat (cooked beef, some dog food, cooked chicken heart...) and I also feed him dubias, crickets and worms every now and then. He eats about 1-2 table spoons of mixed food once a week, plus 1-2 insects/week. Roughly. I've been trying not to overfeed him.

He has a enclosure that measures 47x23 inches (pictures), the temperatures are fine. Could he be bored?

Should I worry about him? Is he normal? He does everything a bts is "supposed to do", he eats, he drinks, he goes right up to his basking spot after feeding to warm his belly.. He shows no signs of health issues. He just doesn't move around much..

Please give me some thoughts on this...

[Richard.C]

Might be picking up the weather cooling outside and slowing down accordingly,is he/she staying away from heat?

[Buddy]

He has been like this for quite a while now, but you might be right.. Some kind of burmation? My younger one is a bit more inactive as well, though not as extreme. Yup, always at the colder side of the enclosure, but there's where he usually sleeps every night so there's no change there.

He has never been super active though, but this is starting to get to me. He's fat and just lies around and does nothing. It worries me, even though he seems perfectly healthy in every other way.

[Richard.C]

Good weight on him and temps cooling,sounds like hes prepping to brumate,fatties have a huge fat reserve and often happily start brumating early,no need for last minute fattening

Its funny,even keeping temps the same as normal,theres slight drops as it cools outdoors,plus back ground temps fall dramatically,some happily go to cool end and brumate with heat still,lower cool end temps allow them to do it,i actually like giving them that option instead of forcing them at a temp i decide on,lets them choose and usually they happily just curl up and stay put as apposed to others i shut heat off for a certain period,they tend to move about a fait bit,perhaps not happy with the options ive left them

[Linnea]

im actually surprised to hear he is no brumating!

my litchie has been asleep since mid october. completely. same last year too, he wakes up in mid january again in full spirit. i expect your skink will have more energy by then as well ;D

[Richard.C]

Linnea is that with you still supplying heat to litchie,but him sensing cooler weather?

[Linnea]

Linnea is that with you still supplying heat to litchie,but him sensing cooler weather?

yes. i supply heat as usual. it gets darker until november something, then get lighter again (outdoors). i think this may be what tells him to sleep even before night temps drop below 19C. daylight time is VERY low since there is no direct sunlight outside until it starts snowing (eternal grey cloud of doom).

ive made very sure to check day temps to make sure he can digest food and bask as usual this year, and he fell asleep two weeks later than last year.

night temps might drop to 15-16 C during december, but then day temps are also affected accordingly.

last year he woke up on the 23th once, christmas ham cooking all day, but fell asleep the day after.
im pretty sure he woke up in mid january.

of course i check up on his overall weight, almost notoriously. its going to be a mild winter so i will not put in extra night heat as i was very anxious about last year, and i have a lot of hand warmer bags from Susann should the electricity go out.

i should mention litchie is positioned in his log hide at all times. at first he was under the log part that was under the basking lamp, but he moves away from that side. his tail is outside the hide on occasion.

if something is wrong with this id be happy to know x.x im not so worried since he looks very healthy, and its not yet colder than 17-19 C at night.

[Buddy]

Well Linnea, your skink goes into burmation completely then, but Buddy however does come out every now and then. I think, so far this year (this is my first autumn/winter with him) he's been asleep for a maximum of 4 days at once. He's never quite completely knocked out either, he peeks at me sometimes from inside his blanket. And when he gets up he's only up for a really short time, no basking unless he has eaten, but he takes a walk or just reaches up to peek through the glass.

If he would have been completely knocked out and asleep all the time I would get it. But he's not? I see similar behaviour in my younger one, he can be out for a couple of days now as well, then all of the sudden he's up basking, eating, basking some more and then hides away again.

[Buddy]

Lol, got me thinking.. What if he does go into burmation? Several months without seeing that pretty face? I'll probably go nuts! I've got three lizards now but I'ms slightly addicted to this one.

My funny ass brother once went to look at him in his enclosure, stood there for a while and then asked me -Does he often sleep upside down? Don't think I've ever been that close to a heart attack before.. My face expression still makes him laugh at times.

[Richard.C]

They can still pop out a bit during brumation,sometimes even eating,but usually not eating much if at all,tropical animals have hot weather year round,usually they esteviate over the dry season when foid is less abundant,night time lows drop right down as well over this period,if u live in a temperate area,just cooler nights can stimulate them into a rest period,but usually it slightly lowers day temps to,especially back ground temps

Light cycles lowering on top of that as well may help to

[Buddy]

Thank you Richard. I'll just wait and see what happens. He's been out for a few days again, this time completely hidden away in his blanket, no peeking, no movements.