BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello everybody,

I recently (yesterday) purchased a baby Indonesian BTS, and I was curious to know what their temperament is like. I've seen a lot of misleading information about them, so I'd like to know from somebody who has experience with them.

I'm pretty sure its captive bred, but from what I've read, that sounds unlikely. I really don't want to end up with an aggressive/non-handleable skink. He/she's very shy and huffs at me a lot. I haven't seen it hiss (open-mouth hiss) yet, so I think that's a good sign, but I've been reluctant to bother it too much. When can I begin handling it? I'm home a lot, so I have plenty of time to interact with it. However, how much interaction is too much interaction? I don't want to give the poor thing a heart-attack.

Thanks!

Indo almost always means wild caught or a baby from a gravid female that was wild caught. However, that doesnt mean they cant make good pets. However, out of all 5 of my skinks, my Indo is the one we really dont handle because he is very easily stressed out.

Give your skink a week or two to settle in, and then search the forum for "taming" threads, as there are a lot of threads on this subject.

Grats on your new skink, and welcome to the forum!

Also, baby skinks of nearly any species often come out a little huffy and puffy. If they weren't handled as neonates, then your skinky and his/her clutchmates are probably all the same level of huffy and puffy and unused to interaction.

Give it time, like SapphireTigress said, and just work with it. As a baby, I'm sure it'll settle in and mellow out relatively quickly. Indos can make great pets, they just need a bit of patience and work to get there.

-Jen

I got my indo as a baby. I have had him for just over a year now, so I bought him around the same time as you did this year. While he is a little huffy, he has never displayed or tried to bite me. I started handling after about a month. He is not as tame as the northerns you hear about on this forum, but he is nowhere near aggressive or non handleable. The one thing I have noticed is that he is much more comfortable around me than he is around anyone else, unlike the northerns that are chill wherever you put them. I think Indonesians just need a little extra work to warm up to people .

We bought an 8 month old Indo in Dec. He's as sweet as can be. When he's out exploring, je will come to us and crawl up in our laps. He's rather spoiled and only eats off a spoon. Ha ha ha! I've taken him to my daughter's preschool and he was passed around and did just beautifully. So, while I wouldnt recommend one because of the w/c thing, they can certainly make great pets.
We left our guy alone, except for feedings, for a week to settle in. Then started with hort hamdling sessions every day, gradually lengthening them.
They each have their own personallity. I cant compare to any other type of BTS, because he's our first and only. But i felt the need to say our guy is great!
Becca

Thanks for all the advice, guys!

I hand-fed some crickets and dubia roaches tonight and it loved it! It didn't mind my hands because there was food in them. I do believe that was a positive step forward, but I definitely will leave it alone for the next couple weeks to get less stressed out. It hides pretty much all day in the old t-shirts I put in there. I figured it would get used to my scent faster if it slept in a few of my shirts.

T-shirt was a great idea!

Thanks! I got the idea from somebody who had a "dog-tame" red tegu. I figured if I want my little guy to be really tame, I should use some of the same taming techniques that people use for monitor lizards and such.