Tip of tail broken? And how's her growth lookin'?

[SeSmith]

Hi there,

New here, and fairly new to skink-keeping...just had a couple questions regarding some things that were concerning me. So I have a (what I think is) female Northern blue tongue that I received back in October when she was a month old. Mia is now 7 months old, and I was just curious if anyone had a similar-aged Northern to compare her to. She's just over 13" total length, and is a VERY picky eater, so it's been a struggle to get her feeding. She even refuses scrambled eggs if all else fails...she's cwazy! Haha. I was just wondering if 13" total is a reasonable size for a 7-month old Northern? Here's a picture of her I just snapped, albeit a bad one:



Now, my other question...when I initially purchased her online, I noticed in the pic provided that the end of her tail was slightly upturned, but I thought nothing of it with her being only a month old and the nature of the pic. Now at 7 months, her tail curls up significantly more at the end. I've felt it, and it feels like the verterbrae at the end of her tail were broken and healed that way, so I'm thinking her tail was nipped as a youngling, or it's a congenital defect? Picture:



Any ideas? It doesn't bother me, and it doesn't seem to bother her...just curious if anyone's seen this before. Thanks!

[Shortie]

If it doesn't bother her then that's a good thing! Not sure if a lot of skinks have it. But my Slinky has a sticky up tip too! And his tail is crooked because he had MBD Maybe that's what caused it but I guess we'll never know. In my opinion, if my skink is happy, then I'm happy

[Katrina]

A couple of mine have it, it's not abnormal.

13" is definitely a reasonable size. There is lots of variation but 13" sounds about right. Lovely skink!

[Richard.C]

a cew of my outdoor blotchies get the tail tip loft thing,not sure how they get it though,possably frpm climbing at walls and using tail,but cant say for sure as plenty do it and dont get the curled up tip

[Scotts1au]

It is a normal variation.

[Dakota]

Seems normal to me.. I have to say.. that is one beautiful Northern.

[SeSmith]

Thanks for the input, everyone! And tank yah tank yah for the compliments, Katrina and Dakota! I love her, even though she was Satan reincarnated for the first 2 solid months I had her, haha. I would seriously walk by her enclosure and if I even looked at her wrong she'd show no mercy. Now (with much effort!) she's an angel.

Yeah, I'm thinking this was something she was just born with, and am not attributing it to MBD or anything like that, because she's in otherwise great shape. I also think she'd probably be a little bigger too if she wasn't constantly trying to brumate and refuse food for the past few months, but I was worried about her going into brumation at only 2 months old, so kept pulling her out.