BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi everyone,

We brought our merauke boy home 3 weeks ago and things seem to be going well ... he is eating, pooping, drinking, digging etc. He has even come out to see us for cuddles once but its a start.

When we bought him, the reptile shop said he was a blue tongue skink so we asked which blue tongue he was. They said northern and had him on a really dry substrate which was so dry he could not burrow in but he did have a humid hide.

We found out through you guys that he is in fact a merauke and very sweet he is too!!

Reason for post ...

Today we spoke to our reptile vet to register him. We of course said he was a merauke and when asked by the vet what temps and humidity we were keeping him at, we said that temps are cool side low 80's going up to his hot basking end of around 100. When we told the vet his humidity is 60 - 80% he said that was far too high and should be around 40%. We told him that have a merauke and have been told that they need the higher humidity percentage but he is insisting that it should be 30 - 40%. Could someone just please confirm that we have this right as we don't want to do him any harm and would feel guilty if we were hurting the wee boy.

Thanks a lot

A higher humidity for Meraukes is better. I had my Merauke at around 40% and she started getting dry scales. I spray her cage down everyday now and she is doing better. I wouldnt worry too much though about humidity though unless your skink seems unhappy or if you start seeing/feeling dry scales.

to be honest we don't know what dry scales feel like. he is nice and smooth though to touch. We do have a humid hide for him - moss in a box with a hole he can get in. He plays in there. What would you say would be your average humidity ?

You will notice dry scales by feeling roughness and raised scales. 60% is a great level for him to be at.

Great thank you so much xxx