Mr. S and his new enclosure

[Clavietika]

Hi everyone! My partner and I got a blue tongue skink back in November, I have been lurking since then and finally decided to post! Our friends were getting rid of their Northern because they were having a baby, so we took him off their hands. We call him Mr. S!

We recently moved him into a new enclosure; the one he came in was 4' x 1' and we could tell he wasn't happy in there because, apart from the obvious reasons like not being able to stretch out in all directions, he'd fight to go back in whenever we had him out and was really huffy and surly. This was after the introduction period too, and it actually got worse after we introduced UVB light to his regimen, I guess because he had more energy from the light? But he'd be perfectly friendly outside the cage, accepting head pats and sitting on our laps/exploring blankets as they do.
Here's the new enclosure, it's 72"x30"x16:

So much room for activities! Don't mind my partner there in the background. We also put a rock hide in the corner of the hot spot after he moved into the cage. We popped him in first thing in the morning and he spent almost 2 hours just wandering the cage checking everything out, tongue waggling the whole time. Also establishing that the plastic cactuses definitely aren't food, haha.

I'm wondering if I should look into some lower wattage basking/heat bulbs, since they're so near the bottom of the cage. Right now (as in the current setup, not this second) my infrared thermometer reads around 85-105F around the hot side of the cage, and the rock itself has been getting up to around 120ish. It doesn't feel too hot to the touch and he's still been basking without any indication of problems but it's still a cause for concern so I wanted to ask the forum. This tank was customized for beardies too by its last owner and I think they like it hotter than BTS.



I think he touched everything with his tongue at least once on the first day hehe.

I learned a pretty valuable lesson from buying a pet from a friend, however... Don't do it unless you're prepared for your opinion of that person to potentially change... Frankly from what I've heard about the care of this lizard before he got into our hands, it's a miracle he still has all his toes and no MBD/other underlying issues, not to mention the size of the cage he was in! It's not like we'd ever stop being friends with them, but knowing a person has the capacity to neglect an animal to any degree can make it hard not to judge a little... What made matters worse was that we were really naive in believing them when they said a BTS would be a relatively cheap, cost-free pet, which, he WOULD be if there weren't absolutely necessary upgrades that needed to be made and if we fed him on dog food samples and the occasional veggie like they did. Now that we've made those upgrades and have established what we need to maintain them, annually he should cost less than our cats barring vet trips and stuff.

One more quick question: Can I freeze canned snails/bugs? Generally I buy the 12 oz cans of dog food, portion it out and freeze it for the 8 weeks or however long it would last me. I got a can of snails the other day and it has about 3 servings in it for my buddy and I'd rather 2/3rds of it not go to waste before it spoils! Thanks guys!

edit: One funny thing to add I just remembered: I need to buy a poop scooper or something for spot cleaning the cage, because he pooped behind the log with the branches on it today and I do NOT have 30" arms to reach it! Do any of your skinks bury their leavings? Mine always tries stashing his, which I hate!

[Richard.C]

Welcome,nice looking skinker,i like its paleness,in regards to your temps yes they are highish at basking site,but with your large cage thats not so bad as they can escape the heat to if they want,i keep some of mine close to that temp for basking site,a bit more than theu need and a bit less down cool end offers them choices

I feed straoght wet dogfood to mine,they actually do veru well on it ,alot safer than mixing up your own diets for them anyhow with the added bonus it already is vitamin supplemented

[Clavietika]

Thanks! Yeah we feed him wet dog food mixed with veggies, I wasn't completely clear on that. His last owners were feeding him moistened dry dog food samples, which was where he was saying he'd be cheap or free to feed. It's still very cost efficient, I buy 12 ounce cans of the premium stuff and it's like 3 dollars to feed him for like 8 weeks if I portion it out and freeze it, and we always have veggies around he can eat.

He's actually been a good influence on our veggie intake; we didn't eat much squash before getting a skink and now it's a staple in our diet too!

[saisaac]

Very handsome skink .

I too have found that a shorter cage requires much less energy to heat than I expected. Putting the lamps on a dimmer and adjusting them as necessary might be helpful for you.

[Clavietika]

Thanks, yeah I'm probably going to need a dimmer and possibly some weaker/smaller uvb bulbs! The heat gradient has been weird in the cage over the past couple days due to it warming up here; only the far left side and the front away from the uv lights was around 85 degrees and directly under the uv lights was around 90. These current bulbs are 42" 10.0, and granted my apartment is pretty hot as is right now, I think a shorter tube bulb would probably make sense for a bigger cool area.

We took Mr. S to the vet yesterday because I thought we had been hearing some crackling with his breathing and didn't want to take any chances with an RI, and we've had him since November so we wanted to see what a vet thought of his health in general. Turns out it was nothing and he's a healthy, happy, albeit a little overweight skink. The vet recommended we feed him more often in smaller portions; previously when we noticed his backside getting fatter we started cutting back to feeding him once a week, about a tbsp of dog food with 1.25 tbsp of mixed veggies and greens. We're going to try every 3 days and about half that or a bit less. She also recommended whole prey for him, which we tend to agree with but you could argue that high quality dog food is formulated for dogs like whole prey, since they need it as well.