BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello everyone! I have been slowly working on building trust with Gideon, and I was finally able to get him to stand still for a little while. I've always noticed that he had a little bit of a fat neck, but I'm really starting to see just how fat it is. I originally thought he was just puffing up to intimidate me, but now I'm not so sure. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Should I be worried or is he the equivalent to a kid who has to grow into their head????

Is that roundness of his neck feel hard or soft when you touch it?

It seems pretty soft, but he darts everyone I try to really hold him at all.

He may be getting used to his new surroundings, he may be wild caught. Do you know if he was born in captivity? As long as the thickness of the neck is not abnormally hard and as you said it was soft. That might be how the bts is built. Is he eating? What are your temperatures? My basking spot is 98F and my ambient temperature on the cool side is 81F. Anywhere between 72F-81F is fine for the cool side.

Tiliqua gigas store a lot of fat in their neck. It is not uncommon to see a massive set of jowls on a skink that is rather lean.

The thickness of the neck could be indicative of hypothyroidism i.e. lack of dietary iodine. If the diet is high in goitrogens such as brassicas they can bind the iodine making it unavailable to the skink.

Check the diet chart for notes on foods high in goitrogens.

http://bluetongueskinks.net/foodchart.html

somr just get fatty there,ive found females in particular are likely to develop more chins than a chinese phone book,lol,usually theu build up extra fat reserves for anticipation of brumation and then gestation following and usually they are thick set in build

its not just restricted to females though.just in my experience i see it mostly in females with aussie species,but have the odd male with it to,a couple with lean builds but with neck rolls

I agree with Richard C.