BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I purchased a baby tanimbar BTS a few months ago (basically as a hatchling) and he had this weird bump on his tail. The man I bought it from (got him from a reptile specialty store called D and J reptiles in Amityville, Long Island) said that all baby bts have the bump and they eventually outgrow it with proper care. I feed him hard boiled eggs, turkey, and mealworms with calcium dust. I am starting to get worried he might have a disease or that the store sold me a deformed Skink. Can anyone help? I'm worried about his health
here are some pics https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 9016951d89


https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/ ... a13230ec9c

Can anyone help? :C

Looks like metabolic bone disease of MTB. It's from not having calcium/d3 in its diet while its growing. Since he came like that I'm guessing he wasn't a baby when you got him. It happens when the baby is growing that they develop this. He maybe a year old or more when you got him. The need d3 do they can absorb calcium so they can grow their bones. Unfortunately these for way for this to go away. You just have to make sure he gets a proper diet supplemented with calcium/d3 powder so the problems don't persit.

Here is another skink with a very similar problem and the discussion - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27747&p=466568#p466568

I don't have enough experience with MBD or BT skinks to diagnose but that is definitely not normal and the person outright lied to you to make a sale.

As BTS are viviparous (give birth to live young and don't lay eggs) I suspect a female with a calcium and/or vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy could produce babies born with the disease

Sounds like the Amityville Horror to me.

Seriously though, it is not normal and he will not outgrow it - in time it might become less pronounced though the photos you posted show a skink with a fairly severe deformity. It is a spinal deformity but I'm hesitant to say whether it's MBD or not. Tanimbars seem particularly prone to various skeletal deformities but it's not known why. It could in fact be MBD and a higher need for calcium and/or D3 in Tanimbars or it could actually be a genetic/congenital problem in them resulting from a small founding/breeding population. We don't know. I have raised 8 Tanimbar babies (not a big sample I know), and all have been well-supplemented with calcium/D3 and are fed the exact same diet. One has very noticeable tail kinking, another very minor almost-unnoticeable tail kinking, and six are developing perfectly normally. In addition, I have seen a number of Tanimbars come out of the wild with skeletal deformities - mostly kinked tails but also some spinal deformities. Yours is at the fairly severe end of the spectrum.

Although Tanimbars are still being figured out and they do seem prone to skeletal malformations, you were misled by the sellers in being told that it's "normal," "they all have it" and it will "outgrow it".

From what I've read it shouldn't affect his health or robustness overall if you have improved his diet, it's just not pretty to look at that's all.

Amityville horror is correct. That's all I am going to say.