BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

So, my skink still hasn't come out of brumation. Am I the only one? I'm quite worried about him, but I don't want to disturb him and wake him up before his time. He's an almost 9 month old Northern. He went to sleep at some point in November, and before that, he was perfectly fine. One time during brumation, he woke up and I gave him some water, but that was it. Should I wait, or should I get him out to make sure there's nothing wrong with him?

It may be time. I heated mine back up in February. Once his enclosure heats up he'll come out of it.

My Northern hybrid did not brumate her first winter but this year she went into hiding around mid November and has become more active at the beginning of March.

Have you been keeping track of your skinks weight to be certain he wasn't loosing too much and isn't actually sick?

I haven't been tracking weight, but I was going to start as soon as he came out this spring, just to keep an eye on things. Would it mess things up too much if I took him out to weigh him?

What have you done with the temps in the tank? Did you lower them when he went down and have you slowly been increasing them now? If you have been increasing them, where are they at now?

Susann wrote:What have you done with the temps in the tank? Did you lower them when he went down and have you slowly been increasing them now? If you have been increasing them, where are they at now?

I admit, I hadn't done just enough research, and I didn't know I was supposed to lower the temperatures until he'd already been asleep for close to a month. i turned the heat lamp on, but it likely never got below 70 in his tank, because his tank is in my room and anything lower than that would have had me freezing. I did turn his heat lamp back on a couple of days ago, and the highest it gets on his basking surface is 102 degrees.

If the heat has only been on for a couple days then it's not terribly surprising that he's not up and about quite yet. I don't blame you for worrying though and I wish I had more advice for you but I have no experience with true brumation. Hopefully someone else will come on to tell you what your best course of action would be.

With my group of Northerns, I brought the heat up slowly over a two week period. Once they reached normal temps, it still took about two weeks for the animals to perk back up and regain a normal activity level. I'd just leave him alone for a while and let him wake up on his own

Thank you all! I decided to sift through his bedding, and he woke up for a second, and went right back to sleep. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't sick, and he doesn't look much thinner, so I think he's going to be just fine!