behavior question as well as not eating

[aron416]

new to the site, i adopted a believe 2.5 year old irian jaya about 8 months ago or so. the guy i got him from didnt have him in a proper setup and never monitored his shedding so he has some toe tips missing. he was extremely picky as far as food goes since i took him home. guy claimed that he ate great, said he ate all kinds of things. he's been in and out of brumation for the past few months. there are weeks he'll be sleeping for days, then there are weeks he'll be up for a day or so. i've noticed the past few weeks when he's up that when i walk by to check on him and the rest of my herps, he does this weird wave thing with his front arms. can't find any info on this behavior at all. has anyone else seen this? also is it normal that if he wasn't used to being handeled often that he would wanna run when i try to handel him?

[chartreuse_lynne]

I've never heard of skinks doing the arm waving thing, but I know bearded dragons do it out of submission. So, maybe it's just recognizing you as being bigger and stronger than him? As for running away, mine usually runs, or at least puffs at me when I try to pick him up, so it's definitely not something out of the ordinary. Hope I was helpful!

[aron416]

it's not so much as the beardies arm wave. it kinda looks like he's flapping his arm really quickly like they are almost twitching kinda. it's hard to describe

[NickBrahz]

Do you mean when they kind of walk up to front of the enclosure and kind of flap there arms up and down really fast?

[Susann]

I've seen it quite a few times, always by animals having pain in their feet from cracking/swelling from humidity being too low.

[aron416]

Yes exactly it's almost like if you were imitating a fluttering butterfly sorta. I'll try increasing the humidity a bit. He only has 1-2 good toes on each foot from the previous owner not setting him up properly. Any advice of what tasty things your blueys like. He seems to pick at the exo terra tortoise pellets I gave him the other day. He's in mid shed right so bumping the humidity to help ease the process

[Susann]

Tortoise pellets are not good to feed. Tortoises have digestive tracts very different from omnivores; like horses they are able to extract nutrients from grasses and other plant matter very high in cellulose fiber through hindgut fermentation. Tortoise pellets are very high in cellulose fiber that will pass through an omnivore without much benefit at all. Actually, being dried and pressed into pellets, our skinks, not being able to chew, would swallow them whole, and would be at risk of dehydration and impaction if not having sufficient access to water.

Most of us use wet dog food as a staple into which we mix varying amounts of veggies and greens. Dog food is formulated for an omnivore's diet and is supplemented with vitamins and minerals, and is generally very well accepted by our blue tongue skinks.
If you're looking for a healthy pellet food for your skink, the only one I would suggest is Mazuri Omnivore Diet --it comes in both pellets and powder, and is an excellent additive for a BTS in my opinion.
If you're looking for a healthy "treat" or something to tempt a reluctant to eat BTS, then maybe try canned (no sodium) snails or some live Dubia roaches.

Here is a link to out food chart.

[aron416]

I don't nort feed him the pellets was just seeing if he'd eat them. I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before I order dubias. I'll also pick up a can or two of dog food worse case he doesn't eat it my dog will. Read somewhere that basil is a good appetite stimulant for herbivores/omnivores is that true?

[Susann]

Basil can help entice him, yes.