BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

If anyone can help me figure out what type of BTS she is would be nice. I'm having troubles identifying, but I'm thinking maybe she is a merauke? I don't know!

I also need advice. She hisses a lot. She's all talk and no bite though...I really want to calm her down and let her know she is safe. That's why I tried handling her today. She freaked out for less than 1 minute, then she was pretty good and just gave random hisses now and then. But when I watch her roam awhile and decide to pick her up again, the hissing and freak out continues. I don't sneak up on her to grab her. I make sure she is aware because I don't want to scare her.

Can someone give me tips on ways to make her feel safe?

Hi there.
I'm a new handler myself so I can't even begin to help with the identifying.

However with the hissing. Is it hisses, or huffs?

I freaked out when I first got my girl, who is an eastern bluetongue, because she would make these random short huffs. My panic of course led me to rushing her to a reputable vet and basically flooding the poor man with questions on EVERYTHING. I am talking photos of set ups, diets laid out to grams, handling videos. The full works. And of course, I had myself laughed at for how worried I was.

What he told me is that some lizards are very expressive and vocal, so to speak. Gidge turns out to be a bit of a huffer. She'll sigh and huff at things, though not in a threatened manner at all. In fact, she makes little sighs when she falls asleep and does indignant huffs when something displeases her in the slightest. I'll get huffed at if I offer her food that isn't the good stuff, for example. Or, if I'm lounging and she tries to burrow into my neck but I don't move, I'll get the little "humph" from her. She's also huffed at and rejected several hides and items in her environment, when I tried switching up to larger, more natural looking objects. She wasn't afraid, she just took a dislike of sorts and refused to indulge the idea of not getting her old stuff back. Despite these sounds, she never appears to be under any form of stress, beyond a little peeved something didn't go her way.

Her bloods and stools are completely clear, as well as her x-rays. Her weight and diet are spot on. Every possible health avenue has been investigated due to the timid human owner and her rough past with some feisty breeding males before my time with her. She's a scarred, yet very healthy Bluey with a vocal personality.

The Huffs are VERY different to hisses, however I was not able to recognise this until I saw her actually hiss.
An actual hiss from her has mouth open, eyes a little narrowed, and a tension to her body that is not there for huffs. Its also louder, deeper in pitch, and the feel is overall a lot darker.

AS FOR SAFETY
I found sitting with them and talking to them for a while was good. I got Gidge used to my voice and scent as a positive by offering her food when she came closer and acted friendly. When I got to handling, I found that she is a BIG girl and I have tiny hands. My hands side by side cannot go from front legs to back. with the sense of floating my handling gave Gidge, she'd often circle flick her tail and try to get her feet on something. I found I had to use my forearm + a hand to fully support her body, which made an almost instant difference. With her full body supported, she was completely calm and even eager to come out and interact. Now, I just put my hand in the cage and she crawls out onto my arm.
Moral of the story/ramble is to try different methods of handling and petting, your lizzy will tell you precisely the right way for THEM as an individual.

I hope something in this ramble helps.

Yep , every skink has it's own personality.

I discovered that with my water and eastern bluetongues skinks. The little water skinks have a range of vocalisations , including squeals when alarmed ( " ouch that needle hurts !!") , little barely audible barks (thought I was imagining hearing those barks (only when really enthusiastic - ie getting food treats, having fun - splashing about).

I did similar things with all my young skinks and hatchlings as suggested.

Took a little patience but I've wound up with 4 mega tame and very affectionate pets (2 BTS , 2 CBD) who all love hanging out with my wife and I , love being petted (under the thoat is something they all love and cant get enough off) , and love long snuggles on our laps , chests , tummys and really snuggle into us , and love getting food treats given by hand , and even follow us around like a puppydog and who all respond appropriately when spoken to (are called etc).

BD99 wrote:Hi there.
I'm a new handler myself so I can't even begin to help with the identifying.

However with the hissing. Is it hisses, or huffs?

I freaked out when I first got my girl, who is an eastern bluetongue, because she would make these random short huffs. My panic of course led me to rushing her to a reputable vet and basically flooding the poor man with questions on EVERYTHING. I am talking photos of set ups, diets laid out to grams, handling videos. The full works. And of course, I had myself laughed at for how worried I was.

What he told me is that some lizards are very expressive and vocal, so to speak. Gidge turns out to be a bit of a huffer. She'll sigh and huff at things, though not in a threatened manner at all. In fact, she makes little sighs when she falls asleep and does indignant huffs when something displeases her in the slightest. I'll get huffed at if I offer her food that isn't the good stuff, for example. Or, if I'm lounging and she tries to burrow into my neck but I don't move, I'll get the little "humph" from her. She's also huffed at and rejected several hides and items in her environment, when I tried switching up to larger, more natural looking objects. She wasn't afraid, she just took a dislike of sorts and refused to indulge the idea of not getting her old stuff back. Despite these sounds, she never appears to be under any form of stress, beyond a little peeved something didn't go her way.

Her bloods and stools are completely clear, as well as her x-rays. Her weight and diet are spot on. Every possible health avenue has been investigated due to the timid human owner and her rough past with some feisty breeding males before my time with her. She's a scarred, yet very healthy Bluey with a vocal personality.

The Huffs are VERY different to hisses, however I was not able to recognise this until I saw her actually hiss.
An actual hiss from her has mouth open, eyes a little narrowed, and a tension to her body that is not there for huffs. Its also louder, deeper in pitch, and the feel is overall a lot darker.

AS FOR SAFETY
I found sitting with them and talking to them for a while was good. I got Gidge used to my voice and scent as a positive by offering her food when she came closer and acted friendly. When I got to handling, I found that she is a BIG girl and I have tiny hands. My hands side by side cannot go from front legs to back. with the sense of floating my handling gave Gidge, she'd often circle flick her tail and try to get her feet on something. I found I had to use my forearm + a hand to fully support her body, which made an almost instant difference. With her full body supported, she was completely calm and even eager to come out and interact. Now, I just put my hand in the cage and she crawls out onto my arm.
Moral of the story/ramble is to try different methods of handling and petting, your lizzy will tell you precisely the right way for THEM as an individual.

I hope something in this ramble helps.

Oh wow, maybe she is huffing instead. Her mouth isn't open at all when she makes those noises. Sometimes I'll be afraid to pick her up because when she does make a noise, she turns her Face towards my arm!! Lmao. She evens tries to run away and dig under her substrate or into her hide whenever she sees me. I always bundle up with jackets just in case she is going to bite while I'm trying to make her calm down and feel safe. I just want to let her know that I'm no threat.

But maybe she is huffing instead of hissing. It doesn't sound dark at all, just seems like a scared sound... maybe as well as a dislike sound.

Congratulations on your new skink!!! Looks to be a Merauke. How long have you had the skink for? They definitely need time to adjust and get used to their surroundings first. Everyday talk to your skink. When offering food, go slowly and let it know you are the food source. After a week or so you can try to gently lift your skink for short periods of time. Be sure to support the entire body. Spend time together with gently talking and strokes. After a while hopefully the hissing will stop. My Merauke is the sweetest thing ever. Good luck!

Janella wrote:Congratulations on your new skink!!! Looks to be a Merauke. How long have you had the skink for? They definitely need time to adjust and get used to their surroundings first. Everyday talk to your skink. When offering food, go slowly and let it know you are the food source. After a week or so you can try to gently lift your skink for short periods of time. Be sure to support the entire body. Spend time together with gently talking and strokes. After a while hopefully the hissing will stop. My Merauke is the sweetest thing ever. Good luck!

I had her since Monday. Her previous owner neglected her and didn't want to spend any money to take care of her. I'm honestly glad I was able to find this skink and take it away from the lady. I don't know what the lady has done to the poor skink, but she is defiantly scared all the time. I've been using my soft tone of voice and she has been responding positive for a few minutes, but I'll defiantly let her be for 1 week and try the things you suggested.. thank you for the help!

EDIT: I started to hold her a bit early to see what her personality was like and how I should start to work with her. Very skittish girl she is. She'll need some work, but that's okay

Poor skink! Well thank you for rescuing it then. Definitely give it time to adjust. Hopefully it will come around.

It depends on the body language too with HUFFING.

If she's clawing away from you, and you're having to squeeze chase her. Probably a warning hiss or a very GRUMPY huff.

With my girl, when her legs get going, it isn't trying to get away. She tries to find where my arm or support, then settles completely. She also turns her head into my arm and burrows in, even with little puffs, but her body is always relaxed and she never bites or shows any aggression of any kind. The huffs are more like sighs here. That said, wthe body screams discomfort, I take the huff sounds more like little hisses. When Gidge is relaxed and steady, I take the huffs as her expressing herself.


I am in NO WAY an expert on Blue Tongues, and I won't pretend I am. However, I do feel that with any animal, expressing trust is very important. If you're bundled up and afraid, you subconsciously give off that energy. Horses are a very obvious reader of these energies. Lizards, perhaps more subtle. Still, if you are anxious and try to handle your bub, its going to give her more reason to be anxious. It may translate into a faster pulse, or subtly tighter grip. Or subtle shakes from you. If the foundation of a home is shaking, everyone is on edge. Your hands and body become the foundation when handling. Blue Tongues as they age are not huge climbers, not like a bearded Dragon for example, and are quite heavy. They enjoy stability. If you're not steady, your girl might be feeling insecure too. You two might be feeding each other's anxiety and leading to more.

I also use my whole body. I am a small handed individual, so when I use just my hands my bluey has huge portions of her body with no support. I've read that makes her feel like she could fall, and her reactions support that. I actually lay down and use my torso to let her sit on, or lay on the ground beside her and offer food before she climbs up. Of course, with a skittish liz this may not be good, but if you have a closed space you can do that it may work for you. Letting your girl explore for an hour or two and just laying down, closer to her level instead of a towering giant. Become the big lump that offers all things yummy. That was one of the biggest stages of bonding for me with my girl, though I never faced an obstacle like a neglected, potentially abused bub. Also my girl is an Eastern Blue from Australia.


I never even thought to cover myself in anything protective with Gidge, even when I was handling her for the first times. So I did get little claw marks on me, but it also left me skin to scale. In a sense, I felt that I could feel her better this way. I could feel if any muscles were tensing that I couldn't see, which let me predict her fidgeting and get to know when she settled. Same may be said of her towards me. She felt when her resting place was unstable, and if my pulse went crazy.

Speaking from experiencing a bluey bite. Endless cloth won't help too much. It'll help a little, but I think you may still end up bruised as all heck. I've been bitten twice ((Both my fault. Never stick your finger in a Bluey's mouth or food))
2nd time broke skin and left me bruised for 2 weeks. That was from a reaction clamp instead of intentional chomp. If you get bitten, its going to be sore. Though, interacting with your bub makes the risk worth the huge reward.

I hope some of this helps, even if its just food for thought. I know you can do it and help your girl out, just getting her out of a bad home is already the biggest step you could take