Merauke Blue Tongue Skink Handling Advice/Care

[animalboy24]

So I have a 7 month old Merauke Blue Tongue Skink who I have had for about 1 months now. He is non aggressive when I go to pick him up in the cage and is non aggressive in my hand as well(no hissing , no lunging to bite, no exposure of the tongue).He has gotten more Curious of me and doesn't react when I put my hand in the tank . But when he is in my hand he is always moving and trying to escape my hold. I have been holding him as suggested in the care sheets but he doesn't stand still. So I am asking does anyone have any advice on holding a hyper skink? I know with time and patience he will come around to me. I also was wondering how long should I hold him and how often I should hold him? I try to hold him everyday but I can only hold him for a max of a minute be cause he is so hyper. Also does anyone have any advice on bedding type for Merauke skinks? A lot of people use Cypress mulch and so that's what I am going to use, but do you guys mix it with other substrates?

*side note* The pictures have him in aspen but I am changing that to Cyprus mulch.

[Janella]

Hi, lovely looking skink you got there. Handing takes time. I started with small baby steps like you are doing and then moved on to longer periods once my skink got more used to me. I started with just talking and hand feeding treats. Once completely comfortable with that, I then started to slowly handle. My Noodles is so tame now. He is just the sweetest thing.

As for substrate. As you know Merauke's need a higher humidity. So they need something that can absorb water. I use Zilla Jungle Mix and then Reptibark on top. My guy adores this. He burrows all around in it and never has an issue with shedding. Once a week I pour about 16 ounces of water onto his substrate to help with humidity. I clean all fecal and urates daily and then do a total enclosure clean every 3 months.

Hope this helps

[animalboy24]

OK thank you. i will start hand feeding him.

[alichamp]

Hi, your merauke is a beauty

As well as the great advice Janella has given you, have a good read through the threads in the Freqently Asked Questions section of the general discussion forum. There is lots of info about feeding, taming, humidity and humid hides and other care.