BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I just got my first BTS yesterday morning. I had wanted one for a while, but had a hard time finding one in pet stores. I did find one, but they would not let me handle it, and wanted $300 for it despite it having a missing tail and toes. It looked like an Indoneasian to me, but I'm not too well versed in the different kinds of Indonesian BTSs yet. I started looking online and found a site that was reasonably priced with a live arrival guarantee.

It's not my first reptile, I have four Bearded Dragons of varying ages, two of them being rescues. I did my research before deciding to get a BTS, but I did jump the gun a bit on purchasing from a site without asking the seller the questions I should have asked. I didn't see pictures of the BTS prior to receiving it either, which I was able to ask for. I did not realize, I was too excited for my own good, and also just wanting to do it quickly before I changed my mind a put it off for another week because I was scared of shipping.

It seems healthy and was very alert before it burrowed. Unfortunately, I did not get a good look. I wanted to pick it up to examine it, but I did not want to scare it or stress it out more. It's a little on the skinny side, no tail nips, no missing toes from what I could see. Very grumpy, and huffy, but I expected that. It also ate one bite of food about two hours out of the box, then hid and has not come out since then.

Right now it's in a 36x16x18 tank. It's a baby, so I'll upgrade when it's a little bigger. Hot side basking spot is at 96°, cool side is at 78°. Humidity is in the 40-45% range. I have a 24" Reptisun T5 10.0 bulb, which I hope will be fine above the mesh. Right now, I'm using aspen wood substrate, but I may change that in the future.

Anyway, here's the only pictures I got of my new friend before he/she burrowed.

Congratulations on getting your new lizard. I got mine from a classified ad in Burlington Ontario, I had make the drive from Montreal just so I could see the animal in person before buying.
That humidity is too low for an Indonesian skink, it should be 60-90% humidity. The best way I found to maintain humidity was to switch from bark chips to Zilla Jungle Mix soil. I keep it at around the same moisture as it comes in the package if not a little wetter as it drys out from the lighting. I have also added a water fountain for additional moisture. That 10.0 repti sun is intended for desert lizards like your bearded dragon not for tropical lizards that need a 5.0. But through mesh I don't know if that will make the intensity ideal.

Good to know, when I read up on Indonesians, I thought I read 40-50%, and Northerns having to have even lower than that. I'll mist more, and if that's the case I'll switch out to a better substrate once she's settled in a bit.

I do have multiple 5.0s that I've never used because of all the beardies. The hoods come with 5.0s in them already, the one on this tank was left over from an old setup, so it had the 10.0. I'll just switch it out.

Good news is she's basking now. I did handle her very briefly to check for injuries/illness before the 24 hour return period was up. She's already calmed down a lot since yesterday, but I'll give it a few weeks before attempting to handle her again, she was not happy about it but it had to be done. Unfortunately, I don't actually know the gender. The seller did not specify either. I'm just assuming it's female.

I actually got a decent photo of her basking.

And I took one picture of when I had her out just before I put her back to show how small she is.