BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hey everybody. My fiance and I bought Basilisk just this Saturday gone, so we've had about a week to get used to his usual habits. This is our first reptile, nevermind just our first BTS, so any and all advice is appreciated!

Our routine is that I get up and get ready for work at 6am. I turn on his UVB and do a visual check on him. My fiance gets up around 11am, being a shift worker, and feeds him. When I get home between 4 and 6pm I check on him and check his food. At 6pm I turn off his UVB. The heat lamp, attached to a thermostat, stays on.

Every night so far the vast majority of his food has been gone. He's only 6 months so to our understanding he should be eating every day. Today when I got home his food was untouched.

My fiance got up at 4am to use the bathroom and did a quick check on him. Bas had burrowed into the substrate below his hide. At 6am when I checked on him he was still burrowed. When I got home just now he's still burrowed, though I think he may have moved and reburrowed in the same spot as the substrate was slightly disturbed and he was more uncovered.

He's still breathing and when I poked his tail he shifted under the substrate, so he's responding to touch. The local temperature for the last week has been between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius (68 to 75 Fahrenheit) with his heat lamp keeping the enclosures cool side at 28C (82F).
The last two days it's been hotter, 38C (100F) outside with the enclosures cool side reaching a high of 32C (89F) today because for some unknown reason the thermostat didn't turn off when it was meant to.

With his extended burrowing, which he had barely done previously and only partially buried instead of totally, and the fact that he hasn't eaten today I'm somewhat worried he's not well.
So please, if anyone could tell me whether he's sick or simply overheated that would be very much appreciated.
As of now his heat lamp is turned off so that the temperature can drop to a more comfortable level.

I would guess he was burrowing to escape the heat. 89 degrees F is pretty warm for the cool side. I wouldn't be that concerned about him missing a meal. At that age, I'd probably be feeding every other day myself. Burrowing is pretty typical behavior. My guys like to take a day off here and there occaionally too. Keep an eye on him and he'll probably bounce right back when temperatures are good again. Keep us updated if not.

That's good to hear. I was very concerned that the overheating might do serious damage!

I'll monitor him over the night as the temperature drops. I suppose as long as he's breathing he should be just fine!
Now to work out what exactly went wrong with the thermostat and quite probably purchase one of a higher quality.

If you can, post a picture of your enclosure and how big is it?. I'm curious how your cool side got so warm. Is your enclosure in a climate controlled room? And I would be turning the heat off every night, especially if temps are hitting 100 degrees during the day. I keep my night temperatures at room temperature (68 degrees F)

And yes one day at 89 degrees won't kill him. These guys deal with much harsher conditions in the wild.

mb606587 wrote:If you can, post a picture of your enclosure and how big is it?. I'm curious how your cool side got so warm. Is your enclosure in a climate controlled room? And I would be turning the heat off every night, especially if temps are hitting 100 degrees during the day. I keep my night temperatures at room temperature (68 degrees F)

And yes one day at 89 degrees won't kill him. These guys deal with much harsher conditions in the wild.

The room is not temperature controlled. His enclosure is 900x450x450cm. We had been leaving the heat lamp on as the days were so cold when we got him but it seems the shift has finally come around to a more summery temperature. We're in South Australia so winter can be quite cold but summer can swing round to 113F at it's worst. I'll speak to my fiance about the heat lamp being off. I'd actually switched it off manually this morning but I wonder if she didn't turn it on when she woke up.

The weather today was roughly 100F and I believe the thermostat may have malfunctioned and left the heat lamp running all day.

what's that stuff you are using for a substrate ?

I think you are going be better off removing it and replacing it with mix of course and medium grade Kritters' Krumble & Bunning Coir Peet (after soaking it to expand and drying some). Not the fine grade Kritters' Krumble as it's very dusty and will make your skink very sneezy.
I use a mix of 50% Kritters Krumble & Coir Peet then toss in a couple handfuls of leaf litter (I gather from front lawn where it drops copiously from my mature bluegum). My two easterns and my eastern water skink love this mix.



For those in the USA , much of Australia is experiencing a long summer heatwave (temperatures up around the high 30s and low 40s degC , even the high 40s degC in some places , along with bushfires and very large wild grass fires).
Adelaide nudged 40 degC and Whyalla hit just under 42degC today (on the coast) , and inland areas will have been several degC hotter.
My neck of the woods will be getting a good taste of the heat you got tomorrow and on Sunday.

I think the issue here is most likely the juvenile skink involved is suffering heat stress.

I'd be checking that thermometer is accurate ( it likely is not ) and perhaps replacing the thermostat if it's NOT TRUSTWORTH or has failed.


I suggest while the heatwave is on , turn off the basking globe , it's not needed and will be pushing the tank temperatures well into the danger zone for your bluetongue skink who is unable to excape the heat (hence trying to dig it's way out).
Young (baby and juvenile) skinks are much more prone to heat stress than adult skinks.

Make sure to keep water dish topped up and provide plenty of fresh salad stuff to keep him hydrated.