BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Recently saw this fella losing a toe in the local PetCo. I’ve studied the reptile and called the breeder to find out subspecies and He said “it’s most likely a farm-raised Halmahera Blue Tongue.” Thusly I knew conditions weren’t right for humidity until I got em home with my fogger and moss and bark substrate. From research Halmaheras need between 70-85 humidity range (correct me if wrong) and as always the pet store couldn’t even tell what care it needed. Improvements to the enclosure will be added over winter so share with me as much experience with this as possible regarding my enclosure. I want this to be the best place for them.
40 gallon tank with a good 2 inch layer of reptibark and forest moss, a piece of tile is used with a thermometer to maintain heat.

Here’s another photo of Lee’s exploration

Deeper substrate levels will better help maintain humidity and promote natural burrowing behaviors. Personally I prefer coconut fiber substrate over bark, Eco Earth being a popular choice, for high humidity reptiles. You can even add it to your existing substrate. And as you've done, liberal blend of sphagnum or forest moss. You can buy bags of it cheap at Lowes. And you've definitely got yourself a Halmahera.

Alright thanks for the reply! Guess I’ll have to snag a bag of EcoEarth next time I’m out. Any kinds of items to add other than reptile-safe plastic plants?

I've found the half log that you currently have is prone to molding in high humidity. If you start to notice that happening, you can switch to cork bark tubes (resistant to mold) or I like to use corrugated drain tubes. You don't really NEED much else. For most of my skinks I only provide one hide as personally I think that two hides tends to clutter up the floor space in smaller enclosures. Instead I'll throw some leaf litter the skink can burrow under instead. For some of my enclosures, I'll screw a piece of plywood onto wooden blocks this way my skink can both bask on top and hide underneath. Something else I like to do is to bury the flexible drain tubes deep under the substrate like pictured. My skinks love to tunnel into them and it allows more floor space.