BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello everyone, its been a while,
My baby eastern BTS continues to grow into an adult at an accelerated rate of knots, now half the size of what my former wild friend, fully grown "naga" was

ive got no experience with baby BTS so ive got a few curious questions and observations

ive been sick for quite a long while, not quite corona but stomach acid issues that gave me pnumonia all the same, not fun

oomox who id estimate to be a few months old at this point never had much of a personality I noticed until recently, her cage is a modified 150 litre tub with alot of room for her size, bedded with fresh dried coco peet,

the expensive reptizoo neo-whatever lamp blew less than 2 months into its service life, it was replaced with a standard philips reflector bulb of similar wattage at a fraction of the price, it outputs similar heat and the uvb bulb remains operational, oomox by all signs enjoys her home, digging sometimes with only her nose showing when she feels like it, shes also got hides and the typical hot/cold sides

since ive been sick though, oomox seems to actively hate her cage and only truly settle when shes with me, its not an attempt at escape either, as once shes on my lap she goes to sleep or climbs up on my shoulder and after a little look around at the world goes to sleep

I assume this is the all important animals sick sense for thier owner?

she'll watch me from her cage some days, what looks like a bluetongue attack stance facing me always, (no hissing or tongue) ive understood is her "I want to be picked up" look



the same holds true for some nights, she simply wont settle if I goto bed

ive got a modified plastic (thick) container thats long enough to sleep and turn around in that if she wont settle she gets put in so she can share my bed without any fear of crushing, once put in here shes settled, although this isnt always needed

shes truly become a cuddleskink,
is this normal for a bts thats been raises quite young?

im happy to say shes healthy and grows bigger each month too


thankyou

Ah skink has you sussed and well trained. You are becoming a very well trained skink's pet hooman & slave.

Cleo my smaller year old ( female ) central bearded dragon and Fluffy my older female eastern water skink shared some dad time this evening , Fluffy wasn't the least bit phased by Cleo , she simply ambled over to her , and promptly clawed under her and past her up to close to my face.
Cleo on the other was clearly "not amused" and climbed up and behind the back of my head and then ontop my head ….. message = "I'll show you who the boss is here , and not that strange looking lizard, or you , it's me".
A few minutes up and Fluffy returned to her tub , and Cleo was ready to come down again and promptly fell asleep in the crook of my left elbow.

Hope you are being good and social distancing and self isolating , my wife and I have not left our home in 4 weeks , everything we need is home delivered .

Thankyou my friend good to see its just a lizard being a lizard, amazing animals. at this point im looking at crossing the multi lizard territory and licence much to the objection of the wife

(former hardline lizard phobia, now sees oomox as lovable)

the top of the head thing, highest point possible they do with you, ive noticed same thing with oomox, while the jeans pocket ala pokemon bluetongue is still a good place, on my sholders looking out at the world despite irs height seems to be a popular spot

id have to admit im confused, as a ground dwelling species, why so bluetongues seemingly prefer the highest point of thier hooman?

your stories of multi lizard interaction are lovely and help greatly both inspire and assure me that my skink isnt broken, shes just...a bluetongue doing what they do

Can I ask, how do you get a growing skink interested in vegetables and fruit?

I keep getting NO! face

Your juvenile skink will benefit much more from protein and calcium than veggies during this rapid period of growth. A quality canned dog food or calcium dusted insects should be the staple. Finely chopping any veggies and mixing them into dog food will yield much better results. It's rare to find a BTS that will eat just vegetables alone.

Yes, with the exception of peas and carrots, mine will not touch them.

Occasionally, feeding the babies wet dog food that contains whole green peas and little bits of carrot can lead to them being a bit more open minded towards eating veggies or other variable foods you may want to add.