Free-roaming, cold floor

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ThisName
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Free-roaming, cold floor

Postby ThisName » Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:36 am

I've read a few opinions about free-roaming on the forum here, but I figured it can't hurt to ask again. Some people think it's 'better not to let your skink run around'... the thing is that mine likes to explore (my shoes). He has enough hides in his cage but he has 'energy bursts' from time to time. Mostly a few days after he has shed (until a week before he has to shed again). He'll scratch the glass until I let him out.

Now my room is 'safe'. I am a student so there isn't all too much stuff in here and I barricade the fridge so he can't crawl underneath it. I unfortunately can't do anything about the tiles in the room. But they are of course fairly cold and I wonder if this could become a problem.
Most of the time he just crawls around for +-10 minutes and then he will pick a shoe to relax in (sometimes he'll immediately crawl into one of my shoes after letting him out). But I've occasionally found him underneath a towel on the cold floor when I wasn't paying full attention (I usually know where he is because I can hear him crawl, but I sometimes forget to 'check' how long he's been sitting somewhere). Once he choses a place to 'rest' he usually stays there until I put him back in his cage. So he usually spends +-2 hours (I should pay more attention to this) outside of his cage.

I'd like to hear any ideas and/or opinions on how I can let him roam around without the floor being potentially damaging to his health. I've considered placing one of my shoes in his enclosure, but I am not all too keen on that idea. ;) (And he'd probably still scratch the glass only to crawl into one of my other shoes five minutes later.)

As you can see, he's a skink with an attitude and I can't just lock him up:
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(This is when I wanted to put him back in the cage, he did not agree.)
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Janella
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Re: Free-roaming, cold floor

Postby Janella » Sat Jan 16, 2021 6:55 pm

Omg, he is adorable. Yes, it is very important to watch your skink going from a 100 degree enclosure to a 70 plus room. The severe temperature change can bring on infections. One of the things I have done is when skinks are out I turn on the space heater so the room temperature goes up for the time they are out. I also have used a heat pad with towels over it for them to have a warm spot to warm up. Another thing is to just hold my skink so it gets my warmth. Hope that helps.
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splashy07
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Re: Free-roaming, cold floor

Postby splashy07 » Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:45 am

I have never been an advocate of the free roaming thing. As Janella stated, the temperature change could not possibly be good for them. It's not just body temp, it's the temperature of the air they are taking into their lungs that can be detrimental. Radical temp/humidity changes can be an open door for infections. If he's curling up in your shoe to go to sleep, I can bet it's because he's cold and looking for a place to hunker down until it warms up. I know many people let their skinks roam around but that does not make it good for them. Especially those breeds that require high humidity like yours.
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ThisName
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Re: Free-roaming, cold floor

Postby ThisName » Fri Jan 22, 2021 12:18 pm

Thank you for responding.^^

The humidity is luckily not an issue here. I live in Belgium and the humidity is generally 'high' . (I just checked- today, at 20:00 the humidity is around 81% outside.) I indeed also put the heat up (but my room is probably still not warm enough).

Yesterday he fell asleep in one of my 'higher' shoes and I was too lazy to take him out so I put him in the terra with the shoe. Today, as expected; he was sitting on top of the shoe, scratching at the glass until I took him out. He walked around for five minutes and now he's 'hiding' in one of my other shoes.
It's possible that he's indeed searching for a 'warmer' place but the thing is if I put him back now, he will be scratching at the glass again within five minutes.

A heat pad with towels does sound like a good idea. Maybe I can also put him+the shoe underneath the heating once he has decided which shoe he wants to 'sleep' in.
Lately I've also been trying to get him to 'rest' in my lap underneath a blanket. Sometimes he can sit like this for a few hours, other days he doesn't want to sit still. Though I should do this more often instead of letting him walk around.

(I should probably mention that I write 'sleep', but he's just laying there with his eyes open, not moving.)

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