BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I was doing another handling session with my bluey today before giving him some blueberries as a treat. It was going fine as usual, he wanted to be put on the floor, roam around, getting curious about things, and I decided to try and bring him into the room he usually roams around the entrance of to see how he'd do. He didn't seem to like it since he was recoiling in my hands like he was trying to back up, so I brought him back into the room his enclosure is in. I put him back down in his usual roaming space but noticed he started walking around with his tail curled upward.

I've never seen him do this sort of behavior before so I was wondering if it was a "I feel threatened" stance considering what happened moments before he started doing this. I picked him up right away and put him back in his enclosure since I felt he was feeling stressed out, but I'm not 100% sure if that's what was going on. He was also licking at his vent/cloaca (not sure what the correct term is here) when he was walking around with his tail up but there was nothing on him and I checked him briefly before putting him back in his enclosure and didn't see any excrement's or seepage of any kind there. It all looked normal. I didn't even know they licked themselves.

Anyway, he seemed to calm right down after getting in the enclosure and he put his tail down flat like it usually is and walked around calmly. I gave him the blueberries as I planned to after putting him back anyway and he really enjoyed them. Ate about 8 or 10 of them.

So my question is this now that the story/explanation is out of the way; was I correct in thinking the tail behavior I saw was a sign of a lot of stress? I want to make sure to look out for it in the future if it is. I read it was difficult for a skink to lose their tail so never thought they'd drop it, but after trying to research this tail behavior to learn more about it I found out they can actually drop their tails as a defensive mechanism. I know they grow back but I never want to put my skink through something to make him feel like he needs to resort to something like that. I'm also really worried that what I saw might have been signs of him thinking of doing so.

Thank you for your help in advance!

(as a note, I do not currently have any other pets and Noodle (my bluey's name) is the only pet I have, so he didn't feel threatened about another animal being here)

I have observed this behaviour also, usually if something has frightened/stressed your skink they can often defecate as a result. Based on what you've described Noodle might have gotten a bit spooked (don't feel bad as it is often an innocuous factor that causes it) but simply didn't have anything to pass, hence the tail going up with nothing coming out. I wouldn't stress about Noodle dropping his tail, I think it is very much a mechanical process i.e. a predator physically has a hold or has bitten the skinks tail and it drops it as a last resort to escape.

That does make me feel a lot better about him not dropping his tail unless it was grabbed. It's probably what a lot of people meant when they mentioned they can drop their tails anyway. Him trying to pass something does make sense since he was licking himself. I've never actually seen him go to the bathroom, always just found the droppings, so I never observed his tail being raised before. I checked in on him later in the day and he was basking as normal and didn't look stressed, so I think putting him back when I did and offering him treats worked in calming him down.

I would like to know what spooked him so bad so I can address it if I can but I suppose we'll never fully understand the lizard brain quite to that extent, lol! I'll just be more careful next time I take him into a new space.

Thank you for your input!

No worries If you happen to notice him slowly raising his tail next time he's roaming around outside his vivarium...your day is probably going to get alot messier

I bet!

Yes, it means they have to go to the bathroom. And if you pick him up right away and put him somewhere else it will disturb the process and cause stress.

splashy07 wrote:Yes, it means they have to go to the bathroom. And if you pick him up right away and put him somewhere else it will disturb the process and cause stress.

Oh really? Alright, I'll make sure not to do that next time. Learning steps! I'm glad I'm asking you guys these questions.