BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi everyone!

I am a first time skink owner, though I have had a lot of reptiles in my life. I purchased a 9month old skink a few months ago for my kiddo - he was sold to us as a captive bred merauke through a pet store, but I am wondering if he might actually be a Halmahera. He is about 1 year old now and 20” long - still shedding about every 3 weeks and has grown about 2” in the last 3 months. He has a salmon colored belly, but also some black checkered patterning which is what makes me wonder about his ID - I don’t have pictures of the belly unfortunately. (The pictures with little substrate in the tank were taken when we were setting up, he does have lots of stuff to burrow in now!)

He also is able to be handled, but obviously very worried about it. He huffs a *lot* when he is being handled and jumps if you touch him in his enclosure. He settles down when you are holding him but my kiddo has not been handling him a lot as I think he intimidated them. He has never offered to bite or even open mouth hissed at us, but he really has no interest in coming near you when he is in his enclosure. I have recently moved him out of the kid’s room and into our living area so I am giving him some
Time to adjust to the sights and sounds, but my question is, am I better off going extra slow and trying to get him comfortable with me near him in the tank or am I better off just scooping him up and handling him as much as possible for him to get used to it?

I’m also so excited to have found this forum as I am learning a ton

Something that I found worked w taming my skink is to train them with treats/food as the skink will associate you with rewards. I chop up some fruit, make a small noise (eg, taping the enclosed a few times), and give the treat to the skink, and slowly try "leading" the skink to the enclosure edge with the treats. It may take some time, but soon enough when the skink hears the small noise itll come to the enclosure edge or at least slightly emerge.
You can also slowly introduce it to your touch by gently petting it while it's eating, until you can pick it up.
Also offering food/treats while you are holding it.
Basically just get it to associate you with food lol.

That’s basically what I started doing this week and it seems to be helping a lot! I figured that instead of giving him a big meal twice a week I would just tong feed him a little every day so he started to associate me with good things. Then I tried a few new dog foods to see if he liked anything and the merrick grain free turkey dinner appears to be a big hit he has let me hold him a couple times today and has really been getting braver about staying out when I am around too.

Your skink is a Classic Indonesian. Give him a bit of time first

mb606587 wrote:Your skink is a Classic Indonesian. Give him a bit of time first

We have had him for 3 months- do I need to give him
More time than that still?

Na you can begin handling. Some skinks are naturally huffy. Especially wild ones. Sometimes you can't prevent this.

Mine always huffs, only when it's hungry, it will be very easy to handle and come out to see it's owner lol