BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello, I am a BTS owner (also new to this page) and there are some things my skink does which I do not understand. He is a 13 month old northern named Lewis. I have tried to search the internet for answers but often come up blank so maybe you guys could help me out!

1. His eyes seem to look in different directions? I know chameleons do this, but to my knowledge I didn’t think skinks did.

2. He has recently taking a liking to eating the substrate in the tank, specifically the small wood chips in my cypress mulch. When I tell him not to eat it he still does! He is pooping and eating regularly and seems to digests it fine, but it’s just strange to me.

3. Whenever I approach the tank, he comes up to the glass (facing me, not looking directly at me though) and then tilts his head towards me and refuses to make eye contact with me. He stares at my feet most of the time and aggressively licks.

4. He has a pooping problem and cannot be trusted to not make a mess whenever he is out of his tank. Any tips for potty training?

Here is a picture of him!

Hi there and welcome!

I'll try to answer each point the best I can:

1. I can't confirm whether BTS have this ability but I think I have seen something similar. It could also come down to a bit of an optical illusion depending what perspective you're looking at the skink.

2. BTS are reported to sometimes consume substrate. It could indicate he is hungry however he may just be eating it as a random behaviour. It can also happen when food scraps fall into the substrate and your skink finds them but ends up eating whatever it is attached to. You cannot verbally instruct a BTS as it does not understand you, but it can learn to recognise the sound of your voice.

3. Sounds like typical greeting and curiosity. If your enclosure is positioned lower to the ground you need to lower yourself to eye level most of the time, if he is tilting his head it normally indicates curiosity/investigation. Your skink may not want to make eye contact also because it is intimidated. As a general rule staring/prolonged eye contact may be threatening/intimidating. You will most likely need to continue to develop a level of comfort and rapport with Lewis and you will find he may eventually hold eye contact with you - but all BTS are different.

4. BTS will typically have a schedule of passing waste, for example my skink Peanut always does his business in the morning, and is very predictable. Therefore its safe to take him out after a particular time every day. This is essentially as "potty trained" as they will get. Generally if your skink has been recently fed (the day or two before) and hasn't passed waste yet you're running a high risk if you handle him or take him out. Do note also handling and exploring unfamiliar areas can be very stressful for your skink and as such can cause them to defecate. They will typically breathe heavily immediately beforehand, but if you see the tail come up you're already too late. Consistency of feeding, understanding your skinks schedule and continuing to build a relationship with Lewis so he feels comfortable should reduce the risk of him dropping a nasty surprise considerably.

And just an added note...you can not 'tell' a reptile to do or not to do something. They do not have the ability to reason.