New BTS adoption - questions and advice

[timisimaginary]

hello,
yesterday we adopted a BTS, "Jub-Jub," from our niece who decided she could not care for him anymore. we are currently keeping him quarantined in a 20gal glass tank in a separate room (i also have a bearded dragon, and just finished setting up a new vivarium for a pair of crested geckos that we don't have yet). we do not know much about him (or if it is a him or her), do not know the exact age or species. he was purchased at a reptile show on Feb 1, and we believe he was approx. 3 months at that time, and therefore would be about 6-7 months now. he is 10" long including tail. i have not weighed him yet but will do so tonight. here are a few pictures:







we do not know the exact species, any help on ID'ing him would be appreciated.

his current setup is a 20gal glass tank with screen top, water bowl, food bowl, plastic log for hiding, and basking tile. he has a reptisun 10.0 UVB tube bulb and a 50W basking lamp on a dimmer. he is on paper towels for now. he will be moving to a larger cage once he comes out of quarantine and moves into our reptile room.

the biggest issue we are dealing with is this reptile has mites. i found 2 on him this morning which i removed with a paper towel, but i'm sure there are more. you can see one of them in his pics on the towel. he first had them over 6-8 weeks ago, he was treated with Reptile Relief spray and his cage and furniture were cleaned, but i don't know how much they kept up on the treatments and the mites came back. they first saw them again a week and a half ago and began treating him again. i am guessing eggs were laid in the tank and hatched out after they stopped treatment. so any advice on getting rid of the mites would be helpful. i am considering moving him to a two-tank setup so i can adequately clean and sanitize one tank while he is in the other one. i also have access to a full-size freezer so i may use that to freeze one tank while he is in another, as long as that won't crack the glass.

i also have questions about feeding schedule. my plan is to feed every other day, mostly greens like collard, mustard, dandelion, arugula, endive, escarole (basically the same greens i feed my BD) with some other veggies (carrots, squash) and fruits (strawberry, apple) mixed in, and for live prey i have a dubia roach colony i'd like to feed out of, and some other assorted insects (phoenix worms, silkworms, butterworms) as available. i will be supplementing Rep-Cal w/ D3 2-3x a week, and Herptivite 1x a week. if there are any changes or improvements to this feeding schedule anyone would recommend please let me know.

i have read the caresheet on this forum and will be reading up on the FAQs when i get the chance, but i always like to get first-hand advice as well.

[kilopular]

As for the mites, ive treated that before with one of my snakes. I also used the reptile spray, but what i did was wash down the tank, everything in it, with the spray but also spray some on a paper towel and let him walk through it and gently rub some on the rest of him, but keep away from face and eyes.

I did this every single day for a few weeks to basically shock and awe the mites. My snake was tired of it after a while. I did not put the spray on the snake every day though, only about once a week. But the cage was sprayed down and ventilated every day.

I havent seen any mites in 8 months.

I dont know if you needed mite advice but thought id gove mine. Hope everyhing goes well!

[saisaac]

I'll let someone with experience with mites answer the mite questions. I am always happy to see an animal that comes from an unfortunate situation in the home of someone already familiar with reptiles and as committed as yourself.

For the most part it sounds like you are off to a good start. The skink is going to quickly outgrow the quarantine tank. What do you have setup or planned for him/her once they come out of the current setup? You'll want something ideally 2ft by 4ft or larger. Some say 40 gallon breeders are sufficient, but in my experience that is not enough room. My female Northern looked miserable in a tine 40 gallon enclosure when I first received her. Once the skink is mite free you will want to provide a substrate that allows for burrowing such as cypress mulch or orchid bark.

As far as diet goes, you will definitely want to consider adding a high quality moist dog food to the diet. Many experienced keepers have had great success with dog food as a sole diet. It has all the essential nutrients they need (calcium with D3 still recommended) and they generally eat well on it. Both of my skinks get different varieties of canned dog food. I typically use: Simply Nourish, Halo, Wellness, or Merrick. Just check the ingredients to make sure they are high quality and safe and you should be good to go.

You listed some great greens, veggies, and live feeders but I would only offer fruit as treats occasionally and only once they are eating well. With my two skinks, they will not eat just their green veggies. It has to be mixed in with dog food, meat, fruit, or eggs for them to have any interest. They will eat just squash sometimes when it is offered, but I rarely offer just veggies. In regards to the live feeders, dubia are of course a great option as are the other worms you listed. However, some keepers report their skinks being more finicky eaters when fed live food and thus recommend a meat and veggie based diet. I haven't had my skinks be overly picky after being fed superworms, wax worms, etc. Chewy showed no interest whatsoever in eating crickets, but loved a nice grasshopper.

EDIT: As for the species, it looks to be Irian Jaya which is not really considered a species/subspecies as of yet. They are a type of blue tongue from Indonesia. They are considered simply Tiliqua sps.

[timisimaginary]

i have a 3x2 melamine enclosure that was my beardie's old cage, but i'll be looking for a 4x2 at the reptile show this weekend. if not, i may custom build one.
i am planning on putting him on aspen shavings for substrate once he is mite-free.
i'll be experimenting with insects to see which ones he likes (i really hope he likes the roaches, because i've got tons of them and need to feed them to something, my beardie and tarantulas don't eat enough to keep the population in check). i will try dog food as well, i believe he was eating that as well in his previous home.

[saisaac]

Given that this is a tropical subspecies you'll want to provide a substrate that holds more humidty. Aspen is very dry. Even some Northerns get too dry on aspen. Aspen may work if you have otherwise high humidity, but I would bet that cypress would suit your skink better.

[Katrina]

Welcome to the site!

The only thing I'd add is that the diet seems great but I'd only feed every other day for a little while and then cut back on feedings. Adults really only need to eat 1-2 times per week and will get picky if they are fed more often, so you'll probably find that you'll want to offer the veggies and greens mix first and then let him fill up on the feeders after. Feeding less often will mean that they will be hungry enough to snack on the veggies offerings. If they aren't eating the veggies then coating them with some dog food will definitely help (but a diet of a good variety of healthy, gutloaded feeders plus greens/veggies should be just fine as long as they eat the veggies!).

Good luck!

[timisimaginary]

he's been hiding most of the week (as to be expected), but i got him to eat some dog food, collard greens and a blueberry this morning.
vet visit scheduled for tomorrow, hoping he'll give me a fecal sample before then to bring in with him.

[timisimaginary]

it's been a little over a month since we took in Jub-Jub. he's eating like a pig, the little fatty has gone from 113g to 174g in the time he's been here and grown a couple inches. he eats pretty much everything: dubia roaches, crickets, snails, phoenix worms, butterworms, silkworms, dog food, squash, various greens, green beans, carrots, blueberries, strawberry... the only thing he'll occasionally leave behind is a bit of his greens, but he usually eats those well too.

here are some recent pics. i just finished his last mite treatment earlier this week, so he's still on paper towels with cardboard hides. i'll be waiting a few weeks to make sure no mites reappear and then he'll hopefully be moving into his permanent home with forest floor bedding, more floor space and better furnishings.





anyone care to venture a guess to his/her sex?

he's still skittish, now that mite treatments are over i hope to be able to handle him more often and make him more comfortable and tame. he's very food-motivated so i think it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[donkeybuff]

A bird's eye view picture of his full body when straightened out is better for sexing. Good to hear that the mites are gone.