New bluey owner- help with substrate?

[inkobah]

Hello,
I'm quite new to blue tongues. I've had a leopard gecko for 6 years and a beardie for almost 1 year, but the skink is a bit strange to me. I normally keep my animals on a solid substrate, but following the bluetongueskinks.net guide, I put my bluey, Slinky the Irian Jaya, on shaved aspen bedding that I found at a big name pet store in their reptile section. He's been on it since April and I'm a bit concerned. He sneezes a LOT, especially when, but not limited to, rummaging through his cage. To give an idea of frequency, I hear it easily 3 times but up to 7 times an hour. Additionally his breathing has been whistling with most every breath since shortly after I got him. I've read on here that I should be worried if it's wet and wheezing, but I'm not sure how to tell if a skink's breathing is wet or wheezing. There's no discharge out of his eyes or nose or mouth however, so I haven't taken him to the vet. The local reptile pet store I bought him from kept him on coconut bark. I'd seen one of their other blue tongue skinks have problems with the coconut bark by getting the fibers stuck in his nose and eyes, so I didn't want to use it. I asked them about his whistle breathing and sneezing after a few weeks of having him at my house, and they said he didn't do that when they had him. Indeed when I'd held him the several times before purchasing him I hadn't heard the strange breathing at the time, either.

Additionally his scales seem like they're having problems. The scales on top of his head and, tonight i noticed, along his back look wrinkled and shriveled a bit. I noticed this goes away immediately after shedding but it seems to come back pretty quickly. Then I picked him up tonight and his belly scales seem particularly strange. They seem like paper, with their edges looking clear and see-through, flipping up and easily catching on my skin. What's that all about? I'm not sure if that means he's about to shed or if he's dehydrated?

I'd thought about putting him on cypress mulch but I'm not really sure how to go about it. The mulch at my home depot seemed splintery and like it might stab his eye like the coconut bark. And even if I did put him on cypress, should it be moist or should I dry it out somehow? Do I need to sterilize it in some way? The alternative option I was considering was orchid bark, but there were a lot of smaller pieces I was worried he would try to eat and choke on.

I'm really clueless as to where to go from here, any help or feedback would be super appreciated!
Thanks for your time.

[inkobah]

slinkyscales.jpg

Sorry about the double post. Here's a picture of him, you can see the wrinkly scales on his face and nose. Does that look normal to you? Sorry about my ignorance @.@

[Jbolar]

With any of the Indonesian species you will want to use a substrate that will tolerate more moisture to allow for a bit more humidity. he may be getting ready to shed. The aspen is a good bedding choice for northern blue tongues but for your meruake (it's an Indo) i'd recommend cyrpess mulch + a fogger to help during sheds. really i'm not seeing to much else as far as wrinkled scales, but i may need to take a better look.

[donkeybuff]

+1 On the cypress mulch. One thing that has worked really well for me has been putting a big clump of zoo med terrarium moss in the enclosure. You soak it in water, then wring it out until it is moist. I've noticed that my skink digs around in it a lot and sleeps in it, and it has really helped with his scales and the ambient humidity.

[inkobah]

Thank you guys for the fast responses! Jbolar, so my bluey is actually a Meruake? In the picture I posted the other weird scales can't really be seen, though once my boyfriend gets home I'll have him help me get pictures of the other weird scales (especially the bottom ones since those seemed most strange to me).

Donkeybuff, thanks for the moss idea, I like it and I think probably my skink will too.

So I'll switch to cypress right away tomorrow. Are there any special instructions for that? Should it be kept relatively dry or moist? Do I need to bake the substrate to sterilize it? Or can I just dump it straight from the bag into the terrarium? I will look into getting a fogger.

[donkeybuff]

Yes, that's definitely Merauke. I dump my cypress mulch in right out of the bag, never had any problems. However, Home Depot doesn't carry cypress mulch in my area, so I can't say how their mulch is. I get mine from the pet store.

[Jbolar]

your local stores or even a petsmart should carry one of the main brand bags of cyrpress like zoomed or exoterra... it should come mostly hydrated, the goal is to keep an ambient humidity while not having soaking wet substrate, that is the reason for the fogger... just watch out for water bogging, would be an issue to create an over saturated enclosure.. which eventually lead to R.I or other issues, too dry and you can run into other issues. yes I believe Meruake is Teliqua gigas evanescens.

[inkobah]

Ok, thanks a lot guys! I'm really hoping the cypress mulch and fogging will help with the whistling and sneezing too!

[timisimaginary]

i use Zoo Med Forest Floor. it's basically cypress mulch, but seems moister and less splintery than the home depot stuff. also less chance of infestation (those home depot bags just sit out all night, and have holes in them, and it's easy for insects to get in them, and after adopting a skink with mites, i'm a bit paranoid about that). i put all my substrate in the freezer for a week or so before thawing it out to use, just to be safe.

unfortunately the pet-brand stuff is much more expensive, but for me worth the extra peace of mind.

[Jbolar]

Tim, the issue with bedding in petstores (assuming it's not a clean store) is that sometimes mites will hitch rides in bedding, always best to buy bedding in clean stores i hate to admit it but chances of getting mites from a petsmart supply area is fairly low as they have very few aimals.


also the freezing method if i recall right takes up to 4 weeks to kill mite eggs which could still hatch after the freezing. you need to drop temps SUPER low to have that work.

[Roarschak11]

The scales on his belly are like that due to not enough humidity. My skink got like that when I First got him. The wrinkles scales are usually due to a lack of protein in their diet. (Also a problem I had from my pet store blue) if you give him a proper diet and regular feeding, then the wrinkled scales should get better after some sheds. Depending on how bad the scales are though, it could be a long time before you see improvement.

[timisimaginary]

Tim, the issue with bedding in petstores (assuming it's not a clean store) is that sometimes mites will hitch rides in bedding, always best to buy bedding in clean stores i hate to admit it but chances of getting mites from a petsmart supply area is fairly low as they have very few aimals.


also the freezing method if i recall right takes up to 4 weeks to kill mite eggs which could still hatch after the freezing. you need to drop temps SUPER low to have that work.

i buy most of my bedding either through amazon or at reptile expos, so it's not really possible to judge the cleanliness of the store itself. i base my freezing regimen off of this site http://www.karingalvet.com.au/Pet-Care/ ... -Mites.asp which recommends 5 days. back when i was treating my skink for mites, i had 2 separate cage for him, only one of which was ever treated with a mite spray. i'd keep one in the freezer for a week while he lived in the other, switching between them every other week, and once he got over the mites i never had a problem with them again. after treatment ended he went into a brand new full-time cage, so i can't really say for sure if the week-long freezing was sufficient, but it seemed to work at least for the couple months he was shuttling between those two cages.

[inkobah]

... The wrinkles scales are usually due to a lack of protein in their diet. (Also a problem I had from my pet store blue) if you give him a proper diet and regular feeding, then the wrinkled scales should get better after some sheds. Depending on how bad the scales are though, it could be a long time before you see improvement.

Roarschak, I find that strange. I've followed diet charts, feeding healthy vegetables finely chopped and mixed in a 50/50 ratio with protein for the past 3-4 months since I've had him. At first I mostly used http://www.instinctpetfood.com/product/instinct-grain-free-canned-dog-food-rabbit and sometimes the Wellness brand as well. I've also fed him boiled chicken, superworms, and occasionally http://www.petguard.com/cat-products/canned-food/savory-seafood-dinner when I didn't have the former items, as I have a cat and the food is always on hand. Following a guide, at first I was feeding him 1-2 times weekly, but now I've reduced the portion of food and feed him 3-4 times per week, about a couple teaspoons full per feeding. Am I doing something wrong?

Here is his cage now with cypress mulch (note, it's missing basking rocks and water dish atm as they're being cleaned):

20141008_161136.jpg

I went ahead with home depot mulch and just dumped it straight in as I can't really freeze it. The mulch is slightly damp to the touch, is that how it should be? I did have a bigger cork hide in there but it's kind of big for the height of the cage, he was climbing on top, trying to claw out of the screen top, then falling down, so I took it out wondering if some of the weird scales are from falling and scraping on the cork. A fogger is on my shopping list. Is there anything else I should be doing? Thank you for the feedback! Slinky thanks you guys too.

[Dakota]

Hmm, I have never heard of lack of protein causing wrinkles in scales. Lack of sufficient protein will cause the scales to be really thick (notice WC adult Tiliqua gigas often are very glossy and sleek in comparison to those that have been raised in captivity). Here is a quote made by the king of Tiliqua on that matter.

Just keep it simple, too much good stuff is not good for them. Babys give just meat, once they are a year old ,or over 14 to 15 inches you can add vegies, fresh or frozen . No vegies for BABYS . Or they grow up deformed like most of yours, the scales should be flat and smoothe like in the wild, not round and bumpy from too much vegies. A Northern should not have scales like a shingleback !

From my observations, wrinkles in the scales means humidity is way, way too low. I am not speaking from experience though due to me easily keeping humidity high for my guys, but take a look at DianaBlueTongues' rescue "Renny".. check out the before and after shot of her face.

Cage is looking great.

[Roarschak11]

... The wrinkles scales are usually due to a lack of protein in their diet. (Also a problem I had from my pet store blue) if you give him a proper diet and regular feeding, then the wrinkled scales should get better after some sheds. Depending on how bad the scales are though, it could be a long time before you see improvement.

Roarschak, I find that strange. I've followed diet charts, feeding healthy vegetables finely chopped and mixed in a 50/50 ratio with protein for the past 3-4 months since I've had him. At first I mostly used http://www.instinctpetfood.com/product/instinct-grain-free-canned-dog-food-rabbit and sometimes the Wellness brand as well. I've also fed him boiled chicken, superworms, and occasionally http://www.petguard.com/cat-products/canned-food/savory-seafood-dinner when I didn't have the former items, as I have a cat and the food is always on hand. Following a guide, at first I was feeding him 1-2 times weekly, but now I've reduced the portion of food and feed him 3-4 times per week, about a couple teaspoons full per feeding. Am I doing something wrong?

Here is his cage now with cypress mulch (note, it's missing basking rocks and water dish atm as they're being cleaned):

20141008_161136.jpg

I went ahead with home depot mulch and just dumped it straight in as I can't really freeze it. The mulch is slightly damp to the touch, is that how it should be? I did have a bigger cork hide in there but it's kind of big for the height of the cage, he was climbing on top, trying to claw out of the screen top, then falling down, so I took it out wondering if some of the weird scales are from falling and scraping on the cork. A fogger is on my shopping list. Is there anything else I should be doing? Thank you for the feedback! Slinky thanks you guys too.

As I said, it could take a while for the scales to improve. It's taken over a year with my skink. As Ray said more protein when they are younger is best good on you for trying hard to make your skinner happy