Introducing Jupiter and some questions! Pics included

[MadisonMancer]

Over the past weekend I picked up Jupiter, my caramel northern, from Deb Mandigo! She's my first skink ever and I'm super excited to have her with me!
Jupiter is super curious and loves getting into trouble, she's a super sweet girl (at least I'm assuming girl) with the prettiest blue eyes that she got from her mother. She's still a baby, at a little over a month old and is about 7 1/2 to 8 inches. Still have yet to weigh her but that will be as soon as I find the scale.


Some of her coloring.


Jupiter on the ride home.


Jupiter declaring herself queen of the new tank.


Laying on her basking rock/tile.


Wide shot of her enclosure. The hide is a bit big but it's filled with dry moss for her to dig in. I also made the backdrop by hand! The water dish only has enough water to touch her belly.


Jupiter before her first meal.


Tongue shot!

As for my questions, Jupiter has been making a sneezing like noise, not sure if it's actual sneezing or just a huff, it happens every so often and I just want to know if I should be concerned or not.
My second question is she likes to raise up her body when she's under something and touch it with her back, is this just a way to scratch herself?
At what point should I start feeding her every other day, is there a specific weight where it should stop or just an age?

Thank you guys so much! I've been lurking around this site for a while and it's helped me a ton with preparing and knowing what to expect.

[NickBrahz]

She is a beautiful little girl, now to answer your questions
Sneezing is fine, if they sneeze every 2 minutes thats when you worry or when there is discharge from the nose, from the pictures she looks healthy, now that being said they can be a bit messy eaters and they shove there face in the food to eat so lost and lots of sneezing after a meal is normal.
I've never seen any of mine do what you describe so can't answer.
At 3 months i started to feed mine 2 days on 1 day off, if they started to look a bit chubby would change it to 1 day on 1 day off and then 2 days on 2 off when they didn't look so chubby, while growing if they get fat it doesn't matter you just feed them less for awhile and they will put that extra weight to growing.
http://www.bluetongueskinks.net/foodchart.html is a good chart to go off as reference but it's more a case by case for the skink, if it looks fat feed it a bit less for awhile if it looks skinny feed it more, if it looks to maintain it's weight visually while growing then thats what you aim for, this is my personal opinion anyway so other more experienced if im wrong please correct me.
My 3 bubs are now roughly 5 months old so i now feed them 3 times a week, Monday Wednesday and Friday excluding treats.

[splashy07]

What a pretty little Northern! Congratulations on your new baby and best of luck with her. Absolutely love your set-up.

[Dakota]

Sometimes when BTS are on something "unfamiliar", they will often raise themselves up to the point where their belly isn't touching the surface. I assume this is what you might be seeing.

Is that ReptiBark?

[ReddGnash11]

Awesome looking background, well done and amazing looking baby too, hopefully I can find a Northern as cute as Jupiter.

[NickBrahz]

So i have a question for you Madison, is that just a normal tile like what exactly is it made out of it and was it bought from just a local tile supplier or what i've been meaning to get a few to do something similar to as you have done to have a elevated basking spot and hide in one.

[alichamp]

Hi and welcome! Great looking skink and great looking enclosure! Love the rock background. You've clearly taken lots of care to set up an enclosure both practical and beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

I hate to be a downer, but I hope you didn't drive around with your bts on the dash like that, it is so unsafe for both driver and skink for SO MANY reasons. Not recommended people: please put your skink in a container or box they can't get out of for travel!!!

[JoshChimera]

Very nice background, your bts are great lookin!