When Skinks Bite

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Fatal_S
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Re: When Skinks Bite

Postby Fatal_S » Wed Oct 03, 2012 7:51 pm

I get bitten fairly often by my reptiles, fairly often being once every month or two at most. Not because they're mean, but because I just don't care enough to avoid bites. Mostly I get bitten when I blindly reach into a tank; they bite the first thing they see hoping it's food. Once in a while I'll get bitten when the skink is out visiting, always taste-bites. When an upset skink threatens to bite me, I usually just offer my hand and let it have a go. This is especially true for babies. I've found they stop trying to bite once they realize how pointless it is.

My only exception to this is is my Monkey Tail Skinks, as I've been told their bite is very painful, and Jenga, my Caramel Northern male, because I've seen the damage he can do to F/T rodents and don't want to give him the satisfaction of removing my fingers -.-' That dude is scary.
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Re: When Skinks Bite

Postby AnnaMonroe » Wed Oct 03, 2012 8:32 pm

LMAO!!! ^
Jengaaaaa!<3
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Re: When Skinks Bite

Postby Rani-May » Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:00 pm

Fatal_S wrote:When an upset skink threatens to bite me, I usually just offer my hand and let it have a go. This is especially true for babies. I've found they stop trying to bite once they realize how pointless it is.

Thats what I did with the only skink thats tried to bite me, she was wild and hurt. but i did it with a gardening glove because i was a sooky 10 year old. let her latch on for a bit then never bit me again.
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Re: When Skinks Bite

Postby Sarikazam » Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:01 pm

With my young Northern I have also been letting her bite when I get enough notice. She is kinda transparent and you can easily tell when she wants to have a little taste bite.

But lately whenever food is involved she does a mad dash over, ignores her food and completely fixates on my fingers. Seeing her fly across the terrarium generally makes me flinch my hand away but I still get bit once in a while. It doesn't hurt but it just startles me every time! :nervous:
1.0 Merauke (Bruce)
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Re: When Skinks Bite

Postby SpectralChimaera » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:22 pm

Last night I felt the full wrath of a hungry 3 month old eastern lol.

Went to pet him whi usually results in a display and some hissing and hugging, but last night he went full metal jacket opened wide and chomped my thumb, drew blood, it was like a little vice grip. It was adorable, about an hour later after he'd eaten he climbed straight out of the tank into my hand and I nearly cried since I was worried.

Moral of the story, I'm glad the bigger one is chill :D
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Re: When Skinks Bite

Postby kingofnobbys » Thu Jul 06, 2017 1:25 am

Lea wrote:
Linnea wrote:if you have broken the bone, you need to see a doctor rght away. it can get very bad with an open/cracked bone that is left untended, even inside with no skin open.


:lol: sorry, this made me laugh. Umm, any doctor of any good standing, would send you home with your tail between your legs. Aside from complete amputation :wink: not much can be done for a broken finger, except RICE. Rest,Ice, Compression (for swelling) and Elevation.

If its really giving you pain and discomfort, you'll just have to have the whole thing taken off. "

Let's just hope you can tame your skink before you end up with ten little stumpies. :wink:

But, as Richard says, the bite is usually out of fear or just investigative, to see if your worth eating.kind of like a shark bite, only not usually fatal. :nervous:



Sorry, trying so hard not to laugh, but this is a blue tongue skink site and the poster did ask for advice on taming her skink, not her finger, which would be so OT. Just be patient, hold your skink securely around the middle, palm up, fingers making a sort of clasp around the forelegs, without getting too close to the mouth. Use you other hand to help support flailing legs or close over the top of your skink, holding firmly, but not tightly. Hold him close to a solid surface, don't walk around too much in the beginning, at least, this gives too much information to process and the skink can start to wriggle out of fear because what was all close and still in his enclosure, is now far away and swinging to and from, like a roundabout.

If he's really new, allow some settling in time, a week or so. After that, just placing a hand, not too close to skink, in the enclosure, allows him to see you as just another thing, not an octupussy hand that always goes In for the grab.

Patience, patience and more patience. Use light gloves if you are worried you might drop him, should he try to bite again.

Welcome. Rest your finger, I'm sure it will heal just fine.


<<< well , that's not a nice way to respond...I flippant ridiculing answers like that only serve to put the fool who posted them in a bad light.... BTW a good surgeon can set a broken finger bone , even insert a pin in it is seriously fractured .... wont be cheap , but is better than gang green or loosing a finger .
My advise is "get thee to the hospital emergency room so your injury can be properly assessed and treated

BTS are fully capable to a very powerful bite , and if he really is angry / scared with you , they do the crocodile roll too and simply wont let go unless it suits them too.
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Re: When Skinks Bite

Postby kingofnobbys » Thu Jul 06, 2017 1:47 am

Sarikazam wrote:With my young Northern I have also been letting her bite when I get enough notice. She is kinda transparent and you can easily tell when she wants to have a little taste bite.

But lately whenever food is involved she does a mad dash over, ignores her food and completely fixates on my fingers. Seeing her fly across the terrarium generally makes me flinch my hand away but I still get bit once in a while. It doesn't hurt but it just startles me every time! :nervous:


I must be lucky, my BTS have only ever nipped me by accident when I'm handfeeding them , never followed through , but have occasionally drawn blood. Was entirely my fault every time - pay attention daddy.

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