New blue tongue hiding (tried to handle too early?)

[frankie]

Hi all,

Just thought I would post an update here rather than leaving it dead in the water (nice if someone else comes by later and sees things worked).

So what I've done with my guy is leave him alone, setting cameras helped me see what he is up to when I'm not looking and turns out that's is a whole lot. He actively explores everywhere. Up and down the ramp I made him, under and over foliage and logs, just loves it

I've had the pleasure of hand feeding him worms. I've realised when he goes upstairs, there's only the one hide and no substrate so it's easy to know where he is. I just put a worm in the door of the hide and he goes crazy then I progressively give him more. I lured him all the way onto my hand and had a great handling session where he was chilled as a cucumber and literally turned back onto me rather than going into the cage.

He then spent that night and the next day staring at me from the little hide up top.

Besides this, he still hides mostly as expected and isn't quite confident to be out when people are home but still it's nice to see progress and learn how they work a little. Plus be rewarded by the little tips you guys gave me so thanks for that. Thought I'd share a little positivity around the ending of this thread.

On a side note, does anyone have any tips around interacting with your skink when you work a full time job? I want to provide/work with opportunities more to interact, but it's tough as by the time I get home he seems to be pretty much done for the day.

When I handled him, I didn't feed him that morning, rather I put the food out when I got home and I waited in the room. He actually appeared (wow!) And I was able to initiate things from there. Is this something that anyone else does often? I've been thinking it's ok to do sometimes but maybe not all the time (keep a routine for the little guy so he can eat and thermoregulate properly in the day). Or how else do you lure your skinks out?

Cheers,

Frankie

[rixusaku]

That sounds like really great news! Good to hear that the two of you are getting along well. :D

What I personally do, to answer your question at the end there, is I try to feed my bluey his meals around 2 hours after the lamp turns on, which I've personally scheduled to turn on at 8am for me. This is because I've read that they have slow digestion and heat helps them digest their food better. If I fed him later in the day, closer to the evening, he wouldn't have access to enough heat to help him digest. I don't know if there are any repercussions to feeding them later in the day every feeding, and if there are I'm not sure if they're minor or not, so I can't really elaborate more than I already have. I usually just go with the recommended feeding times which was the 2 hours after the heat turns on. I then leave him be in his tank for his feeding day, since I can feed mine less than you need to feed yours for the moment, so I don't really handle him for his feeding days. This is just a personal preference though, I'm not sure what anyone else does.

That being said, I'm fortunate enough to be able to work from home so I don't necessarily have scheduling issues with that, but you can try feeding your bluey before you head to work each day if that's reasonable and that should be adequate time to allow you to handle them when you get home. You could even prepare the food the night before if you need to, leave it in the fridge in a ziplock or sealable container if it needs to, and either let it sit out in the morning to reach room temperature or microwave it for about 3-5 or 5-10 seconds. About 5 seconds works for me for about 1 tablespoon worth of food when I have to put the food in the fridge. I wouldn't heat it in the ziplock though if you store it that way unless the ziplocks you buy can be microwaved.

I don't think it will hurt your bluey if you do it the way you described sometimes though. They just might have a slower digestion rate for that feeding. As long as you're not doing it every time I think you should be okay. I don't think they're that delicate of a species, lol! I do know that they're sturdy enough lizards where adults can easily go an entire 2-3 weeks easily without eating, although I personally don't plan on skipping meals unless it's vet/medically recommended. I also read that they can go 3 months without eating if they're in brumation.

Source Credit - How long can they go without eating

[frankie]

Yeah unfortunately all the handling is up to him at the moment! Can't really handle when I want to as I can only really initiate it when he's out

If I put food in the morning then he won't eat it until mid day earliest so he does a good job of avoiding me there. Maybe if I push the hours his light comes on a few over a period of time then I can align it better with feeding him when I get home. At the moment I'm trying to do one day home a week or something so I can be around a bit more

I'll do what I do currently, occasionally feed him when I get home instead of in that day when I want to try bond more

[Terreos]

Sounds like you’re having good progress atleast. I only just got my BTS yesterday. It was born back in June last year so it’s a good bit older than yours. They were very huffy when I took them out of the bag. They explored for a good half hour and they burrowed under a piece of tile I have in there for a basking spot. They must’ve stayed there for the rest of the day because I did not see them for the rest of the day.

Woke up this morning and didn’t see any new signs of them moving so I put some food in there for them to find and left it alone for a few hours. Came back and they definitely took some bites of food. I took the remaining food out as I had to go to work and they poked their head out. I watched for a good half hour and they were out and about. They’re still very skittish as I raised my hand to scratch myself and they jumped. So definitely have to be slow around them for now.

But thankfully there seems to be enough places for them to hide as I’ve read if they feel exposed they will not be out a lot. Still think I want more fake plants for my setup, but I’m gonna wait as I don’t want to be changing the cage all the time while they’re still getting used to their new home.

Probably if I see them not running from me as I move around I’m going to try just sitting next to the cage and maybe putting my hand in the enclosure. Not trying to touch them, but just try to show them I’m not gonna grab them and eat them. Hopefully if that works they will come to me and check me out.

[pongpaeng]

My way, I connect with my Skink by food lol my skink is very huffy sometimes. It usually hides in the log or stays at the back of enclosure, doesn't want to be seen. It will show up and crawl to me when hungry XD I get it out from enclosure for feeding because I don't want it to spill the food on the substrate, personal opinion btw.

[Terreos]

My way, I connect with my Skink by food lol my skink is very huffy sometimes. It usually hides in the log or stays at the back of enclosure, doesn't want to be seen. It will show up and crawl to me when hungry XD I get it out from enclosure for feeding because I don't want it to spill the food on the substrate, personal opinion btw.

So long as I sit still mine will come out and walk around. Even come up the front and look at me. But when ever I get up to leave they back into on of their hides. I just got some snails in so I’m gonna see if I can get them to come out when I’m inside the cage.