Bones is gaining weight and what seems like a lot

[taniya91]

Ok so I just posted on here a few weeks ago and asked what you thought bones was (boy or girl) the general consensus was that he/she was a girl ...I've been noticing the past few weeks that bones feels heavier and looks wider every time I get her out for playtime or bath time....

Bones now looks almost twice as wide as she did when I got her in September and is twice as wide as skully my northern who by the vets standards is in perfect health/weight.

Bones hasn't seen the vet yet since she hasnt had any problems (skully bit a chunk of her tongue off and needed a vet visit)


I don't know anything about bones really just that she is a IJ possible IJ merauke mix

I don't even know if her previous owners had another skink

Basically what I'm getting at here is ...
Could bones be pregnant?!?!?!?
I'm not prepared for baby blueys and I have no idea what I'd do
Also how long is gestation?
Should I take her to the vet?

She is just so fat and I've actually cut their meals from every other day to twice a week because they weren't eating all their food and I think they were trying to burmate

Losing my mind here HELP

[Richard.C]

Do u have a pic of her?

Possably just fat,they like to build up fat reserves in the lead up to brumation,but anythings possible

[Linnea]

Pictures are best to make sure.

if bones is almost adult, then feeding twice a week is very normal, i feed my adult skink every 4 days. as richard said, they are great at storing extra weight before brumation.

[taniya91]

Oh bones is an adult. All of my blueys are...I was feeding them every other day because they'd always act like they were starving and eat every bit of food I gave them but when they stopped eating it all I cut back to twice a week instead of the 4 times a week I was feeding them. But bones started gaining weight after I cut their feedings back.... I do have pics of her but my computer is being worked on so I can't post any right now

Neither of my other blueys gained weight or at least not a noticeable amount

[Linnea]

giving an adult bluey food whenever it wants will result in an obese bluey, since they are always hungry, and always eat as if their life depended on it

since you have cut the meals already there is no need to cut more, especially if bones may be pregnant and all other skinks are fine.

pictures will help a lot when you are able to upload them, at least bones is feeling well for now
if bones is pregnant, then i suggest getting cheap plastic tubs, with light bulbs put at safe distance, cheap homemade hides and your bluey will do the rest, not much more you can do when its unplanned like this.

let the other skink owners get back to you on the "how to handle skink pregnancy" information. i just know how to prepare cheap basic space for them D:

[taniya91]

Well see that's the thing I've been confused about bones since I got her....she didn't eat for almost 3 weeks when I first got her and I attributed to stress because she started eating like a champ and the forums frequently asked questions thing said they may not eat for a while ...so bones was only on the 4-day a week feeding schedule for a week and she has been on the 2-day a week schedule since so I don't think she is obese from eating to much/often but I don't really know.
Skully was my piggy who cleared her bowl every feeding and she is half the size of bones!!! But they are about the same age.

I'll post a picture of skully and bones close to each other to show their difference in size once I get my computer back....


Until I figure all this out and can get pics up is there anything I can do as precaution? Like give her extra vitamins/calcium, certain foods? Anything?

[Linnea]

exactly how many weeks have you had Bones?

3 weeks not eating
1 week with extra feeding, this really shouldnt affect her weight at all.

how many weeks more?

[taniya91]

I've had bones for approximately 9 weeks

[taniya91]

I found bones's previous owners email and asked if bones had been around any other skinks and they said no so the possibility of pregnancy is absent I suppose but I'm still concerned about the weight bones has put on

[taniya91]

well even though i dont think bones is pregnant im still going to post some pictures.... the very last picture is the week i got bones the first 3 i just took about 20mins ago

[taniya91]

oh and here is a pic of bones belly... this is why i think bones is a merauke IJ mix ...everyone has said she looks like an IJ but i didnt think IJs had red/orange bellies

[taniya91]

sorry if im annoying anyone lol but i also wanted to include some zoomed in pictures of bones scales....they look weird!!! they look NOTHING like my northern's scales they actually look like sea shells and they aren't as smooth as my northern's scales either

[Spindown]

Look fine to me, lovely macros!

[Rani-May]

Beautiful, pretty belly colour and great super close scale shots. Very nice

[Cathy20]

My IJ Wyatt sometimes gets a reddish/orangish color to his belly and I think on the IJ page on the main site it shows pics of red-bellied IJ's so IMO Bones is an IJ if the reddish/orangish belly is the deciding factor. Hope I helped

[taniya91]

well then ill take it that bones is perfectly normal just a bit fat then

[Richard.C]

Does look portly,can see why u questioned if gravid,has filled out well quickly,nice looking bluey and never need to apoligise for pics,the more the merrier

[taniya91]

quickly is an understatement haha
i didn't expect Bones to grow much let alone that much that fast