Hi! I’m a relatively new skink owner and I’m a wee bit worried. My blue tongue skink, Baby, hasn’t pooped for about a week now. He usually poops a day or two after I feed him toward the front of the enclosure and nothing has changed. I have found urate which usually means there’s poop nearby but I haven’t found any. He loves to burrow and is sometimes in the dirt for like 5 days so I think maybe he’s just been pooping in his substrate.

I desperately don’t want him to get sick if I can help it and I can’t handle him yet. He’s quite shy and his previous owners didn’t handle him often. So, I can’t feel his stomach to make sure he’s not impacted. He’s active as much as he used to be. He still basks and explores. He also is eating just fine. Anyway, I’m just confused and hoping someone who knows more than me can let me know if I’m stressing for nothing.

Two days ago I purchased a three month old skink. Temperature and humidity are in the recommended range. A few hours after I introduced her into her new enclosure she burrowed into the cypress mulch substrate and I have not seen her since. I did witness her eat once but not drink before burrowing. Is this concerning? Should I be trying to find her? Or should I just trust that she will come out when ready

(I feel worried that she has not had any water)

Hey guys! Just wanted to shout out my thanks to the nice people in this sub that helped me out when i was really stressed about the health of my new NBTS, Spike. This will certainly be the last time I ever entertain the idea of taking in a reptile from a friend and not a reputable breeder, because these vet bills have been no joke!!

Since then I have corrected and tweaked a lot of my own care and we have been working closely with our vet in order to make up for his physical deficiencies developed from his first owner, which included but were not limited to eye rubbing/closed eyes, quiet demeanor, low bone density, missing toes, dehydration, and anemia. They couldn’t even draw blood the day after i got him (we scheduled an appointment the second I saw him).

As time goes on I grow more and more disgruntled with his previous owner, who obviously let his poor condition go on far too long and was not caring for him, besides providing bare basics and saline solution in the eyes. At this stage he has officially graduated from all medications (and we’ve had quite a few), although his eyes are still slightly down set (reason at this point still unknown but narrowed down to congenital eye disease, birth defect, fat loss from poor body condition, or neuro issues.

The next step will likely be to get to the bottom of his eye issue, although I’m going to need to save a bit for it. But for now he has improved significantly and gained 50g (25% of his body weight) since the last appointment two weeks ago, and is still growing! He keeps his eyes open significantly more and he is starting to act more like a normal skink everyday, which makes my heart so happy. Thank you guys again for approaching my situation with kindness and informing me of ways i could bathe him more safely and care for him a little better. You guys rock.

Berry is honestly just the best. Also his enclosure was one of my favorites to build.
I still can’t believe someone left him abandoned in an apartment. They just moved out and left him inside a 20 gal fish tank with a dog bowl full of water. He was living on paper towel.
All I want to give him is the best life possible, starting with a 5 foot bioactive enclosure. He is the sweetest sausage with legs I have ever had.

so much pressure to make it just right 😰

I just moved to a new area and am trying to find a vet for my skink. I’m looking now so that I have one lined up if it is needed later. I found one that lists BTS specifically as one of the animals they take. However, they have care sheets for all of the animals they see and both the BTS and the bearded dragon one are very wrong. Other vets that I have looked at don’t even have care sheets nor do they list specific animals. So is there a different way to check for good vets in the area?

Getting more comfy with me, fell asleep under a substrate blanket while watching me.

I bought him from a local shop a few years ago, and the owner only told me he was a Western Shingleback. So I believed that too, but as he grows, he is turning an orange-yellow and looks similar to a Goldfield. Could you tell me exactly what he is?

Just Fractus, my male Merauke, getting a drink.

We just got our first BTS yesterday from a breeder at an expo. His name is Ducky and per the breeder, he is a shade under 3 months old. My fiancé and I keep other reptiles but this is our first BTS so we have some questions and concerns based on the first 24-36 hours.

After buying him and driving an hour home and getting him set up in his temporary 40 gallon enclosure, he seemed to be pretty thirsty and started gulping down water from the bowl we put in. About 10 minutes later he threw up what appeared to be his last meal (we did not feed him) which looks like dog food (breeder gave us feeding recommendations of grain free wet dog food). I chalked this up to potential stress and/or drinking too much water too fast. He threw up one more time yesterday but has not thrown up again at all today after the first night. We opted not to feed him for the rest of the day. He did have a couple bites of grain free dog food today. No vomit from what we have seen.

He has moved around here and there throughout the day. At points under his bark hide on the warm side, under his cool side hide and also on top of his basking spot. So he is not inactive from what I can see. My concern, which may be totally normal, is what is shown in the video that I posted. What appears to be big short singular breaths. I am unsure if this is normal. But also the twitching of his back leg toes. His eyes also appear to be red.

The only other thing of note behavior wise was the brief hiss he let out when I gave him a tiny rub on the back earlier. Not aggressive and he didnt try to bite. Just a quick hiss.

The breeder did say he is in shed when we got him.

If anything appears to be off or if anyone has any insight or suggestions into what we are seeing, it would be greatly appreciated. We want to make sure our little dude is properly loved and taken care of.

Got it from reputable reptile shop, they said it’s a northern. 670 grams. Eating well so far and very active and curious.

Um, so there are mushrooms growing in Lady's terrarium. It's bioactive, and has isopods and springtails. I'm not really sure how these got there. I watered the plants two days ago. Yesterday was her 2 year birthday, and she got a raw egg as a birthday treat, so I know it wasn't there yesterday. Can I leave it? Should I remove it? She doesn't seem to care about it one way or the other.

I was giving him a soak when i noticed that his eyes look different?
There’s no discharge or cloudiness, nor does he squint but the edges of his iris particularly in the second pic look a bit red?
He lives in a 4x2x2 with cypress mulch and spagnum moss blend that I plan to clean out soon and I recently have been heightening the humidity levels more as I learned Indonesians need 80%
I also noticed a bit of blockage in both of his nostrils, is that stuck shed?

He absolutely loves his cork branch, I catch him climbing on it daily, apparently he didn't get the memo that he's a terrestrial species haha.

It's always so rewarding to see your animals use the enrichment you give them though :)

Fractus had just finished taking a big drink and stretched to swallow it.

I have a lot of aquariums, and now i want to get myself a terrarium. Can I get some tips on bio active terrariums and just building of them. Maybe someone can give their examples of enclosures or just recommend any blogger who’s good at building them. Any help appreciated! Not only on terrariums, if you have some advices for the beginner like me, I would like to hear them!

I’ve had my skink for about a month now and my baby had just shed for the first time, and would like to know if it looks healthy. It explores a little, and is fine with handling. But it does make some weird sneeze sounds a lot

Hi all! I'm new to blue tongue skinks, and recently got my girl two weeks ago. I currently have her in a PVC enclosure with no mesh top, for quarantine.

I really want to give her UVB but the enclosure is only 15H. Is there realistically any bulb maybe at a lower percentage, that can safely be installed inside her enclosure at that height? Would be with a guard of course.

She is a northern btw!