New little guy!

[riddick07]

I found this little guy today at the Reptile show! I wanted one from the last show two months ago but no one had any. He, or she, is a Halmahera Blue Tongue Skink.

On the car ride home he is so tiny right now!

I was going to pick him up food tomorrow but he drank so much when he got home I figured he was probably pretty hungry, so I ran out to petsmart. He was labeled as a cbb but I knew that was highly unlikely. He is probably a farmed baby (wild mother).

Basking after pigging out. This is only his temp setup until I get a fecal done to check for parasites. If he has to be treated he will be on bare minimum for awhile. I plan on doing a topsoil, moss and coco husk mixture for him since his locality requires a minimum of 80% humidity.

 

[Owlet]

What a cute baby! I love reptiles they're so fascinating and beautiful.

 

[riddick07]

What a cute baby! I love reptiles they're so fascinating and beautiful.

Right! Wish they stayed that small and cute

 

[Kiwibird]

What a great looking skink! They are so cool looking with their shiny scales.

Got to ask- what the hell is he eating? Never fed anything that looks like that to any of my reptiles/amphibians.

 

[riddick07]

What a great looking skink! They are so cool looking with their shiny scales.

Got to ask- what the hell is he eating? Never fed anything that looks like that to any of my reptiles/amphibians.

Thanks!

Grain Free canned cat food. When he is older he will get grain free canned dog food. A healthy stable diet for Blue Tongue Skinks and a lot of large monitors/tegus do very well on it too. But you need to get the quality stuff not just the first one you see. I think I spent 15 minutes just staring at various cans in one section haha. He will also sometimes get cooked meats, egg, small amounts of veggie/green/fruit, and snails added in occasionally.

 

[Kiwibird]

What a great looking skink! They are so cool looking with their shiny scales.

Got to ask- what the hell is he eating? Never fed anything that looks like that to any of my reptiles/amphibians.

Thanks!

Grain Free canned cat food. When he is older he will get grain free canned dog food. A healthy stable diet for Blue Tongue Skinks and a lot of large monitors/tegus do very well on it too. But you need to get the quality stuff not just the first one you see. I think I spent 15 minutes just staring at various cans in one section haha. He will also sometimes get cooked meats, egg, small amounts of veggie/green/fruit, and snails added in occasionally.

This is interesting. So are skinks carnivores rather than insectivores then? My only "experience" with them is a wild one who lived for years outside my parents house. It was out recently in the summers but I never saw it eat. I always assumed it stuck around because it liked the big bugs that hung around in all the plants outside I also fed to my leopard gecko during the summer.

 

[riddick07]

This is interesting. So are skinks carnivores rather than insectivores then? My only "experience" with them is a wild one who lived for years outside my parents house. It was out recently in the summers but I never saw it eat. I always assumed it stuck around because it liked the big bugs that hung around in all the plants outside I also fed to my leopard gecko during the summer.

BTS, not sure on other skinks, are considered omnivores but with a heavy slant towards meat/insects based on the wild ones that were cut open or what people have observed of their behaviors. They will eat plant and fruit when the opportunity arises. Apparently they love rotten fruit with all the worms inside haha. I’ll probably offer worms still too. But they will eat dead animals in the wild, roadkill, snails, slugs, small amphibians if they can find any, insects and they have been found with feces in their stomach. When offered too much plant, veggies, and fruit when young their scales don’t develop correctly, which is why a lot feed the cat food when younger since dog food usually has a decent amount of veggies mixed in. When people try to develop their own food plan instead they often end up with skinks not developing correctly when it comes to bone structure.

There are cases of people with 30 year old skinks that have only eaten cat/dog food as a staple their whole lives. A proven diet that works well and makes sense when you take into account the wild diets.

 

[riddick07]

Gave up on waiting to do the fecal until giving him moss/cocohusk. Forgot how much I hate tanks and keeping humidity up...remembering why I don’t use them!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Reminds me of my darling Rickeybird!
Thank you for sharing!

 

[Amadeo]

He's a pretty one. Those colours and the way the scales shine is beautiful.
Reptiles are fantastic. I've had a corn snake before and while some people are disgusted at the feeling of scales I've always quite enjoyed the soft smooth feeling.
These are some really nice photos. ^^

 

[wrench13]

As a point of interest , my bother and I are responsible for pushing the range of the 5 lined skink further north and west, as we fond one when we were 'snakin' in upstate NY. We turned it into the nearest ranger station, and later found out the above. See that lil bump extending up and out? That's us.

https://srelherp.uga.edu/lizards/maps/eumfas2.gif

 

[riddick07]

As a point of interest , my bother and I are responsible for pushing the range of the 5 lined skink further north and west, as we fond one when we were 'snakin' in upstate NY. We turned it into the nearest ranger station, and later found out the above. See that lil bump extending up and out? That's us.

https://srelherp.uga.edu/lizards/maps/eumfas2.gif

Those are what my one snake eats haha. I buy the ones labeled as African ones but I don’t think she would care about which ones she was given. I’m out of them again....catch a bunch and send them over lol

 

[riddick07]

Messy face!

And another new arrangement for him. The coco husk and moss wasn’t getting enough humidity then the springtails popped up. I ended up dumping everything nixing it for a few days and putting plain old dirt mixed with coco husk this time. 85-89% humidity during the day and 100% at night. Working a lot better than the other mix! He already had his first shed and looks bigger