r/bluetongueskinks

Hi friends, I need name ideas for my new little friend. Gender neutral preferred but not opposed to other options! (In quarantine tank rn cause I literally just brought him home this weekend).

This is Fishlegs, an eastern. Sometimes, when she's getting settled down and comfortable, she takes some big breaths and puffs right up. I only caught the end of it on video. She's on a heat mat which is under multiple cloth layers to dilute the heat.

The first time this happened I was worried about an RI, but she didn't have any symptoms. She doesn't leave her mouth open, froth, or have crackles. It's not a persisten thing, just a few breaths, puffing up, some wiggling, and settled. Not lethargic, behaving normal. It's happened multiple times on different occasions. If I pick her up, she simply deflates, seems fine except a mild huff of discontent.

Does anyone have any idea what she's doing here? Anyone elses skink do this, is this normal behavior? Some kind of vertical splooting?

Hey,

Went to my own vet and made an X-ray. Which showed she had severe MBD and the arm on the left was broken. She said the option was either to try and fix the leg at a specialist and then try to fix the MBD with force feeding or to euthanize. Quality of life is not promised with the first option and the MBD had progressed pretty far.

Honestly don’t know what else to say, I don’t know how I could’ve missed this. I always give her calcium, have UVB etc. Just wanted to vent and ask opinions on this. Sorry if this isn’t what the sub is for.

Edit: pretty wrecked about this but honestly if she’s in pain I don’t wanna prolong that. But if there’s a chance at recovery I would rather do that. Any advice?

Thank you guys

It was the tiny hole between the wall and the corner of the mattress, this time. It’s always within the few seconds I look away from her.

Just Fractus, my male Merauke, getting a drink.

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

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.

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?

so much pressure to make it just right 😰

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?

Got it from reputable reptile shop for $425, they said it was a northern and it looks northern, but I’m new to blue tongues, also guessing male and he’s very chill and curious.

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.

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.