Blue Tongue Skink (In URGENT need of advice)

To start out I know this isn’t a topic about Bearded dragons but I needed people to notice because I need help. So I want to reptile Expo on the seventh and I got an Halmahera blue tongue. And she was rather friendly and social at the expo. So since I’ve been looking for one of these skinks for ages I fell in love and decided to take her home. But now she hisses at me constantly and won’t eat. I’ve tried every food in the book and she just ignores it and tries to hide me. Now I know that she’s new but how long do you think this behavior will continue because I’m starting to worry I don’t like it when my animals don’t eat or drink or socialize. Thanks in advance for any info it’s greatly appreciated.

Just give her time to get used to her enclosure, my BTS took about a month or so to get used to her enclosure.. and currently on month 9 of owning her (I got her when she was 3 months old) and she's completely terrified of me so I rarely handle her as it causes way too much stress.

However I'm sure yours will eventually warm up to you just let her settle in and keep offering food and water.

Depends on the skinks past.

Wild caught BTs from Indonesia will have been traumatized by being captured and then (illegally) trafficked under horrible conditions (stuffed in socks or worse in luggage loaded onto planes).

A captive bred skink will not have learnt to fear people and is likely to be more curious and fascinated about it's new keeper/carer than scared and so it is more likely be "friendly" from the getgo. Both my easterns were captive bred and actually chose me when I was looking at the brood of siblings , crawled over in the tub and wanted to cheak me out, I took this as good indicator and chose the two who were curious rather than scared / shy of me , and never looked back , George and Mildred were snugglers and very tame and friendly from the get go and have never hissed at me or anyone or bitten anyone (except by accident when being hand fed).

Skinks form very strong bonds with their keepers. She's likely upset.

If you BT is scared of you, you need to take things slowly and let it decide in it's own time when it's ready to interact with you and have physical contact with you. It has to learn to trust you , had feeding or offering food treats is always a good way of getting a skink to trust you, it might take a several weeks, but eventually the skink will learn you to food giver and will trust you enough to take food from your hands and let you pet it.

Thank you so much for the much needed advice. One more thing, the breeder that had her before me was feeding her raw. I tried cooked with her but she only accepts raw meat. Is that okay for her? Is there any health problems that could come with it or is that fine? Thanks in advance

Babybeardie3":shnzj354 said:

Thank you so much for the much needed advice. One more thing, the breeder that had her before me was feeding her raw. I tried cooked with her but she only accepts raw meat. Is that okay for her? Is there any health problems that could come with it or is that fine? Thanks in advance

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Raw chicken mince (?) is not recommended.

I know a lot of BT keepers say mince type dog (and cat) food is OK, but I do not agree with this , and my vet also advised against it.
I've seen wild bluetongues skinks who are opportunistic and if hungry enough can be very brazen and literally scare a dog away to steal it's pellets or mince style food , or wait for a cat to wonder off and raid it's food bowl.
Wrong types of proteins and fats ==> risking developing fatty liver desease . Wild skinks also eat other smaller reptiles and insects so it balances out for them.

The Complete Critter Bluetongue Skink food triangle is your best guide https://www.completecritter.com/blue-tongue-skink.html. I'd be weening the skink off the stuff onto more appropriate proteins.

This probably doesn’t make it better but the raw meat I’m feeding her is 85% lean ground turkey. Sorry I didn’t clarify.

Babybeardie3":2iadpanc said:

This probably doesn’t make it better but the raw meat I’m feeding her is 85% lean ground turkey. Sorry I didn’t clarify.

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Try breaking off small meal sized portions and boiling it (just in tap water as needed).

Ok thanks. I lied I actually have a couple more questions...sorry. So for substrate what kind should I use? Right now I have a mix of eco earth and cypress mulch. As for the boiled meat you mentioned, I’ve tried that before and she hated it more than skillet cooked. So really I’m just going to try dog or cat food and snails. Any suggestions?

Babybeardie3":1ycohq4y said:

Ok thanks. I lied I actually have a couple more questions...sorry. So for substrate what kind should I use? Right now I have a mix of eco earth and cypress mulch. As for the boiled meat you mentioned, I’ve tried that before and she hated it more than skillet cooked. So really I’m just going to try dog or cat food and snails. Any suggestions?

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They (skinks and dragons) have preferred tastes .... I guess if you give her skillet cooked mince dry fried or done in a few drops of olive oil or sunflower oil , it wont harm her so long as it's very lean mince and not frequent.
Have you offered her some hardboiled egg ? .... my skinks all LOVE it , especially the yoke.
If it was safe for me let my BTs roam about outside , I'd treat them to a whole raw egg occasionally too .

I don't give dog or cat food to any of my skinks (ever). They get insects or boiled chicken mince or hardboiled egg for their protein. Another option is Repashi GrubPie (is quite suitable to use as a staple in situations where you can't get live insects).

I always have silkworms on hand (I harvest the eggs and hatch my own) , as well as medium to large crickets , these two are my lizard staples for all my dragons and skinks , and for the water skinks it's 1/3 - 2/3 size crickets & mealworm lavae, pupae and beetles & BSFL (and pupae and flies) , and the big guys BTs and beardies and adult water skinks get superworms occasionally as treats.

And I give all the occasional hard boiled egg and the BTs get gourmet table snails (live) as treats.... yep my pet lizards are spoilt .



I use a mix of course grade Kritter's Krumble and a mix of green and dry gum tree leaf litter and bark and twigs (I collect off my front lawn and paths) for my easterns' BTs.
A bag of the Krumble does 2 big vivs .