Another rescue.

[kingofnobbys]

Fluffy post shed , get a load of how good her back looks now , and those thunder thighs .... WOW !!!

Using my thumb as a pillow / chin rest and napping after an big feed ( 32 BSFL + 8 mealworm pupae + 1 superworm ) .

The flash on my wife's old Olympus camera woke her .... " Skink trying to sleep here ...."

BEFORE :

Both eyes infected and so crusty pussy they are glued **** .

Initally suspected the poor condition of the skink was suspected due to a an encounter with a whipper-snipper nylon , injuries on back and flanks that were infected and scabs , but I noted scales were coming off , so I'm thinking it's in shed and a very infected stumpy tail (lost in fright or whipper snippered off.

 

[AHBD]

She's come a long way ! Just be careful that Fluffy doesn't get too Fluffy. I think the amount of food she eats is really pretty excessive so it's best to cut back just a bit. She's not a growing beardie ! :lol:

 

[kingofnobbys]

She's come a long way ! Just be careful that Fluffy doesn't get too Fluffy. I think the amount of food she eats is really pretty excessive so it's best to cut back just a bit. She's not a growing beardie ! :lol:

I'm monitoring her food intake closely .... is about the same as Cheakie only Cheakie gets crickets and mealworms (whole) were as Fluffy gets the meat only mostly (though she does take a whole from me sometimes too at the start when she's really hungry) .
She needs the extra protein and calcium as she is recovering from pregnancy and regenerating a tail (which will eventually be 1/3 or more of her body mass).

Compared with a bearded dragon, water skinks seem to have prodigious appetites and much faster metabolisms , is similar the bluetongues too.

 

[SHBailey]

You've done a beautiful job nursing her back to health. It's hard to believe that's the same lizard, and I'm still amazed at how fast her tail grew back.

 

[kingofnobbys]

You've done a beautiful job nursing her back to health. It's hard to believe that's the same lizard, and I'm still amazed at how fast her tail grew back.

She's surprised me too with how fast she's regenerated that tail. I'm pretty sure Lucky and Wriggles' tails took nearly 6 months to regenerate.

I'm very happy with her condition, no longer emaciated like she was and has a very solid tail base and hip area.

She's on a much healthier diet than Lucky was - all I could get into lucky were mealworm (lavae and pupae meat, he had a broken lower jaw).
And her diet is much better than Wriggles' was (she was getting mealworm lavae and pupae (meat only) & beetles the occasional cricket & softened VetaFarm and RepCal juvenile BD pellets & the occasional bit of hardboiled egg , boiled lean chicken mince and fruit & berries.

Never had the option to give Lucky and Wriggles BSFL - weren't commercially available. And never knew about GrubPie with these two skinks either - weren't available here in Australia at the time.

Never knew about VetaFarm Reptile Critta Care or HerpaBoost when I was caring for Lucky or Wriggles.

Fluffy is getting a very healthy variety of live/fresh insects (meat) in crickets, BSFL, superworms and she gets mealworm lavae and pupae as treats.

I'm hoping she'll restart eating whole live insects again soon, but I'll have to wait for her decide this is what she want as you can't force a lizard to change it's eating habits.

 

[kingofnobbys]

40 BSFL & 8 mealworm pupae today for Fluffy , held back on the superworm.

She refused a 9th pupa so I took as my cue that she was full.

Got a little thing going with Fluffy now, she when she's full she turns around and positionsn her head and mouth so I can't get to them and essentially curls up and goes to sleep for a while, so I take that as my opportunity to spend quality time with her and give her a snuggle and some petting ( stroking her head and back , and giving her snout a rub between my finger tips.

 

[SHBailey]

Maybe you can't force a lizard to change her eating habits, but said lizard can apparently train a human to feed her whatever she wants, cuddle and pet her, etc... :mrgreen:

I've got to wonder if she thinks she died and went to heaven.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Yep .... she's never had so good .... 5 Star cuisine , 5 star accommodation , and SAFE .

Fluffy polished off 50 BSFL yesterday , refused to eat any mealworm lavae or pupae meat ... too full and curled up for a snuggle.

Way she eats , her tail must be hollow LOL .... and it's mostly good stuff , not junkfood.
Ordered another 300 BSFL which I hope arrive today or tomorrow as I'll use up the last of my stock of BSFL today.

Slept last night in the in the open in corner of her 100L tub closest to me and this morning when I checked her and replaced her water she wanted out for a wee bit of quality time, put my hand in front of her and she had no hesitation in crawling onto it and then looked up at me --- cue = " I want to come out and be with you ".

 

[kingofnobbys]

Tonight , put Fluffy to bed in her 10L tub and she promptly objected and wanted to come back out and spend more time snuggling , was standing and trying to push the lid off while looking straight at me (my cue to lift the lid and present her with my open hand which she promptly crawled onto).

.... she's really into snuggles.

 

[SHBailey]

That would explain how and why her new tail is growing so fast -- it's hollow and it stretches and she's stuffing it with good high quality food. :lol:

Do you still have to cut up the BSFL for her or has she learned to eat them whole? :wink:

She obviously loves her nice warm cuddly human slave. :love5:

 

[kingofnobbys]

That would explain how and why her new tail is growing so fast -- it's hollow and it stretches and she's stuffing it with good high quality food. :lol:

Do you still have to cut up the BSFL for her or has she learned to eat them whole? :wink:

She obviously loves her nice warm cuddly human slave. :love5:

She doesn't fancy the taste of their outsides , she did eat a few I gave to her by hand , at the start and has refused to since .... very spoilt and fussy skink .... she doesn't mind the taste of their meat and juices.

I just snip the heads off the BSFL , and then squeeze out the juices of the lavae and pupae a few at a time and deposit the stuff on her lips and snout and yes, she licks it off my fingers too.
It's the superworms I cut into 2 or 3 pieces and I squeeze the meat out of the pieces which she hoovers down ..


Fresh batch of BSFL arrived today, mostly white these ones and very lively.

Bit more meat in them then dark hard shelled ones ( pupae ) , and a bit more meat too. She was full after 20 + 8 mealworm pupae.

Been very dull and cool today .... all the wild and pet skinks had a lazy day , as did Peppa.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Fluffy tonight after her dinner and ready to go to bed

 

[SHBailey]

That's one contented looking skink. :love5:

 

[kingofnobbys]

Fluffy handsurfing after diner

Napping on my chest near my neck

finally made herself comfy and cozy on my hand

.... I think she likes me

 

[CooperDragon]

I think so too. She looks so much better and happier now. Good hooman :wink: