squeaky skink. Is this normal?

[Sophi]

Hi everyone!

After much searching for many months I have managed to obtain a baby blue tongue skink. He is great. Still small enough to hold with one hand.

He makes a lot of noise though. Is this normal? He sounds almost like he squeaks. It's a very soft sound, like a quick exhaling if air from the nostrils. He does it quite a bit. He starts to do it faster when you go to pick him up, or he gets startled by something. Is this just a reaction to being nervous in his new surroundings?
I've never had a lizard that made any noise before.

He doesn't seem to have trouble breathing and there is no discharge from his mouth or nostrils and he doesn't seem to be in any discomfort, just nervous.

He's already eaten and gone to the bathroom since we've brought him home.

[Zoo Nanny]

Blue tongues exhaled forcefully when they feel threatened.
Depending on his substrate he could be reacting to any dust with it. I found aspen to be dusty and would cause some respiratory irritation with sneezing and some wheezing. There are some others too that will cause issues for them, mainly if they are dusty. Congratulations on the new little guy.
Be very careful what vet you take him to. There are not too many in Ma that have experience with them.

[jjhill001]

What substrate is he on?

[Sophi]

Originally Posted by jjhill001

What substrate is he on?

I've got him/her on shredded aspen, but I have chipped aspen that I use for my snake that I could use as well. I also have some rats who I use carefresh for and heard that some people keep their skinks on that.

I want something he'd be able to borrow in, but I don't want anything that could harm him. He was doing the huffing and puffing as soon as he came home and he was only at the store less than a day before we picked him up. (I had my number at the reptile local reptile shop for at least a month for when a baby came in so I snatched him up real fast.) so I'm sure he's really stressed out From the trtraveling.

He did eat and go to the bathroom the first night we brought him home, quite a horrible smelling poop though.

We've left him alone for the day to give him a chance to chill out a bit.

[Sophi]

When I went to check in him this morning he was hidden in his bedding and gave me a few angry huffs so I think he's just scared.

[Zoo Nanny]

The bedding I found that wasn't too bad and he seemed to do better in was Zoo Meds Forest Floor. It's not as dry as the others and easily burrowed through. It's also easy to clean. I gave about a 5 - 6 thick layer so plenty of room to move about in.
Forest Floor mixed with Repti-Bark works very well too.

[Sophi]

Originally Posted by Zoo Nanny

The bedding I found that wasn't too bad and he seemed to do better in was Zoo Meds Forest Floor. It's not as dry as the others and easily burrowed through. It's also easy to clean. I gave about a 5 - 6 thick layer so plenty of room to move about in.
Forest Floor mixed with Repti-Bark works very well too.

Thanks, I will look into this. Right now he has spent most of his time here completly hidden in his bedding. Although I took him out a bit last night and the huffing seemed a little less frequent. He huffs less when he starts to calm down so I definitely think it's a response to fear or being upset.

He's eaten both days so far but I havnt seen him drink anything yet. I've been making him chow with premium organic chicken dog food, calcium powder, bananas, chard and dandelion greens. He's also eaten half a strawberry. He's also pooped twice. The first time was almost liquid and super awful smelling, the second one was still runny but a little more solid. Not what I was expecting. No urate like other lizards I've kept.

I know they will pretty much eat anything but meat and protein sources suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm a vegan and grew up vegetarian and have never bought or cooked meat at all.. So this is super new. I've been going with high quality dog food since that's what the store said they feed their skinks but I know dog food is like the worst left overs from the meat industry and I want to make sure he's eatingthings that would be good for him.

[Sophi]

Update:

His huffyness has lessened a lot. He's been doing a lot of digging and a lot of sleeping. Ill try to post some pictures of him tomorrow, because I'm very curious what type of blue tounge skink he is. The adults they had at the shop he came from were listed as irian jaya blue tongue skink, but he looks a lot like a eastern to m?

Although I'm going completely off of skinks I have seen on the Internet, As I've met very few of them in person.

[Zoo Nanny]

I found the easiest and safest meat source to be organic baby food chicken. I don't trust dog foods as they are always putting some extra grains and stuff in them.
They do love to burrow. Once they are older they will burrow down for days on end.
For water a very large ceramic dog dish is great to use. They can't tip them over and are large enough for them to bathe in. I learned the hard way using large reptile dishes. They are just not heavy enough and can be tipped over easily from underneath resulting in a full substrate change.
There was talk about some easterns and northerns that were smuggled out of Australia some years back and both sold and used for breeding in New Guinea.

[Sophi]

Hey

Originally Posted by Zoo Nanny

I found the easiest and safest meat source to be organic baby food chicken. I don't trust dog foods as they are always putting some extra grains and stuff in them.
They do love to burrow. Once they are older they will burrow down for days on end.
For water a very large ceramic dog dish is great to use. They can't tip them over and are large enough for them to bathe in. I learned the hard way using large reptile dishes. They are just not heavy enough and can be tipped over easily from underneath resulting in a full substrate change.
There was talk about some easterns and northerns that were smuggled out of Australia some years back and both sold and used for breeding in New Guinea.

The baby food is a great idea! I've been mixing everything together to trick him into eating greens so this makes its easier. I was trying to buy all this fancy expensive dog food but I really don't trust it, even if it is all organic. I just don't think It a good quality food. So far he likes raw egg, banana and wax worms the best but I'm trying to broaden his food interests. I don't think he was on the best diet when I got him, his poop has been liquidy and real bad smelling the first few times, but it's starting to look a little more normal.

He's still spending most of his time in hiding but we have him a sock and a blanket he has been hiding in and under. He crawls right into the sock, turns around like a little sleeping bag and will stay there for hours...

Here he is, BTW, he's still small enough to hold in one hand of your hand is big enough.

[Zoo Nanny]

Why do you think he's Eastern? Most Easterns have a dark band from their eyes going back towards the shoulder. I think he looks to be one of the Indonesians

[Sophi]

Originally Posted by Zoo Nanny

Why do you think he's Eastern? Most Easterns have a dark band from their eyes going back towards the shoulder. I think he looks to be one of the Indonesians

Only from looking at pictures online, I read that easterns have wide crevasses between the scales in their heads. But I've only ever seen three blue tongues in person including this one. He's also got quite a pink belly, I don't know if that means anything? Whatever he is, he's getting a lot friendlier.

[pinefamily]

Almost definitely not an eastern. We have a young eastern ourselves, as well as the wild ones we get in our back yard.

[Sophi]

Originally Posted by pinefamily

Almost definitely not an eastern. We have a young eastern ourselves, as well as the wild ones we get in our back yard.

Thanks! I wish I knew what he was, I would have asked but when he came in I was at work and had my boyfriend pick him up from the shop. I know the adults they had were listed as irian jaya blue tounges The last time they were there.

I'm also curious How old he is.

[pinefamily]

Can't be more precise than to say it's a juvenile, around 1 year old. But the more I look at the photos, the more I am sure it's not an eastern.