Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tiliqua gigas gigas (Indo BTS) just passed away. Unknown cause of death. Maybe u can help. She seemed to be okay a few days after purchase. she was a WC, around 1 or 2 years old. Her apetite was quite okay, until a few days when she shuned her mealworms. i noticed she ignored crickets (while my subadult male attacks them vigorously). The area around her tights were quite skinny (no fats) and she had a plate like thing (possibly a bone) close to the base of her tail (i also noticed this on my male BTS, but he seems quite fat/ carying sufficient weight, yet he havent been deffecating this past 2 or 3 days since he didn't get to bask on natural sunlight (i live in Indo and its the warm/ summer season now but no sun for past 2 days) until i bathe him in lukewarm water, and when he struggeled on my hand, he deffecated as a deffence?). Next day i found her dead inside her hidebox made from a large cake container from cardboard. I keep her and my other male individualy on an open top pen made from fiberglass, 40" long, 20" high, and, 32" wide (100 . 50 . 80), humidity is moderate. There doesn't seem to be a herp vet here in Indo, and i'm still 14, so i have to learn most simptoms myself.

I'm sorry to hear that!
How long have you had her for? From what you wrote it sounds like you haven't had her for very long and if that is the case, I would take her back to where you got her from.

My guess would be that because she was WC, she was probably just stressed. I don't really know much about the Indonesian species though but if you go here www.bluetongueskinks.net someone might be able to help you.

I had her for about 3 weeks . She had an unusual shaped head, and her face was almost as red as her belly. Now she rest in the front yard close to my reptile room.

another curious thing. From what i read, gigas gigas grows only till they are 45.7 cm, yet this females a whopping 60 cm.

The memories i've had with her is rather funny. I keep a dog wich seemed interested at her. when i go home from school, he expects me to go to my reptile room. And when he sees her, he will bark at her and actually shiver. I dont let him touch her (For safety reasons obviously)

Wow, 60cm is big! Did you get any photos of her?

If you've only had her for three weeks I'd say it would probably have something to do with her being wild caught or the way she was looked after before you got her. I would take her back to the store.

What were you feeding her besides crickets and mealworms? Did she live inside or outside?

P.S : I keep my BTS on wood shavings, but when i feed them crickets, i put the BTS and the crickets in a small pen that i can bring outside on warm sunny days (or downright hot days). The one that died ignored crix but loved/ didnt mind to be in shallow water. The male is just the opposite, loves crix and hates to bathe.

Sounds like your skink had a paristie, which is common in WC animals, especially if they were emported in large quanities and were left without water for a long time. They can appear healthy, but the bathing in water is a classic sign that something is interanlly wrong.

I'd probably also lay off the mealworms because of the probabilty of gut impaction from the exoskeleton and start feeding veggies/catfoods.