Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a baby blue tongued skink about 10 days ago and im about to start taming him but he is a little devil. If i get anywhere near the cage he starts up a hissing storm and lunging. Does anyone have any tips on how to tame the beast? i already bought some leather gloves just in case =)

Being a baby, instinctively they treat anything bigger than them as something that will eat them. But bluey's are great hissers and bluffers. I love how they 'hiss' by blowing through their nose...My adults would that time to time...somethings I 'hiss' back at them which has interesting results...often they stop to listen...but not that teasing them will tame thing.

I just pick up blue tongues right behidn the front legs, then slip my other hand under their bodies, to support their front and rear legs. Typically once they are in hand, they calm down...but it won't hurt to wear gloves for the first couple weeks. The important thing is stay calm and just pick them up gently. They will realize that you are not going to eat them.

If they struggle, hold them gently, but i find they don't struggle much if their feet are supported...Also, its good to try handling them when there isn't alot going on around their cage...they seem to panic more when there is alot of activity. Keep holding sessions short and whenever possible, put them down, when they are in your hand or against your chest and being calm...or at least not flailing about.

Be patient. It may take weeks or even a month or two to get them used to you.

Offering food with tongs will also help to get them to associate you with food and safety. Don't feed alot by tongs though, you don't want them to always assume you are there to feed them. Don't feed with your fingers though, they may bite them by mistake and you don't want them to associate your fingers as food either...they don't have big teeth but they do have a powerful jaw so it can pinch hard, especially if they get ahold of just flesh
-----
PHLdyPayne

Thanks a lot i will have to try all of that. ya he's starting to not hiss/attack when i walk by and say hi to him. It was really wierd the other day i had my 2 leos (riley & aiden) walking around the floor and riley wandered over to his cage and cooper was very interested in her and would walk along the side of the cage with her so i stuck my hand in the cage and i had riley in the other hand and he got right on and climbed up my arm. now im not sure if he likes her...or he wants to eat her. either way i wont give him the chance but it was really odd lol

Probably very curious and most likely trying to decide if the leopard gecko is food. Definitely a good idea not to put htem into contact with eachother. It wouldn't take long for a blue tongue to seriously hurt a leopard gecko....Blue tongues can be very social with humans but they don't particularly like other lizards...including other BTS's...which does make pairing them to breed tricky.

As they are not the easiest lizards to sex, especially when babies, its very easy to end up with two of the same sex when trying to breed. I had bought two from separate bloodlines when I bought them from a breeder, and she gave it her best shot on selecting a male and female pair...I lucked out with two males. I only knew for certain they were both males after they were fully mature and I found sperm plugs in their cages. Fortunately it was before I was going to take a chance and put them together to see if I did end up with a sexual pair. Males will attack eachother quite vigorously if put together...a male/female pair will cause the male to freeze so he gets a chance to check out the other's scent to determine if its a male or female. Two females tend to ignore each other...but if in the same cage they can be very territorial. Either way, I am glad I found sperm plugs in both their cages...not sure how fast they would have reacted to eachother if I put them out on the floor and supervised, to see what happened.
-----
PHLdyPayne