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Fairly certain it is female, though she's still a little young for behavior sexing with my male Bluey.

She is under a year, though I am not actually sure how old she is. She is agressive towards hands only. I have handled her with the use of some leather gloves, with her hissing profusely and nipping at the gloves at least 6 to 8 times during each handling session of about 30 minutes at a time. She bites the leather gloves hard, and holds on for seconds. However, if while I am handling her, she manages to crawl up my shoulders, she changes completely, and will curiously poke her tongue out, like my domesticated Bluey does. But as soon as my hands come to pick her up from my shoulders, she hisses again, and the demon comes back out. This has been going on for nearly a month, with limited results. She refuses to be handled without nipping at least 5 or 6 times at the gloves, and it only gets worse if I try to go glove-less.
Her condition is fine. Her cage is at the proper temperature, a backing side of 100, and the cooler side that stays between 80 and 85. She eats her veggies as well as insects VERY well, and will tear into a pile of greens unlike my older finicky eater. She loves to eat off of a spoon, especially her greens and fruits, but even then she attacks the spoon like it were prey, which is something my other skink has never done. She is fed outside of her cage as a precaution, to teach her everything that comes into the cage is not food to be snapped at; but it seems nothing is working. She is a gorgeous skink, but I am not going to have any animal that will bite me.

Does anybody have any suggestions I should/could try before having to give up on this gorgeous girl?

[Sorry about the cruddy picture, it is the best my cell phone can do in this lighting.]

This baby looks the same size as mine. Mine does hiss and strike but as soon as I pick it up there are no other attempts to bite.

I am wondering if it is having trouble with its eyesight? Does it seem to have a hard time finding its food or does it run into things easily?

Just a thought. It could be that it could just take longer to get comfortable. Try giving it some applesauce when you are holding it. This may help the trust issue

Linda

After a couple of months, things are starting to improve it seems. She has a routine now, every other day she gets taken from her cage, put in a warming tank, fed, and she promptly poos. After aall three of those things are done, she becomes almost docile. She really likes to sit in a pocket when she gets to this stage, it is actually quite cute.

To answer your question, her eyesight is fine. When I originally posted this she would snap at me through the glass of her terrarium, from any side of her head, even only through her peripheral vision, so I am pretty sure her eyes are completely fine.

I think something may have happened to her tail, however, when she was younger. She still gets snippy if you touch it. There are two definative lines around her tail like she was banded by a breeder or something, but even after 3 sheds they are still there like permanent scarring.

I'm not sure about her tail touching aversion, but if she continues to get better like she has, she'll get over it soon.

Great to hear things are improving. I have a young skink as well as even though it hisses still it has never tried to bite. Food seems to be the quick way to their hearts I cannot believe the rate of growth in these guys. I got mine in October and it was about 6". It has more than doubled its size. It eats a really good diet which I am thankful for. I have other reptiles but he is my first skink.

Linda