BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello everybody! I was just wondering, Ringo frequently rubs his head on the glass of his tank. He faces the frontward and goes left to right, over and over again! Like he is trying to get somthing off his face, I checked, there is nothing really there!

Also, there are these little, teeny, tiny bugs that crawl on his basking rock, but not on him? They are extremely tiny and don't appear to have wings...

Are the two connected? He doesn't have any bugcs on him, and seems to be quite happy. Comments greatly appreciated!!!

Yikes, possible to get pics of said tiny bugs? What colour are they? Are his scales "lifted"? I'm hoping you don't have mites.
As for the back and forth thing, maybe your skink is seeing his reflection in the glass?

What sort of substrate are you using? The mites couldn't have come from us, so they're either bugs from the substrate or just little bugs that flew in there...

Zach, I know it's not from you, and I use Carefresh, and he has no lifted scales... One more thing, I have a hamster in my room aswell, might be were the bugs are from. (He gave me the "evil stare" when I checked out his scales ) I am pretty sure they are not mites, they are extremely small. I also could not get a pic. Anything?

Maybe bugs that flew in randomly, there are not alot of them....

are they as small as this period - . ?

Mites, as I understand it, are really small, like a period.

I get bugs periodically that come in to the tanks to pick at the leftover food. They are elongated...insects not arachnids and therefore not mites, but the first time I saw them, I freaked out.

I mostly notice them on the basking rock because that is where I feed my blueys, but a careful inspection yields a few elsewhere in the tank as well. They come and go and never get on the skinks, so I've stopped trying to get rid of them. I haven't seen any in a few months though.

I think your skink is too dull to realise he cant get through the glass, hence the head swinging against it. The little insects could be spider mites, is the basking rock new and where did you get it from?

They are only on the basking rock, which I got while first setting up the tank for Ringo in June-July-ish.

my blue rubs his face on the glass after eating maybe he is irritated by something.

bluecheezytree wrote:They are only on the basking rock, which I got while first setting up the tank for Ringo in June-July-ish.

Remove it ,pour boiling water over it, then srub with soap and water, rinse well and replace, should be ok then.

Brigget wrote:my blue rubs his face on the glass after eating maybe he is irritated by something.

No, that's totally normal...just wiping the food off their faces....


Ariel -- sounds like it's probably not mites....hmm. Just keep an eye on them for now would be my advice....