Absolute beginner here. I will be purchasing a northern bts hopefully this summer, and have been researching every aspect of care… but I haven’t heard/read anything about what AGE of skink is better to get for a novice. Would an adult that’s already tame and eating well be better? Or would it be harder to readjust that animal to a new home/person, as opposed to a hatchling that hasn’t become as accustomed to a certain routine and environment?
My mind can’t help but go to mammals, where the adults are usually MUCH easier to handle than babies that could benefit from a more knowledgeable handler. Is it a lot different with reptiles? Most of all, I want to do what’s best for the skink, and not buy an animal that needs a more experienced owner.
Generally I advocate for younger animals. As you note, it is usually easier for a younger animal to acclimate to your conditions than an older animal established somewhere else. Younger animals also do not tend to be set in their ways so you can, for example, tailor the diet of the animal to what you have available near you versus getting an animal that is on a specific diet and will not eat anything else and you have difficulty acquiring that food
It depends. Younger does not matter if you do not socialize or properly stimulate the baby skink. The Experience plays a part in addition to previous owner husbandry, however, there are plenty of viedoes out there that can level up your keeping skilz. It does not take long to tame them if you work with them. Just keep your fingers tucked away and dont give them any loose skin/edges to grab on. Babies bite but it just startles you more than hurt. Adults latch and try to twist and require proper handling.
Some of your posts are pretty knowledgeable…
I just don’t understand why you’re necroposting and digging up such old threads to comment on. This post is over a year old. Some of the posts I’ve seen you pop up are well over a year old.
@adon87 I’m not a mod so take this with a grain of salt…
It just brings posts that are no longer current to the top of the unread queue. In some cases, sure you may get a couple of hits back… But for others it’s old news and just feels like bad forum etiquette.
On some threads like general “show is your animals!” It’s fine.
On a post like this, chances are they now already made a purchase a while ago. They may not even be active on the forum anymore.
On a post about a particular animal’s health, it’s already been healed a long time now.
What I personally do in cases like this, if I feel I need to make a post about something similar, is refer to that post as a link in a new thread. It can still let people see the old post if they’d like, but leaves it down in the queue.
Since it’s getting off topic, that’s the last I’ll say on it for now though. I do hope to see some fresh threads from you soon though.
