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Hmmm. 6 weeks until we go away for our summer/winter holidays, and I still need to find someone to look after this dude.

Blue tongue skinks are super convenient pets if you're going away for up to about two weeks or so. Adults can comfortably go that long without eating so with heating and lighting on a thermostat and timers, a reservoir of drinking water, and (in summer) aircon left on in the room to avoid overheating he is absolutely fine being left home alone. Longer than that, though, and it can get a bit tricky.

Unlike more common pets like dogs and cats there are no commercial kennels/pet sitters for scaly sausages. Also his enclosure is big, heavy, and fragile, so moving it to a volunteer pet sitter's home is not really practical. So, either I need someone willing to come to my house once a week to give him food and fresh water, or I need to improvise a portable temporary enclosure.

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Photo of an Eastern Blue Tongue skink inside a lizard enclosure, lying on a plastic ramp. One of his front legs is casually hanging down over the side of the ramp.
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Anthony Horton
I have, previously, improvised a portable enclosure out of a plastic storage tub. That was when he was smaller, though. If If were to do that again now I'd want something like a 400 litre tub, with a lid. His normal enclosure is 1.2 x 0.6 x 0.6 metres, and anything much smaller than that would be both a bit cramped and make it difficult to maintain a suitable temperature gradient.
Anthony Horton
Something like this would work, with the optional lid. I'd need to drill a bunch of ventilation holes in the side at one end, and cut out about half the lid and glue metal mesh over the hole, but then it would make a decent temporary enclosure.

It's no replacement for his normal enclosure since you can't see in the sides and access to the interior wouldn't be nearly as easy as with a front opening reptile enclosure, but with the tub on the ground it would be OK for occasional short term use.

I'm not convinced that I could actually get into my car to transport it, though... It'd fit on the back seat, but I'm not sure I'd be able to get it through the door.

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Anthony Horton
On second thought that's a stupid idea. Plastic tubs the size of the lizard's enclosure are ludicrously expensive, and require a bunch of modification work. Instead, for $400, I could get a flat packed melamine & glass purpose-built reptile enclosure like this, that would be at least as easy to transport, require less effort to get ready, and work better as an enclosure: https://reptileone.com.au/products/housing/46166bk

So, I do have a reasonable solution for the lizard goes to lizard sitter scenario. That's probably a more appealing prospect for the prospective lizard sitter than coming to our place. If they're just coming to change the water and put out food once a week they probably won't even get to see Jerry, he's likely to get spooked and go into a hide when he hears someone enter the house and they may well be done and gone before he emerges. If he goes to stay with the sitter instead they'll get to see and interact with him.

The main challenge will be finding a volunteer who will be staying at home throughout January, or at least not going away for more than a week or so, and who has enough space in their home for a 1.2 x 0.6 metre enclosure.

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Anthony Horton
Getting rather stressed that it's 12 days until we go away for nearly 6 weeks and I still don't have a sitter for this guy.

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Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (3 Monate her)
Katrien M Michiels
I suppose you can't take him with you...? Where do people need to go to sit him? (You don't sound like you live anywhere near me and I've never skinksat, but I'm sure more people would be willing to learn how to care for such a cute critter?
Anthony Horton
No, we're going to the UK to visit my family, no chance of taking him along. What I'm trying to do is find someone in Sydney who he can go and stay with. I have a second flat-packed enclosure I can take to their place and set up in their home.

The trick is finding someone who won't be away themselves, has enough space, and doesn't live in a rental with a no pets policy.
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