Blue-tongued skink: cold during transport is more stressful than being handled
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
Handling itself doesn't seem to stress a blue-tongued skink much — but a real trip exposes it to more than just being picked up. A study by Mancera, Murray, Gao, Lisle and Phillips, published in 2014 in the journal Animal Welfare, exposed blue-tongued skinks (Tiliqua scincoides) to conditions simulating a real transport trip — noise, vibration and cold — using a changeover design, comparing their behaviour to a neutral condition (see the study). Find our other pointers in the travel and safety section.
Contents · 5 sections
Cold, the clearest factor
Exposed to cold, skinks spent less time active in the test chamber (330 seconds versus 434 in the neutral condition) and more time inactive in the escape chamber (148 seconds versus 40). They also took longer to reach the hiding chamber (18.0 seconds versus 10.5) and stayed inactive for longer once inside, away from the stimulus (3.6 seconds versus 2.3).
What this means for the travel carrier
An ordinary carrier, left in a car boot or on a doorstep in winter, can easily expose a skink to a temperature drop comparable to the one tested in the lab. Unlike handling itself, found to be low-stress in an earlier study, ambient cold during the trip shows up here as a clearly measurable source of distress.
Brief handling versus a real trip: two different stressors
A 1993 study had already shown that ten minutes of restraint, in any of its forms, did not significantly change the blue-tongued skink's cortisol. This new finding doesn't contradict that: it isolates a separate source of stress, tied not to the hand holding the animal but to the physical conditions of the trip itself.
Practical pointers
- Keep it warm: slip a heat pack or a cloth-wrapped hot water bottle into the bottom of the carrier for cooler trips.
- Insulate the carrier: a rigid box lined with thick fabric limits temperature swings far better than a bare plastic tub.
- Avoid unprotected winter trips: a few minutes in a cold car is enough to reproduce the conditions tested in the study.
- A hide inside the carrier: a simple cloth or partial box lets the skink reproduce the withdrawal behaviour seen under stress.
This attention to temperature builds on the basics already known for day-to-day care; our article on setting up and caring for a blue-tongued skink details the right terrarium. See also our blue-tongued skink profile for its full picture.
Frequently asked questions
Does a blue-tongued skink fear cold more than heat during a trip?
The study specifically tested cold as a stressor; excessive heat remains a distinct and equally real risk, just not measured in this particular protocol.
Does a heated carrier remove all transport stress risk?
It sharply reduces the factor identified as the strongest one, but noise and vibration are also tested as stressors in their own right in the same study, so they're worth limiting too.
Does this finding apply to a trip lasting just a few minutes?
The protocol reproduces short, controlled lab exposures; a brief trip in a temperate cabin exposes the animal far less than an unheated boot in the depths of winter.
See it in the Planète Pets shop: Ventilated clear box for feeder insects, transport and quarantine, 19 cm (€17.90) · the whole shop
This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Reptiles universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.