Blue-tongued skink: does handling actually stress it out?
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
The blue-tongued skink has a reputation as a placid, easy-to-handle lizard — and research backs that up more than you'd expect. A study by Kreger and Mench, published in 1993 in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, compared three 10-minute restraint methods (gentle handling, manual restraint, closed-container restraint) in the blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua scincoides) and the ball python, measuring plasma corticosterone, locomotor activity and the heterophil/lymphocyte ratio after each treatment (see the study). Find our other pointers in the travel and safety section.
Contents · 5 sections
No measurable difference between the three methods
In skinks, none of the physiological or behavioural parameters tracked differed significantly between gentle handling, manual restraint and closed-container restraint — a result that contrasts with the ball python in the same study, where the closed container clearly raised corticosterone.
A temperament that explains the difference
The authors link this result to the blue-tongued skink's nature: a terrestrial, sturdy, not particularly flighty species that appears to tolerate brief periods of restraint in captivity without a marked physiological reaction. That's no excuse to handle roughly, but it does put ordinary anxiety about a one-off, well-conducted transport in perspective.
What this doesn't mean
The study's small sample size (three skinks) calls for caution: no measured stress over a small sample and ten minutes doesn't guarantee an absence of stress over longer, more frequent trips, or in an individual unused to handling.
Practical pointers
- Brief restraint: these results concern ten-minute sessions, not extended holding.
- Transport carrier: still worth using for safety on the road, with no marked physiological stress signal in this species.
- Habituation: handling a young skink regularly and calmly makes future trips easier, even though the study doesn't measure this directly.
- Individual watch: a skink that struggles, hisses, or freezes for a long time should be put down regardless of what the study average shows.
This tolerance for handling also makes day-to-day care easier; our article on setting up and caring for a blue-tongued skink details the right terrarium and diet. See also our blue-tongued skink profile for its full picture.
Frequently asked questions
Can a blue-tongued skink be carried by hand instead of in a box?
For a very short trip indoors, yes, but a closed carrier remains essential for any car or foot journey, mainly for the animal's safety rather than its psychological comfort.
Should handling be avoided right before a trip?
No, nothing in the study suggests prior handling worsens the stress of the transport that follows; what matters most is staying calm and keeping total restraint time short.
Does this lack of measured stress hold for every blue-tongued skink?
The study covers a small sample of habituated adults; a young, wild-caught or rarely handled individual may react differently, which is why gradual handling from a young age is worth building up.
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.