The blue tongue skinks follow a proper procedure before they can actually be ready for breeding; this process of “cooling off” is known as brumation, which is somewhat like hibernation but at the same time it is different in some respects as well. In order to prepare your animal for the hibernation, you need to start by the end of October as the winters set in. The first thing to do is to reduce the amount of sun exposure your lizard gets everyday i.e. if you leave it in the sun for four hours each day, start decreasing it in such a way that by the mid of November, your lizard has completely no sunlight exposure.
Along with it, make its enclosure cold i.e. if you have placed the cage in your living room, you should move it to the shed so that there is as little warmth as possible. This is necessary to reduce the activity of the reptiles; at the same time, you should also reduce the amount of food you are giving to your pet. In fact, do not feed him at all in the last two months; the lizards have enough fats stored in their body to keep them alive but if you feed more than what is required, your lizard will become active again and so you will not be able to breed it properly. In addition to this, since the internal body mechanism of the skink is using most of its energy to keep the body warm, little energy is left to process and digest the food, thus all the experts suggest that minimal amount of food should be given to your blue tongue skink during the brumation.
Although the skink does not need food during hibernation, it requires large quantities of water, so make sure that there is penalty of water available at all times. Do not touch or handle your pet during the brumation period otherwise, it will not be able to hibernate properly. Most of the people leave their skink lizards in a shoebox in their shed for the whole winter to help them prepare for breeding. By the mid of February, as the temperature rises, the reptile starts coming out of brumation, you can touch or handle your lizard at this point.
Do not be worried if its movement is slow initially or it does not eat all the food that you give because it takes around 15 to 20 days for the lizard to return to perfectly normal state. Your blue tongue skink might look a little weak after brumation but over time, it will be able to regain its strength.
