hey driff04, Unfortunatley handling is something that needs to be built up slowly, you must be patient with your new friend. If you have only had him a week I would suggest leaving him a little longer to settle in, it can be very stressfull for a new animal to adapt to new smells, sounds, environment etc I would say give him another week and just get him use to your hands going in and out the viv changing the water and feeding etc Eventually you can build your way up handling maybe just 5-10 minutes in the first few weeks to 20 minutes and so forth. When it comes to the handling I alway try to think it is best to invision a giant hand grabbing you and how you would respond? you must take this into account if your pet bites, or skits all over the place its only natural and losing your patients with the animal will not help the situation. Try to establish a set procedure with your new pet, e.g. a time of day that you do your handling, this will help get your pet use to a structure than just random handling all over the place (leave this till he is tamer). You be please to know that berber skinks are relatively easy to tame and keep, which is why many people keep them, I would suggest slowly getting the skink use to your hands going in and out of the viv daily and gradually move closer and closer. It is best to secure the animal by placing one hand underneath the animal and one above incase your skink tries to jump away (which we dont want) dont approach the animal from above as this may frighten your skink, dont approach your skink from in front as this might incourage him to nip you (of course when tame you wont have this approach problem) it is best to approach your skink sideways so he can see you and this method is less threatening. You could try offering a favourite food of his to intise him to you/on your hand. Some handlers find is easier to just grab the lizard securing it firmly int he hands until the animal gets use to this system over time, I believe this is personal preference and can cause more stress than the gentle approach. I know its hard to hear these things take time when you want to get your new pet out and show your friends etc but patience is golden!
I hope this helps
You will find there are ALOT of online handling caresheets if you type berber skink handling into google.
Take care:2thumb: