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  • dataramadatarama@hachyderm.io
    Oct 21, 2026, 4:39 PM

    @pastelexuvia (footnote: A thing he does have in common with cats is that he also likes to sit (or, well, "plop down" is probably a more accurate description of what a blue-tongue does) in boxes - though apparently a taped square doesn't look sufficiently box-like to him!

    Cats and blue-tongue skinks both exhibit positive thigmotaxis - eg. feeling calm and safe when they can feel something all around them, like if they're squeezed into a box or a little cave.)

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  • dataramadatarama@hachyderm.io
    Oct 21, 2026, 7:25 PM

    @pastelexuvia I suspect there's a little bit of cat in him. He has solved a cat puzzle feeder, he will chase some kinds of cat toys, and he likes to eat wet cat food. (But he isn't scared of cucumbers. In fact he'll eat them.)

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  • dataramadatarama@hachyderm.io
    Oct 21, 2026, 7:36 PM

    @pastelexuvia He's 18, so not really a baby anymore. :-)

    But yes, very calm. He's absolutely fearless about humans; he will wander into my arm on his own, and likes to lick people's noses.

    Here, have a blue blep!

    Image attached toot
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  • dataramadatarama@hachyderm.io
    Oct 22, 2026, 7:34 PM

    @ShaulaEvans @pastelexuvia It's actually quite common for creatures who aren't either apex predators or extremely large.

    Some animals also seem to experience active fear of being in open spaces (geckos, for example, or most snakes). But even in those who don't (or who somehow overcome that fear), many simply seem to find comfort in feeling squeezed in.

    Igor here doesn't fear open spaces at all - he'll happily wander around and explore everything from the apartment floor to a grassy park. But he also prefers the smallest sleeping cave he can get, and always sleeps with as much of his body as he can pressed up against the walls.

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  • dataramadatarama@hachyderm.io
    Oct 22, 2026, 7:37 PM

    @ShaulaEvans @pastelexuvia (Footnote: On one of his summer park excursions, he *has* done something a bit like the cats sitting in taped squares: He spotted some humans with a picnic blanket, and he resolutely beelined over and plopped himself down on their blanket. It was *very* clear that something in his brain simply *demanded* that he go sit on that blanket.

    (fortunately, the humans were friendly. One of them even got to scritch his neck a bit.)

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  • Shaula EvansShaulaEvans@zirk.us
    Oct 22, 2026, 9:30 PM

    @datarama @pastelexuvia As I am very much not an apex predator nor extremely large, this still tracks. 😂

    I have genuinely always loved being in tiny spaces and now, in my isolation life, it's one of the few things that helps with the skin hunger.

    Tell Igor I'm sending him thigmotaxic solidarity.

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