skink biting itself

Question
Our 2 year old blue tongue skink had been biting its own hind foot. It was acting strangely (very active one night) and when looking closely we saw the leg was red/irritated. We originally thought it was an infection from a bad shed and took it to the vet. She gave us antibiotic cream to put on.  The biting continued. I eventually tried band-aids to protect the foot because it started bleeding from the biting. It has bitten off the toes. Seems to have stopped biting now. Our guess was that it needed to get out and run around outside the 2.5'x4' habitat more often, but we're not sure. This all started around early June. The habitat is 70-95 degrees, with a long water bowl, with a red heat light at night, fluorescent/incandescent lighting during the day. This was a very upsetting experience, and we're not sure what/if we should do at this point. The foot looks dark brown on the end. We have been using sheets for substrate for the last 6 weeks or so because it keeps the foot cleaner. Do we have to worry about gangrene? Should we continue to apply antibiotics? Do skinks go stir crazy if they don't get out often enough? What is often enough? Thank you!

Answer
Hello Elizabeth,

What type of lighting are you using?  You just mentioned a flourescent type or incadescent during the day?   They do need  a hot spot of around 90-95 degrees during the day for basking.
What are you measuring the temps with currently?
Are you using a UVB source right now?  If so, what brand are you using, & how old is it?
What do you feed your skink?  Do you supplement calcium for him?
Usually when they are biting themselves, it either means that they have retained shed that is bothering them, or they are low in calcium or other vitamins that they are not getting through diet & supplementation.
If your UVB is too old or not putting out much UVB he wont be absorbing his calcium or other vitamins well, or be able to synthesize D3 adequately enough for strong bone maintenance.
Yes, at this point, his foot will probably die & need to be mostly amputated.  
Have you thought about either upgrading the tank to a larger size or letting him out daily to run around?  They do like to exercise so that might really help letting him out more often, too.  

Tracie