 |
The Blue Tongued Skink Care
A Blue Tongued Skink can be a rewarding pet as they are generally easily tamed and are a very laid back lizard. Their disproportionately short legs mean that they are not very quick compared to some lizards.
They seem to enjoy being handled and are happy to chill out on your lap, or if curious have an explore around. Mine will often sit on my lap whilst I watch TV or wander off and try to burrow under the sofa cushions. This skinks laid back attitude makes reptile pet care that much more enjoyable. They are famous for their blue tongues which they will display with their mouths wide open if they feel threatened. They also make a kind of hissing noise made by exhaling sharply through their nostrils. It is hard to take this threat seriously once you get to know your skink! Although they may exibit this behavior when they are scared it is rare for them to actually bite.
HousingBlue tongued skinks typically grow to be about 50cm long. Because of this a minimum enclosure size with floor space of about 4 ft long by 2 ft wide is required, but obviously bigger is better. I personally have a 6ft long reptile tank (also known as a vivarium). Height is not so important as due to their little legs, they are not good climbers!Blue tongued skinks like to burrow and hide so several hiding places like logs would be good for them. A loose substrate that they can burrow in is also good. Sand, Cedar and Pine should not be used. The best substrates to use are aspen, bark and hemp as they are good for burrowing and also absorbent. This particular lizard has clear, colourless and odour free urine, with a consistency much like water. Because of this, you may want an absorbent substrate to absorb it! If they pee on you then it doesn’t smell, which I guess is an advantage! Their poo kind of looks like cat poop as well! Those visuals may not have been something you wanted me to plant inside your head, but it made writing this article more fun for me. :) Their enclosures will need spot cleaning daily to remove bodily wastes and then a thorough clean out once a month with a reptile friendly disinfectant. This particular species of skink should be housed on its own. They tend to fight if together and can inflict nasty injuries on each other. Heating and LightingThey will need a heating gradient of high 70’s at cool end to 100F on the basking spot. A basking spot should be provided with a large flat basking rock below a heat lamp. I use a red bulb as they cannot see red light and it won’t disturb them during the night.The lamp should be controlled by a thermostat. At night the thermostat can be turned down to the mid 70’s. They benefit from a 10% UV light during daylight hours. They do not need high humidity. The humidity should be between 25 and 50%. They may benefit from a slight misting of the vivarium during shedding. Alternatively you could provide a moist hide with damp sphagnum moss to help them to shed their skin.
DietBlue tongue skinks are omnivores. They need a diet made up of 30 – 40% meat and 60 – 70% vegetables and fruit. The best veg are greens like Collard Greens (called ‘Spring Greens’ in the UK), Kale, Bokchoy, Mustard Greens and Dandelion leaves.Other good staples are squash, mango, fig and raspberries.Other fruit and vegetables can be incorporated into their diet to give variation. They seem to enjoy most fruits, berries and vegetables. Mine especially like grapes and berries. Fruit and veg to avoid are avocado, aubergine, rhubarb, spinach, lettuce, citrus fruits and mushroom. For meat, diced chicken and beef are best. Seafood should be avoided. They will also eat the occasional pinkie mouse and love snails, which can be collected from outdoors if you know that the area has not been treated with any chemicals and you don’t mind being looked at strangely when walking around with a bucket of snails! Once you have the snails keep them and feed them for a few days so that any toxins can be flushed out of their systems. Some people feed their blue tongued skink cat food, but I don't recommend it. Normal cat foods from the supermarket are not likely to be suitable. They will eat most live foods such as crickets, mealworms, butterworms and silkworms, but these are not essential. Crickets and mealworms have virtually no nutritional content. It can be good to give crickets for them to chase though, for exercise. They should be fed every day as babies and every other day for adults. Their diet should be supplemented every other feed with a supplement containing vitamins, calcium and D3. They need fresh water every day. Provide a water bowl big enough for them to be able to bathe in if they want. They do tend to poo in their water, so this should be checked and changed regularly.
Health Care and BreedingBlue tongued skinks nails grow very quickly and can cause problems for them so they need their nails clipped regularly. Normal nail clippers are fine for this but don’t cut them too short or they will bleed. In my experience it is really a two person job, one to hold the legs still and one to do the clippingThese lizards can drop their tails if they feel threatened or their tails are pulled, these will grow back but may have a stumpy look to them. The most common health problem is Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) which is caused by a lack of calcium in the diet or a calcium/phosphorus imbalance. Lots of fruits are high in phosphorus. If you provide a balanced diet with supplementation it shouldn’t be a problem to prevent this disease. Another interesting thing is that this species gives birth to live young. This is why they are not as common as other egg-laying lizards. They can only give birth to a small number of babies as opposed to egg layers who can lay large clutches of eggs. Breeding these skinks can be tricky. Firstly sexing a blue tongued skink is not easy. They cannot be probed like a lot of reptiles as there is virtually no difference in the depth that the probe will go in for males and females. The best indication of your skink being male is to look for sperm plugs coming out when they pee. Other than that the only way is to put two BTS together and their reaction will tell you what sex they are. This should be carefully supervised by someone that knows exactly what they are doing. The breeding process for the blue tongued skink is a quite complicated and violent process and would need specialised research. The male grabs the female by the neck in quite a violent way and it is common for the female to have bite marks on her neck. If you are buying an adult any scars on the neck are an indication that it is a proven female. Buying a Blue Tongued SkinkWhen you are selecting a skink try to make sure it is free from parasites and obvious injuries. If these lizards have been kept together they may be missing toes or have other bite injures.Ask about the animals background, feeding and care. Ideally you should purchase a captive bred animal. Wild caught reptiles do not make good pets as they may be unaccustomed to being captive and not easily tamed. They may also have internal parasites or other health problems. Check that it has been fed a good diet, otherwise it may have health problems such as MBD (metabolic bone disease).Babies grow up very fast, so plan for their adult size before buying them. Blue tongued skinks can live to over 20 years, outliving most cats and dogs, so are a long term responsibility. Article Contributed By: Becky Moss
Return From Blue Tongued Skink to Lizard Pet Care Return from Blue Tongued Skink to the Pet Care Home Page
|
