Reptile & Amphibian Forums

SOUTHERN FLORIDA CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (SFCRC)

Location: LEE/1

Hello all,

James Wilson's advice was excellent. We don't rely on cat or dog food with our BTS, but agree with everything else.

One thing to mention to New BTS keepers, Blue Tongue's not only like variety-but can be fussy and unpredictable feeders. This can be expected. If your BTS pass on food at a given feeding, don't panic right away. If they consistently don't feed with offered variety, then look to other factors.

Blue tongue's are wonderful animals. Good luck with yours.

Sincerely,
Brian
SFCRC

Yes, that was excellant advice! I think it covered everything and I can't wait to try the recipe, that is, I mean for the Skinks, not me.

The only thing is, my skink is not a Blue Tongue. I'm not sure what they are. I know they are skinks for sure, possibly Schneider skinks. Can I use the same recipee even though they are not BTS.

Lets figure out what you have. Can you post a pic of them, or maybe mail a pic to one of us (that might know what it is)? If they are schneider's or berber's, that is a bit different. I am pretty sure that they lean much more towards an insectivorous diet. Read Aino's posts on them. She is very experienced with them, and her advice is right on the money.

I'm not able to post a picture. Is there a place online that has pictures that I can show you?

SOUTHERN FLORIDA CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (SFCRC)

Location: LEE/1.

Hi,

You could play hit and miss with various skink species on one of the search engines. You might want to grab a copy of SKINKS-by Jerry G. Walls. It probably is about $10 but would be $10 well spent. There are many illustrations and you most likely can identify your skink's species from that.

Good searching!

Brian
SFCRC

Keep in mind that I only recoment high quality professional brands, and I also recommend variety. We as keepers are not all knowing, and still make mistakes (myself included). However BTS are not specialized feeders, but rather omnivorous opportunistic feeders, and the practice of feeding an extremely varied diet, leaves a lot of room for forgivness when a not so healthy food item finds its way into your skinks diet. This is one reason that they make great captives, and thrive so well as opposed to a Green Iguana. When I use dog/cat foods, I do try to mix up brands, and I generally mix in many other ingrediants (especially with adults). It has worked well for me for years, but BTS are long lived, and as I mentioned, leave lots of room for error that could go undetected. For those here who may have reservations about cat or dog foods, I should mention that I also highly recommend the ground turkey diet that is used at many zoos and institutions. It is excelent.

SOUTHERN FLORIDA CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (SFCRC)

Location: LEE/1.

Hi James,

I have no doubt you take excellent care of youir skinks and monitor them closely and ABSOLUTELY!, Ground Turkey is excellent. It is also the meat of choice for other omnivores such as Skunks. With skunks-it is the key component in 'Skunkie Delight'.

I didn't mean to sounds so hard on the dog chow. The formulated brand for older dogs is good for many lizards. It is primarily the cat chow due to the high protein content that We avoid.

Good chatting with you as always.

Sincerely,
Brian
SFCRC