Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I am wondering on the healthiest and simplest diet for a juvenile blue tongue skink. I will be able to offer superworms, cat food, and collard greens along with carrots and various fruits.

Please make a schedule in this format:
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:

Thanks,
Carl

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Lizards 'R 'Us

1.0 Mali Uromastyx

young skinks should be fed once every day..about 50% mixed vegetables, 40%-45% insects or other meat sources (ie low fat cat food, cooked meat, etc) with about 5-10% fruit.

Healthy greens will be a mix of collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens etc (pretty much the same green/vegetables you can give to other omnivorous reptiles such as bearded dragons)

www.beautifuldragons.com has a good chart to base it on.

www.bluetongueskinks.net is also a good site for feeding/husbandry. The May '09 issue of Reptile Magazine (the current one out) has an interesting article on blue tongue skinks as well.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks for the reply,

At what age should I be feeding a blue tongue skink an adult diet?
Would this be an appropriate schedule for a juvie? :

Sunday: some greens with healthy cat food
Monday: some greens with healthy cat food, sprinkle vitamins
Tuesday: some greens with healthy cat food
Wednesday: some greens with healthy cat food, sprinkle vitamins
Thursday: some greens with healthy cat food
Friday: some greens with healthy cat food, sprinkle vitamins
Saturday: some greens with healthy cat food

...and every so often I stick some fruits in with the diet.

Thanks again for the help,
Carl
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Lizards 'R 'Us - http://lizardsrus.biz - Brand New!

1.0 Mali Uromastyx

I would substitute the cat food every other day with insects (superworms, silkworms, butterworms, small to medium horn worms) or even the Can 'O brand of cooked in the can insects you can buy now...offer crickets (you can get different sized crickets) which would make a nice treat.

If you use a food processor to blend your greens/vegetables together (this is a better choice especially for younger BTS as it keeps them from just eating the 'meaty' bits from cut greens. Blend the greens together and you can store that in the fridge for 3-7 days and mix in the cat food or insects (if 'dead') or offer insects after they eat a good portion of the greens.

I just add calcium powder (with out phosphorus) into the green blended 'mush', maybe an eighth of a teaspoon or several pinches. Or you can just dust the live insects every other day. Once or twice a week, use a multivitamin instead of calcium powder.

For adults, you can just chop the greens and vegetables finely and feed all they can eat ever 2-3 days. Supplement once a week with both. Too much and they tend to get fat. Breeding females, if you go that route later on...you could offer food every day...with calcium.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks for the info,

Carl
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Lizards 'R 'Us - http://lizardsrus.biz - Brand New!

1.0 Mali Uromastyx

For juvenile it needs to eat protein everyday because he is still growing. To tell you the truth I'm not a big fan of feeding cat food to blue tongue skinks. It's unhealthy to feed cat food dogs because it is too fattening and it has other stuff that the dogs don't need which can cause some problems if fed long term. I usually offer the salad in the morning and then later I offer mine some crickets and sometimes one or two fuzzy mice. When I offer crickets I usually dust it with calcium and multivitamin powder.

Thanks for the reply,

Will this work?

Sunday through Monday: A simple salad of greens
Sunday through Monday: Gut-Loaded Crickets or Mealworms on top of salad
*Add fruits in periodically

What about an adult?

How many insects should I be feeding a juvie or an adult?

Thanks again so much,

Carl

Please ignore my last schedule,

I actually meant everyday Sunday through Saturday, I will feed a simple salad of greens and an additionally, some superworms.
I will also periodically add fruits into the diet when possible.

Thanks for the help,

Carl

I usually feed salad everyday, but you can have a one day break if you like it won't kill them. BTS should be eating 40% animal protein and 60% plants. For adult I would recommend feeding the crickets and mice according to your BTS weight. If he is getting fat I would reduce the amount of animal protein. I usually feed mine, which is an adult, crickets about every other day or sometimes 3 times a week, and he may get a fuzzy or two once a week, but mine have never been fat, so it might be different with yours, but yeah usually a little bit of cricket and insects every other day is fine.

Another food you can try feeding is cooked boiled chicken. I hear they love them and great as a treat.

Thanks for all the help!

Carl