Studies on BTS Natural Dietary Habits

[Little Wise Owl]

Does anyone know of any studies or articles that contain information on what Northern BTS's are consuming in the wild? Do they consume more arthropods than small mammals or carrion, etc.

Any information would be great.

[Nae]

From my own experience with wild shingles, I found that what they ate was literally whatever they came across - insects, plantation, carrion, dog food, eggs, live baby mice and birds if they found them. I would assume Northerns to be the same =D

[Little Wise Owl]

Thanks.

I guess this could have gone in the advanced discussion forum... Whoops.

[Jeff]

I just moved it over there for you.

[Little Wise Owl]

Thank you.

I've been looking for studies and I can't find any. Ugh! lol

I can find tegu feeding habits but not skinks... Hmmm

[Nae]

Do you have a link to a tegu one? As I dont quite understand what more your looking for from what I said, so maybe if I can see what it is precisely, I or someone else might be able to help more!

[Fatal_S]

I'm pretty sure the BTS bible has some info on natural diets.

[critterguy]

Their is a paper that looked at the diets of wild scincoides. It was mostly arthropods(particularly beetles if I remember correctly.) But as Nae mentioned-just about anything was eaten including bits of newspaper, nails, etc.

[El Lobo]

http://s3.archive-host.com/membres/up/7 ... a/shea.pdf

[Nae]

^ Ah I see, so more scientific stuff. I understand now.

[Little Wise Owl]

That's EXACTLY the type of thing I'm looking for.

Here is one of the studies of juvenile tegu dietary habits: http://www.ecoevo.com.br/pesquisadores/ ... e_2002.pdf


I'm very into natural diets for pets (dogs, cats, ferrets, tegus, skinks, etc) I love reading about what they'd eat in the wild and finding out if I could attempt to replicate it in captivity. Sort of a hobby/obsession, I guess.

[Katrina]

The bluey bible is probably the best source of this kind of info for the various species... but keep in mind that each species will have fairly different foods available to them in the wild.

I also really like this topic and wanted to research / feed close to the wild diet when I first got my guys as well, but I found that there just wasn't enough reliable info available and lots of the foods they would eat we couldn't get.

It is a really interesting topic, but just be aware that you probably won't find complete info and that the diet of one species likely will be quite different from that of other species. Northern diet info might be easier to find - when I was researching I was looking into T. gigas, which is an entirely different land mass / climate. Most of the articles I've found on Tiliqua have been Rugosa, Nigrolutea or the pygmy BTS. Good luck!

[Scotts1au]

Of course there is the argument that an animals form is largely related to its diet. In general blueys have a similar form. I would have to assume that their diets would be "relatively" similar.

The exceptions are T.rugosa, occipitalis and "the pygmy"

The interesting thing to me is not - how do I maintain a healthy bluey. You only have to read the caresheet for that - but what role does diet play in the life cycle, breeding etc of the animals. Are the fundamental differences between diets available in temperate areas different to those in tropical ones. Do they play a role in signalling breeding responses in the absence of significant seasonal temperature variation?