Blue tongue diet Questions!

[misticdragon68]

I have read the care sheet and it was amazing, but I still have afew questions regarding diet.

1) As a supplemental protein, is catfood or dogfood better? In regards to taurine (in catfood and some dogfood), is it harmful? I know birds seek it out and it's fine in humans so I don't see why it would be harmful in skinks. Since it's water soluble, I assume they could just flush it out.

2) When they "pee" is that actually pure water or does it contain any waste products? (such as excess taurine? that's how most animals get rid of it)...I will not be adding extra taurine to the diet, just wondering about what is already contained in the cat/dogfood.

3) Should squash and cactus all be cooked?

4) How long should I quarantine wild caught snails before they are fully detoxed from any potential pesticides?

5) In regards to bedding consumption, burrowing needs, and sanitation, (and aesthetics!) what would be the ideal bedding to use in a habitat? I don't really like carefresh and I'm allergic to aspen bedding. What about forest floor or reptibark?

Sorry for so many questions! I finally got my baby and want it to be the happiest skink on earth! Thanks for any advice or replies, they are greatly appreciated!

[Linnea]

Hello ill try my best to answer your questions in a simple way......but wait till you got more answers before concluding anything

1) Dog food, as you already noted the cat food has taurine in it, and i dont think there has been a study on how it affects skink in large amounts, so id say better safe than sorry. it is also easier to find meat products instead of fish in dog food. fish isnt dangerous but they wouldnt find them in their natural habitat.

2) The pee is water - but along with it comes a urate, which is basically all the excess matter that normally is in the pee, but in a different shape.

3) squash can be fed raw, like all other veggies. im not sure about cactus...i havent heard of anyone feeding it >.<

4) Wild snails are never fully detoxed. Their parasite load will still be there, and some pesticides remain in the host for all its life. you can however keep the snails and feed them good stuff for about two weeks, making sure to clean everything all the time. it does help but its not perfect. i feed snails to my bts in moderation due to the potential risks, some feed can o snails thoug :>

5) i use wood chips (not pine or cedar tree), some use cypress mulch and absolutely adore it, cork bark seems to work well (ill try this out next). theres many more options but i cant quite remember all the names

[tylociraptor]

Linnea- as an fyi, cactus is supposedly very good for skinks. But you and I probably don't see it often, being from the snowy north where they don't exist xD

[Sarikazam]

Linnea- as an fyi, cactus is supposedly very good for skinks. But you and I probably don't see it often, being from the snowy north where they don't exist xD

They actually sell cactus pads in one of my large local grocery stores I guess I must be lucky. I have yet to try it out though.

I am guessing it is like squash and you can just feed it raw, but I will just quote what is says from the care sheet:

"How to prepare cactus
Written by Jenn @ bluetongueskinks.net
Regarding the thorns: "I normally pick one that doesn't have that many—or one that only has them at one end—I'll cut that end off. Otherwise, I just pull them out. When I cut the cactus leaf, I cut it in long strips (very easy to see if I missed any spikes). I then cut it in half—so there is a skin side and a wet cactus side—and cut that into small pieces. I don't put the cactus in the chopper. I figure by cutting it, I can make sure that I don't miss any spikes."

To get the thorns off, you can also shave it with a knife and then rinse it off. It can then be placed in a chopper like any other fruit or green. "

[misticdragon68]

Thanks for all the responses guys! I'm glad I can just feed cactus raw as long as I'm weary of the spikes and I'll make sure to detox my snails for 2 weeks rather than the 1 week I had planned on.

As for the bedding, where do you find all these different types? I feel like all I see in reptiles sections is sand (which I'll NEVER use), reptibark, forestfloor, and coconut based things(some look like dirt while others are in chunks). I do poke around on amazon but I still see mainly the above things. I'll try looking harder but if anyone has the names of the bedding (brand and type) they use I'd be happy to check it out!

Thanks again!

[Sarikazam]

Some other places to look for bedding would be gardening stores. You can get most mulches and other stuff from those type stores. I got my coco-mulch from Lee Valley because none of the pet stores around where I live carried it.

[Linnea]

* do note that the two weeks i set for "detoxing" treat snails is the time i set myself. its about for so long i can keep up with the cleaning, in order for them not to re-contaminate themselves over and over.

hmm, i have learned most cactus meat is very toxic to eat - but it makes sense there are those that cause no harm too. sorry for my lack of knowledge
but i do eat cactus fruits quite often.....

[misticdragon68]

I'll be careful with the cactus, I'm going to use what they sell for human consumption

I've been looking at bedding and I am partial to either the "Zoo Med Forest Floor Bedding" or the "Zilla English Walnut Shell Litter". I tend to like the latter, is there any risk with it? It's meant to look like sand, but the granules are bigger, it doesn't stick and its lighter.

Assuming I feed my skink outside the cage or with a huge plate do you think the walnut shells are a good option?

I am still open to suggestion of any brands of bedding or unfertilized mulch

[lourdesv89]

Forest floor is awful. It's bad for the eyes and looks like dirt. I would say stick to reptibark or maaaaaybe try out the walnut shells you are talking about. Check them out in person before buying though, wouldn't want to get something you weren't expecting. I'm sure skinks can burrow in both. Give them the forest floor, and they'll burrow, but they'll be all dirty all the time. No fun.

[misticdragon68]

Forest floor is awful. It's bad for the eyes and looks like dirt. I would say stick to reptibark or maaaaaybe try out the walnut shells you are talking about. Check them out in person before buying though, wouldn't want to get something you weren't expecting. I'm sure skinks can burrow in both. Give them the forest floor, and they'll burrow, but they'll be all dirty all the time. No fun.

You've never tried it! how do you know they will get dirty? Or that its bad for eyes?

[lourdesv89]

Forest floor is awful. It's bad for the eyes and looks like dirt. I would say stick to reptibark or maaaaaybe try out the walnut shells you are talking about. Check them out in person before buying though, wouldn't want to get something you weren't expecting. I'm sure skinks can burrow in both. Give them the forest floor, and they'll burrow, but they'll be all dirty all the time. No fun.

You've never tried it! how do you know they will get dirty? Or that its bad for eyes?

Because it hurts my eyes to look at it!

[Bird_Brain]

Id stay away from the Walnut shells. I have heard of too many issues with impaction with that substrate. Once it gets wet, it sticks to everything from my experience. I see no issues with the forest floor.

[Dan]

Cactus pads and fruit are easy to find at Mexican grocery stores (Opuntia ficus indica). Around here, they call them 'nopales' and 'tunas,' respectively. My BTS like the fruit pretty well. I find it difficult to believe that it has the same nutrient profile as the pads, like the caresheet says, though.