Hi and general ramblings about Lungkata

[smittenbunny]

Hi there, I'm new to the forum. I've had my blue tongue skink about 3 months now and I've taken a video to show you guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6P8OT5X76s&feature=plcp

I'd love to get your opinions on my tank set up and how I could do it better. I've got it 35c on the hot end, 30c in the middle and around 25c in the cool end. I leave the ceramic heater on at night because I believe he's an Indonesian and I'm from Brisbane, Australia originally (I live in England now) and I figure if Brisbane doesn't get that cold at night Indonesia sure as hell won't =]

His diet is a salad in the morning (raspberries, peppers (capsicum), mixed lettuce, rocket and occasionally butternut pumpkin) and at night I used to feed him crickets which was recommended to me by the pet shop but I feed him earthworms mostly now and snails which are wild but I keep them in a tank inside and feed them for a week before giving them to him. They are from my compost bin as well so they should be pretty OK. Oh, he also gets a bit of poached egg about once a week.

I've seen lots of recommendations about feeding dog food. The pet shop said not to so I'm quite confused about what to do about this...? If you have recommendations about what I am feeding him I would love to hear them as this is the part I struggle with most about owning him.

He's VERY untame. He freaks out if I try and touch him so I generally leave him be. He's shedded twice and he is growing really well. The pet shop couldn't tell me when he was born so I am thinking around March and he is around 10 inches long now.

Would love to hear your opinions and I've enjoyed lurking around on the forum for a few months now. Party on and thanks in advance for any advice =]

[Rani-May]

He is very nice im not an expert but im just saying how I keep my blueys. 30-35 degrees basking, 20 degrees cool side and no lower than 18 degrees of the night. Your set up looks similar to mine except I dont have plants in mine and I have a cricket feeder (hollow rock you put crickets into and thy crawl out of a small hole when they want to be eaten )
Dog food is fine to give to him, just dont over do it
As for the taming,one of my first blueys was originally wild and injured so was pretty untame. If you are worried about being bitten I suggest a glove to start with because if you quickly pull your hand away when they go to bite, it teaches them that they scare you and this is the way to get you to leave him alone. Handle him as often as you can unless he seems to show signs of stress of course. Also definitely hand feed him, its the way to any animals heart in the long run. Slowly get him use to you though, show that you arent a threat what so ever.
My wild bluey is the most tame of all of mine now and loves being handled. It takes time but is very worth the effort
I hope you put up more videos, i will subscribe and hope that you do! good luck

[Rani-May]

Oh, im from Tasmania, Australia btw

[smittenbunny]

Ah, I definitely pull my hand away when he goes to bite, I can't deal with him hissing and lunging at me so he will have figured out that is the way to be left alone! I think I'll get some gardening gloves to combat this, thanks for the tip. I haven't tried hand feeding him yet as the guy at the pet shop said that it will bite me if I try. I thought it was the best way to tame him but being warned off means I haven't tried. I did try with chop sticks but it was with peppers so he wasn't interested.

Ha, I bet a cricket hide is fun. Do they make a mess of your tank though? I have a cricket house and ye gods they are messy.

Lovely to hear from you and thanks for the tips!

[Rani-May]

The crickets in my tank dont make much mess, i only have the smaller ones though... maybe they dont live long enough to make a mess XD haha, my blueys love eating anything that moves! The cricket feeder is pretty fun, at one point my baby bluey, Crowley, would sit on top of it and stare at the hole waiting for one to appear.
As i said, the gardening glove will help when handling him, i dont know other peoples views on this but it worked like a charm getting my wild bluey to warm up to me before revealing bare skin, and it actually didnt take very long either. Though it veries with each skink, but yours being a younging, might warm up to you quicker than an adult wild blue tongue like mine was.

[El Lobo]

Diet wise forget what the pet shop said about not feeding dog food, their suggestions aren't appropriate for a BTS.

He is only small so definitely needs more protein than currently offered (up to 60% of each meal), that is where the dog food comes in. Don't bother with feeding twice a day, every other day will be enough until he grows some more. Ecotherms don't rely on food to regulate their body temperature like endotherms. I would suggest dropping the lettuce as it has little nutritional value and use the butternut pumpkin more often. Check out the care sheet for more food suggestions. Also dusting his food with a supplement of phosphorous-free calcium with D3 will ensure he gets sufficient calcium for a rapidly growing body.

[smittenbunny]

I'd love to see a pic of Crowley waiting for the crickets Rani-May, that sounds too cute! I'm going to pick up some gloves tomorrow so I can start trying to handle him more.

El Lobo, I bought some dog food for Lungkata this morning (ye gods, it took me ages to choose one) and he loved it. He's a picture of him chowing it down with some veggies (snow peas, courgette and raspberries) and calcium sprinkled on:



Thanks for your help on feeding regime as well. I was told twice a day so that's what I was doing but he wasn't really interested in his breakfast.

Really appreciate your inputs, there is so much conflicting information out there so I wanted to hear it from people instead of conflicting care sheets.

[Rani-May]

fantastic photo! I will definitely post up some decent pictures of crowley, including waiting for the crickets as soon as i get my new camera at the end of the month, I only have a phone for now so the picture and video quality are terrible!
Im glad you are going to start handling him more, some become quite cuddly even. I know mine are!