BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello all.

Theo, my skink, gets most of his protein from the soft catfood I mix with his greens and fruits and veggies. However, I know some people have said feeding a pinkie can also be a good source of calcium. I already give him one or two snails a month, so I was wondering what the prevailing wisdom on pinkie feeding was.

The care sheet says a pinkie can be fed to an undernourished skink that needs to be fattened up. Do they enjoy them any more than normal food? I know Theo likes snails a whoooole lot, and enjoys hunting down the occasional cricket (this is more just fun for him, I never make them a staple food). Will it all boil down to his personal preferences?

I included a poll for easy response and reference.

If it makes you happy, go for it. Pinky mice are mostly fat, for calcium etc. fuzzy/hopper mice are more appropriate.

I'd reccomend offering them prekilled/FT. A friend gave me a small hopper and my skink had no interest in it whatsoever until I killed it(was not completely weaned even though I did get it eating it was clear it wasn't going to last long) and stuck it in with his dogfood. Pinkies may be more readily eaten live or otherwise because they lack fur.

But their is nothing wrong with dogfood/veggie diet either. If you think the animal needs more protein, adding additional dogfood should do the trick.(generally speaking dogfood is used by more members than catfood it has slightly lower overall protein content).

Pinkies are very fatty and not good calcium (bones aren't developed yet - like critterguy said, fuzzies or hoppers would be better for Ca). I would feed occasionally, they are fine as a treat food, but not all the time. I agree with adding more dog food, as it is a better staple, but there is nothing wrong with feeding the occasional (i.e. once a month or something like that) pinkie.

I tried to feed Coomassie a pinky once (one of my leo's decided she didn't want it) but he wouldn't eat it.

I feed mine whatever I have left from my snakes, which ends up being 1-2 times a month. They could be pinkies, fuzzies, or hoppers. All my skinks LOVE chasing the hoppers, but i watch carefully. They also could end up getting f/t in which case, they still go crazy for them.

I only feed them as the occasional treat though, since i know they arent that great for my skinks.

I feed a weaned mouse on occasion if my snakes wont eat it. Skeeter goes nuts when she smells a mouse. She'd live on em if I let her. If I do feed her a mouse ( or two ), her next meal is usually light.

My vet actually recommended feeding more rats and bugs, so my guys get F/T rats about 2x a month. I avoid pinkies and go for the more developed ones. My adults generally get small rats, which are quite big, but they love it. The wee ones get fuzzies, the medium sized get weaned rats.