BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

hello. after surfing for a while i noticed most care sheets tell you it's ok to feed dog/cat food to bts but they don't really tell you which brands so i thought it'd be cool if everyone posted what brands you each use.

most here use wellness.

im from sweden so the brands are different, i mainly use cesar dog food since its ensured that its 60% pure meat, vegetable mixes are also available in it. sometimes when money is short i buy gold (cat food), but only the pure chicken and pure oxmeat version to ensure at least some quality and less fillers.

I use wellness chicken and blue buffalo chicken and sweet pot. (dog and cat food) primarily. Also have used Merrick's and Simply Nourish brands.

I would definitely not say MOST feed any specific brand. A number of people feed Wellness, but probably not more than a many other brands. In my honest opinion, I don't think it matters too much which brand you choose to feed. The main difference between a high end expensive brands and a cheap "garbage" brands is the amount of filler and gross parts of animal that is included. I think that most of the fillers are harmless, and the organs, bones, and guts included in the cheap brands are actually beneficial.

I choose a cheap garbage brand for my skinks, but NOT because it's cheap. I think it is the best for the health of my skinks. A number of the most knowledgeable BTS keepers/breeders around have used cheap dog food for decades after trying many different things. The concensus is that a diet including cheap dog food produces the healthiest BTS possible.

Whatever brand you use, I would recommend mixing in thawed frozen vegetables and sprinkling calcium on it once a week. If you don't provide UVB lighting, then the calcium needs to include vitamin D3. Even if you do use UVB, I would still use calcium with D3 occassionally. You can get calcium supplements in the reptile section of any pet store. BTS are truly one of the easiest animals on the planet to maintain in captivity. Because of that, there is absolutely no reason to not give them everything they need to thrive.

Thanks for taking the time to find out what they need before you bring one home!

I agree with everything Jeff said.

I use a variety of brands - Wellness, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, Spot's Stew - there is a local pet store that brings in all kinds of good, healthy brands so I alternate between them. I buy the more expensive brands because of the warm-fuzzies, not because I believe they are necessarily healthier (like Jeff said - lots of the fillers like organs / bones are actually healthy for blueys - makes it more of a whole food item, more variety of nutrients as opposed to say just chicken breast). I try to avoid grain fillers.