Enrichment Toys for Skinks

[NennaMeerkat]

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried coming up with enrichment toys for their skinks. I was thinking of short cardboard tubes with some of the tubed dog food inside it. The skink would then have to roll, claw, dig, whatever to get the food to topple out. I know they make enrichment toys made of rubber for dogs where you put treats in and the dog has to manipulate the toy...

Was just trying to look for "fun" things to give my skink some entertainment or exercise. Skinks are supposed to be pretty smart (for reptiles) I would almost think them capable of figuring out these simple toys.

[Little Wise Owl]

Maybe you could find a foraging ball for cats. They're balls with holes in them. They'd have to roll and nudge them around for the treats to fall out.

I have this one for my ferrets:

[NennaMeerkat]

I actually have one I used for my rats when they were younger and much more willing to play with toys for food. I was thinking about using it

[critterguy]

A foraging ball would likely work for a skink. You could put little bits of dry food(I found mine will eat Temptations though they still prefer these moist) or better yet meal/superworms. They'd probably just start attacking the ball once it goes into the cage though...

One thing that is funny to watch is a bluey in a box with a bunch of brown paper "leaves" under which you put mealworms.

[NennaMeerkat]

Do you actually put leaves in the box or something else? Probably missed the entire point of that. And also my pet store sells waxworms. Are they any better than mealworms as far as the chitin content vs. actual meat is concerned? And as a treat are they okay for blue tongues? I think making a box for feeding worms might be fun.

My skink seems so active and alert that he might benefit from some more natural-ish behaviors and such.

[Katrina]

Wax worms are fine - much less chitin, they are soft bodied, but fairly fatty. Fine as a treat though.

I found that as my blueys got larger they lost interest in the smaller worms like wax, butter or phoenix worms, so I stopped buying them. But definitely worth trying, especially if you have a smaller BTS.

[NennaMeerkat]

He ain't small that is for sure! It takes me two hands to support him properly. But I don't think he has ever experienced worms before so it might be fun for him. When I feed him he seems to smell around and nudge the bedding a lot as if he is hunting. Of course the food dish is bright green and right in front of him (not sure if they see color but he recognizes it all the same) but he still does what I think are hunting behaviors. So he might respond to wriggling worms crawling around in a box.

[Coomassie]

Coomassie has a ping pong ball in his tank. He rolls it around on occasion. I can tell when he has been playing with it because it usually ends up in his water dish.

[Alioop]

Someone once posted a video of an enrichment toy they gave their skinks- it was a dog toy, a ball, with lots of holes in it, and they put blueberries inside. Its floating around somewhere in the archives and/or on youtube.

[critterguy]

NM: You put leaves or similar in a box in which mealworms are hidden under them. Skink needs to burrow around and turn things over to find the worms.

[NennaMeerkat]

Thanks for all the fun ideas guys! Now I wanna buy a ping pong ball <3 Though my guy might try and eat the silly thing XD He once tried to eat a pen on my kitchen table. He is such a goof.