Blue Tongue Skink Question

[Theanimalguy]

I'm going to be setting up a BTS Tank soon and i was wondering if i could have live grass as a substrate.
Is this possible?

[Katrina]

Welcome to the forum!

It would be very hard to keep it clean and to control humidity levels etc with live grass. Live grass also wouldn't do well with basking lamp over top of it... there might be some way to make it work, but I haven't heard of anyone doing it. I'd recommend starting with a traditional substrate, like aspen or some kind of bark / mulch and then once you are more familiar with BTS husbandry and care, if you still want to try it then look into it. But for the first little while, its probably best to stick to the basics rather than try something that hasn't been done before (except in large, outdoor pits).

[Theanimalguy]

Thanks!!

Ok, mayble i'll try that later on.
How about addding some pill bugs? They apperently eat feces and leftover food.
Will my BTS eat them?

[Katrina]

Thanks!!

Ok, mayble i'll try that later on.
How about addding some pill bugs? They apperently eat feces and leftover food.
Will my BTS eat them?

Like I said, no one has done this except on large scale, outdoor enclosures (typically done in Australia, where the blueys are native). Grass doesn't really provide larger, decomposing insects a place to burrow, they need looser soil not a matt of grass. I have no idea if it would work on a small scale, I'd think no - but no one has bothered trying it. I'm not sure what the advantage of grass would be for a blue tongue skink - it wouldn't be able to burrow in the substrate and wouldn't be easy to clean. So if you really, really want to try it then I'd definitely wait until you have a few years experience with them. But I can't see any advantage to using grass, and the lack of burrowing would not be ideal.

There are some incredible planted vivaria out there that use insects to decompose waste and have live plants - but those all have small reptiles in there, like dart frogs. A blue tongue skink would destroy plants and wouldn't do well in the high humidity, so a conventional planted vivaria wouldn't work at all for a BTS.

[Theanimalguy]

OK thx i guess ill stick to the classical and basic set up.
Thx again everyone

[SFBlueTongue81]

I wanted to do some live plants when I was planning my terrarium. However Katrina is right I came to the conclusion the plants would interfere with the correct humidity and acid/ferfilizer ect. I do believe it could be done, but the amount of care needed would be equal to if not more than the care for your lizard and could possibly cause conditions that could harm your pet.

When I was a kid I did have a terrarium with live plants for my White's Tree Frog and he seemed very happy, but they need a higher level of humidity.

I'm really happy with the fake plants I've used in my Terrarium now, they look so real, and after the fact I'm glad I went the fake route it's so easy to clean the cage and I think it still looks great!