Hello from a soon-to-be skink mom!

[Ali1010]

Hello! My name is Ali, and I am expecting my first blue tongue skink in just 2 short weeks! I have two leopard geckos, named Fred and Wilma. Fred will be going on 7 this year, so i'm no stranger to reptiles (Wilma is just a young 2, purchased from a reptile show as a future girlfriend for Fred). However, I have never owned anything BUT leopard geckos. Well, that's a lie. I had a sulcata tortoise hatchling. He, unfortunately passed away just a few short weeks after I had gotten him of Kidney failure. I suspected improper conditions in the store he was from, but I very well could have been doing something detrimental and never have known it.

Anyways, today I decided to go "late" christmas shopping for my geckos, since their enclosure is pretty "bland" at the moment. I went to my local reptile store (they are a highly respected store, not some dinky, smelly pet shop full of idiot employees and illegally-caught animals, and as I do every time I go in, I asked if they had any baby blue-tongues. Imagine my delight when they informed me that one of their females had 5 babies just three days ago! He took me to the back and all babies seemed in good health, I was even able to hold one for a bit-not to mention they were SUPER cute! I was told they should be ready in the next two weeks, once they're sure the babies are eating well and healthy.

So, i read over the care sheet on the forum here, and I have a couple questions:

1. Should the skink have both a UV and heat lamp on during the 12 hour cycle, and both off at night?

2. How much-portion wise-should a two week old baby be eating of veggies, meats, and fruits?

3. Will a 20-gal. (long, not tall) be a good starter cage for a baby skink? If so, how long will that comfortably house them for?

4. What size terrarium should I expect to be housing my adult skink in?

5. Instead of a terrarium, can I use a basically structured rabbit/guinea pig cage for an adult skink? I imagined not, because it wouldn't trap heat efficiently, but I figured I might as well ask.

6. As to their diet-veggies and fruits seem pretty easy, all diced to a small size with no stems. (I will look into getting the dicer mentioned in the article) But, the meats are what confuse me. I don't really have time to be COOKING whole chickens for my skink. Is there a quick and easy type of cooked meat in small portions I can buy from the grocery store? I LOVE to make scrambled eggs, but I will make sure to only feed it as a treat. Also, I work in a pet store focused on selling all natural pet foods with as little grains/ "unnatural" ingredients as possible. What type of protein/fiber/calcium intake should they be getting from their meats? Do any of you feed canned cat foods, and if so what do you recommend?

7. Lastly, and the most important of all the questions-does anybody here have cats? I have two "kittens" (just over a year old) who live in my room..where my skink is going to be living. They go outside during the day, but they are still curious and crafty. They have already broken into my leopard gecko cage (The cat who broke in just layed in the tank and the geckos hid, so luckily nobody was harmed, thank goodness!), so I put a more heavy-duty mesh atop the cage and disciplined the cats. They are good with the geckos now for the most part, and i've never caught them hanging around near the tank again. However, I am concerned about adding a new baby skink to this mix-does anybody here have cats? How do you deal with these issues? I was thinking about getting those "new" types of stackable tanks, with the built-in light fixtures, however they seem to provide very little ventilation-thoughts?


If anyone's gotten through this entire post, thank you so much for reading and I hope to meet all of you soon!

[Jeff]

Welcome to the forum. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get resonses when you have a lot of questions at once, but I'm sure people will anwer your questions eventually. Many of the things you are asking are personal opinion, so you will get different answers from different people. Here are my opinions:

1. If you provide UVB light (I don't), then I would recommend having it on at the same time you have your other light on. For night, the lights should be off, but you need to make sure that the temperature does not drop too low. Minimum temps vary from species to species, so you need to know what species you are getting. Night time heat MAY be required if your ambient room temperature is too low.

2. I feed babies mostly dog food. I mix in frozen vegetables into it. I increase the amount of vegetables when they get about 6 months old. I almost never feed them fruit.

3. & 4. A 20 long is fine for a baby, but for an adult skink, 18" x30" is generally the minimum floor spacce recommended. A skink will normally reach adult size in 12-36 months depending on how it is kept and fed.

5. A wire cage would not be good for the reason you mentioned.

6. The only protein source my skinks get is dog food. I like the cheap "garbage" brands the best because most of the "garbage" that they contain like bones and organs is good for BTS. Fillers have never been shown to cause any harm to BTS.

7. I have two cats, but my skinks are in a room with a closed door all the time. Even so, the cages are secure so that a cat could not get into them unless he had a LOT of time to work on it. The cats are definitely interested in the skinks, but they are never given the opportunity to be in the same room with them except when I am feeding/watering.

[Linnea]

2. feed them as much as they want at that age. they have tiny stomachs. jeffs advice is great.

4. at least a 40 gallon, preferably as large as you can afford. they really use space well when theyre in the mood!

6. you can feed lean meat pieces, it doesnt have to be whole animals your bts will adore you though lol

most here feed canned dog food (not cat food, since it contains added taurine and its long term effect on bts hasnt been properly studied). some feed cheaper versions due to the more mixed content, like jeff said, and some feed more expensive one to know exactly what they get. its up to you.

a word of caution, when scrambling egg or preparing meat pieces, dont use salt or oil, and such.

as for alternative protein sources. snails with shell, gut loaded dubia roaches, egg and such are great. different worms available as treats can be fed of course. only downside with adding egg every now and then is when it comes out......less pretty.

a regular meal i give consists of caesar canned dog food (ox meat and liver) with aragula and one veggie (like a little broccoli, some carrot, bell pepper, plant sprouts, dandelion or the like, if i have)

as for the calcium, all calcium supplement is the same. you can even make your own if you feel like it (bake eggshell and crush to a powder). calcium with d3 is prefered since they do need d3. i noticed the canned dog food i feed has d3 added though.

fruits are strictly treats for my bts. i feed them fruits when i have something available that is a little bit less imported

[Spindown]

Welcome! Thanks for asking questions BEFORE you get the skink! <3's

1. I personally dont UV, just heating. I do however supplement with calcium with D3.
2. Try what he will eat, and if theres lots extra, cut down; if its all gone, try adding a bit more until its enough. I know thats vague, but it works
3. I've always just put young skinks in their adult habitats.
4. Those have been 40 gallon breeder tanks, although I'm in the process of making some kick butt new custom cages that are 4x2x17tall
5. NO. it will NOT hold the heat or humidity in. Even glass tanks can really suck at that, hence why I'm making my own.
6. I use Pedigree without gravy. Try and stay away from chicken, as some members here have had problems with MBD when feeding a chicken based meat portion diet to their skinks.
7. I have cats, and a few years ago I did NOT have a separate room just for my reptiles. My cat jumped on top of the screen top and broke it. We heard him yowling, and found him desperately trying to get OUT of the skink tank, the skink was very effectively defending himself. (GO ZERG!) The cat was fine, the skink was totally uninjured...but it easily could have gone the other way. My cat is just curious, not a hunter type at ALL. He doesnt even kill flies or spiders, and he likes to sniff my other pets but has no interest in hunting them. This WOULD NOT BE THE CASE for just about any other cat, most likely.

To prevent this? Dont have that super thin crappy mesh lids that normally come with the older type of tank lids. Have either a break-proof ultra strong mesh, or put something on top of the tank to prevent cats from getting in. Or, if you can somehow swing it, have a totally separate room.

[Ali1010]

Thank you everyone for the kind, helpful words!

So, I just picked up a 60 gal. (4 ft. longx 18 in.x18 in.) tank-it's huge! Are you all sure the little guy/gal won't get overwhelmed in his new enclosure? However-it came without a top. Well, it has a middle sliding screen. So, I suppose i'll stop by home depot and see what they have in the way of strong mesh that can withstand my kitties. They won't actively try to get INTO the tank, they just want to sit on top of it. Unfortunately, one of my cats is BIG (she's only a year and must be at least 10-12 lbs at a healthy weight for her size), so she tends to accidentally come crashing through things.

Everyone here seems to not use a UV, so I suppose just a heat lamp it is then! I live in California, so I planned on taking him/her out on sunny days anyways.

What type of dog foods should I steer towards then? Pedigree beef? Would Natural Balance beef be okay? (i'll compare food labels on Monday at work, although we don't generally carry any of the "lower grade" food such as pedigree, ceasers, etc..)

Also, the care sheet said there is no way to safely sex a skink-this can't possibly be true, can it? I know leopard geckos are different entirely, but I was always able to sex them without a problem..

[Fatal_S]

BTS are very different from leos. BTS cannot accurately be popped, cannot safely be probed, and cannot even be DNA tested. There are ways to get an idea, but you'll have to wait until the skink is all grown up. In the meantime, pick a non-gendered name

[AnnaMonroe]

Hey, Ali. I personally use a Mercury Vapor Bulb that allows me to have heat & UVB at the same time. The specific MVB that I use is ZooMed's Powersun. I am able to keep the right temperatures & everything!
As for dogfood, I like to switch it up between Merrick and Wellness brands, although Spyro has made it clear that he enjoys Wellness muuuuuch more lol. :}

[Spindown]

Its very true. Like Fatal said...its not safe. I had a vet try to get a fecal sample in a separate room...and she came back and said she everted his hemipenes during the process. I dropped her like it was going out of style. His hemis were swollen and irritated for over 2 weeks. He was in obvious pain, which is so sad, especially since reptiles normally hide pain so well. (Not saying this is a good trait, just that it does happen, so when he was showing obvious pain...it probably REALLY sucked. )

The best ways to sex are:
*if when it defecates it everts hemipenes. If so: Its a boy.
*If it is dropping sperm plugs in its cage (these can be hard to see and they dry up pretty fast): Its a boy.
*It has babies! Its a girl! (LOL)

Second best is:
*Behavior sexing. Put two skinks together and see what happens. This is not 100% unlike the first 3 methods mentioned above, and can be potentially dangerous. This must be done with VERY close supervision to make sure they dont attack each other, or that they dont mate (if unwanted).

Lastly, there is a visual sexing that can be done using certain body types vs head shapes, vs tail shape etc. However, there is not really a fool proof method in blueys to determine their sex visually. A few are "obvious" like my male Northern, who has such a large head he almost looks like a bobble head LOL but thats pretty rare. He also has a pretty large hemipenal bulge in the tail area that is very visible if you know what you are looking for, but that can be hit and miss as well. (Hes just such a manly man skink!) Any guesses offered are just that, guesses, unless proven otherwise by other methods or combos of methods.

NO breeder can accurately guess a sex of a baby or other age, and if they tell you its 100% true, and not just an educated guess, then you should be skeptical of them. Some folks get really good at guessing fairly accurately, but theres no guarantee without the fool proof hemipenes, sperm plugs, or BABIES (although behavior sexing can be extremely helpful if the skinks do more than just look at each other funny )

The difficulty in sexing skinks accurately and quickly is part of the reason so few people breed them. You pretty much have to buy them, and wait for them to mature sexually before you can even begin to guess at what gender they could be. Or, if you have mature ones, they could be ones that just dont feel like popping out their junk when they poop. (My indo doesnt). Guessing at genders is not enough for most people, and can be infuriating to try and get breeding pairs (I got SO lucky with my Northerns). Its pretty disheartening, and thus blueys dont really have the widespread acceptance that I feel is their right in the lizard world. They are so under appreciated!