BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi all, my name is Eddie and I just wanted to introduce myself since I will hopefully be a BTS owner within the week. I plan on purchasing one from the Hamburg Reptile Expo Saturday, if any are available. If anybody has gone to this show in the past or has knowledge on what is usually available, let me know. I will have pictures too, if all goes well. This forum and the care sheet has been very helpful, but I still have a few minor questions. The types of veggies and fruit to feed them seems very straight forward, but the protein part gets me. I've seen that dog food can been fed as a staple diet, but I really would rather use something meant for reptiles. Is the Zoo Med tegu/monitor food or tortoise/lizard food an acceptable replacement? I saw Nature Zone meat lover bites, can this be used too? I have roaches and will probably get silkworms, hornworms and maybe some Ramshorn snails to add to variety. I saw such snails on ebay as feeders, would this be a reliable place to purchase them? I also just purchased a deep dome fixture with an Exo Terra UVB Solar Glo Bulb 125w, is this a good enough uvb source? The basking spot is optimal with this MVB and I really just want to know if anyone has had experience with this specific brand of bulb. I think that is all the questions I have for now, but I am sure I will have more. Thanks for any input you could provide and I am glad to be a part of this extremely helpful forum.

BTS eat dead animal parts for protein just the same as dogs and cats, feeding dog/cat food really isn't much of a stretch in diet. Maybe a more experienced member can weigh in on tegu food, that may be alright for blueys, but I wouldn't feed tortoise food as tortoises live on tough vegetation that skinks can't digest.

Hopefully someone else can answer your other questions!

That's a good point. I've just seen contradicting views all over the Internet, but hey that's the Internet for ya. I'm not against feeding dog food to them, just wanted to see if any of the reptile geared food is okay. Thanks for the reply and helpful information though.