BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I got my dude a few months ago. He was 2 months old when I got him so he’s about 5 months now. The aquarium that I got him from was feeding cat food and vitamin pellets so that’s what I’ve been feeding him for the past few months , however, I am planning on transitioning him to a healthier diet of crickets, mealworm, fruits and veggies. Any tips on transitioning? He’s quite a picky eater.

The nutritional value of crickets and mealworms has come under a bit of scrutiny in recent years. As a juvenile, your skink will do well with premium, grain-free cat food. Many switch to dog food once the skink is a little older, as it includes vegetables.

I feed my skink Black Hawk dog food, green beans, a little bit of egg, pumpkin, broccoli and sometimes some blueberries if they're not too expensive. He gets mealworms as a treat, but he's afraid of crickets so I've never been able to get him to eat those. He's a year and a half old.

The food chart here is an excellent guide:
https://bluetongueskinks.net/foodchart.html

See also TC Houston's video on feeding for a bit more of an in depth look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_EUQcIsU6o

All the best for your little one!

Yeshika wrote:The nutritional value of crickets and mealworms has come under a bit of scrutiny in recent years. As a juvenile, your skink will do well with premium, grain-free cat food. Many switch to dog food once the skink is a little older, as it includes vegetables.

I feed my skink Black Hawk dog food, green beans, a little bit of egg, pumpkin, broccoli and sometimes some blueberries if they're not too expensive. He gets mealworms as a treat, but he's afraid of crickets so I've never been able to get him to eat those. He's a year and a half old.

The food chart here is an excellent guide:
https://bluetongueskinks.net/foodchart.html



See also TC Houston's video on feeding for a bit more of an in depth look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_EUQcIsU6o

All the best for your little one!

Thank you! I’ve now looked at the food chart and I think I’m going to buy some silkworms for him to try

To get him to try new things, introduce them with something that you know he already likes less likely to refuse it then

Yeshika wrote:To get him to try new things, introduce them with something that you know he already likes less likely to refuse it then

Yeah that’s a good idea, thank you!

All very good advice here. Good job!

Hi, fellow Australian! Your little dude is about the same age as mine

Currently my Basil is on a mix of premium cat food (FelineNatural and Ziwipeak brands, but none of the ones with fish in them), some live foods (earthworms, BSFL, an occasional mealworm, and I'm waiting on some silkworms), some canned insects (exoterra brand - I feed the snails and the silkworm pupae), and a selection of veg from the food chart here (I stick to the ones that say "frequently"). For fruits, I'm actually not including any into his "dinner" meals at the moment as I'm kind of using organic baby food fruit purees (Rafferty's Garden brand, I get the ones with 2-3 different fruits per pouch) as a bit of a bribe during handling - maybe a pea-sized drop on my hand for him to enjoy whilst I'm handling him. I figure once he's a little more settled and comfortable being handled, I'll move away from bribery (lol) and start to add fruits to his actual meals.

When he's older, I'll be moving him to Ziwipeak and K9Natural brands of canned dog food instead of the cat food. I chose those brands because they had the fewest "questionable" ingredients (stuff like "gelling agents," artificial flavours, and excessive preservatives). That's just my personal choice though, I am an absolute noob and am in no way suggesting any of those ingredients are in any way proven to be bad for skinks - I was just trying to aim for as "natural" a product as possible, even if it does come from a can haha. The Ziwipeak dog food only has chickpeas and kelp so I definitely need to make sure I add extra veg to his meals on the days he receives that brand; some other brands of grain-free wet dog food I checked out didn't have any veg/fruit at all, so keep an eye out and adjust accordingly.

Also, just in case you feed your dude earthworms (and I suppose this might also apply to silkworms, I haven't tried yet): this probably sounds like common sense, but make sure they're short (or chop them up into shorter pieces). I fed my boy a long-ish earthworm the other day and he proceeded to tilt his head back, gape his mouth wide open, shake his head from side to side (at this point I freaked out, I thought he was choking), and then the worm slithered all the way back up out of his throat and started slithering away. At which point Basil re-ate it. And it stayed down the second time, thankfully. But yeah. Just be mindful of that

ellbanger wrote:I'm kind of using organic baby food fruit purees (Rafferty's Garden brand, I get the ones with 2-3 different fruits per pouch) as a bit of a bribe during handling

I'm bribing mine with the exact same stuff He used to hate beans, but loves them now because he associates them with the baby food.

Yeshika wrote:

ellbanger wrote:I'm kind of using organic baby food fruit purees (Rafferty's Garden brand, I get the ones with 2-3 different fruits per pouch) as a bit of a bribe during handling

I'm bribing mine with the exact same stuff He used to hate beans, but loves them now because he associates them with the baby food.

What beans do you feed him? I didn’t realise beans were an option

Just green beans I'm not sure if they'd have a specific name overseas?

ahh yes, green beans, sorry my brain wasn’t fully functioning this morning and I was thinking beans as in baked beans, kidney beans haha I literally don’t know how I get through a day sometimes when I’m this simple lol

Yeshika wrote:

ellbanger wrote:I'm kind of using organic baby food fruit purees (Rafferty's Garden brand, I get the ones with 2-3 different fruits per pouch) as a bit of a bribe during handling

I'm bribing mine with the exact same stuff

Good to know I'm not alone..great minds think alike!