BTS food in tropical country

[pritya]

Hi all,

I saw the food chart in this forum and found most of the stuffs difficult to find in tropical country. Do you have a version that is adjusted for tropical country?
I had my BTS for 11 years now and the diet consists of:
1) fruit juice, I.e. orange, watermelon, cucumber every day (not a mix, just one type everyday) - sometimes twice a day. This is because my skink never wants to drink water. The fruit juice is given fresh and the skink always drinks in front of me.
2) every other day or sometimes everyday (depending on his appetite) I also give it mashed cucumber or watermelon or orange pulp
3) once to twice a month: raw fish or canned cat food
4)in a very rare occasions, the skink actually come to us when we are eating and then we will give it very small amount of our food.
The size of the everyday food I described above is approx 1 tablespoonful.

Comparing yo your food chart, I suppose the diet I gave is very bad.... but amazingly the skink seems to be fine with it.
Id it very weird?

Regards

Pritya

[Dakota]

Do you not give your skink any protein, or did I read over that?

ETA: I did read over it. Yeah, once a month is way too scarce..

[NightViper14]

Seems like he would need ore protein and I don't think fish is the best thing for them.

[Spindown]

Please read the diet chart very carefully. Many foods are available world wide, but they may be called different things. The fortunate/unfortunate thing about blue tongues is they can suffer a lot of improper care and appear healthy.

Reptiles hide illnesses very very well. No offense...but considering that you are feeding it a high amount of sugar with almost no protein...your bluey is probably unhealthy but not showing obvious symptoms. Pictures would help out a lot.
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To correct your diet:

WATER! Blueys will drink regular water, and NEED regular water to live. They will usually not drink in front of you. This does NOT mean they are not drinking! Fruit juice instead of water is just giving your skink pretty much pure sugar.

A large portion of a bluey diet should be meat. MEAT meat, like red meat. COOKED but not seasoned. Beef, Pork, Lamb, Mutton, Kangaroo, Emu, probably most anything, including squirrel etc. I would imagine you would have to have some sort of meat where you live, or you would be very sick. Avoid chicken, since it seems to have a very negative effect on calcium intake. Eggs (cooked or raw) are also a good treat for them.

CUT OUT ALL THE SUGAR! Blueys do NOT need sugary fruity foods ever. They can be used sparingly as treats.

In addition to needing meat...Blueys also NEED Veggies. There HAS to be veggies where you live, or again, you would be very very sick. There are many commercially grown vegetables available all over the world that would work for blueys. Please read through the food chart, and if you have any questions, we will do our best to figure out what they may be called in your country.

Blueys need a mix of meat and veggies at least once a week to be healthy. If you do not have access to meat for whatever reason...use canned dog food as a meat substitute. You can also feed insects to SUPPLEMENT the meat in their diet.
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I saw another thing that I wanted to ask about. You mentioned that sometimes the skink comes up to you where you are eating. Does your skink have its own cage? Does it just free roam around your house?

[Linnea]

I live in a very cold country in europe so i can relate to that the food chart doesnt have the exact items available, but what the food chart does say is how to pick food in general. 60% vegetable matter and 40% protein. what these are you can choose for yourself, almost. just avoid the toxic vegetables and im sure you, being in a tropical country, have a lot of vegetables to choose from. meat is likely expensive, but eggs should be readily available and canned dog food as well.

as the others have said, that is a lot of sugar. so much sugar that it is dangerous. its the same as you eating at least one bag of candy every day of the week.

since blueys are omnivores they need a balanced diet. some meat and some vegetables that you change every now and then can give it that.


i suggest you take the meat advice to heart at least, and cut back on the fruits to once a week at the most. its great that you can offer your skink so many fruits, but pick only the best for special occasions.

if you write down some usual vegetables here im sure we will recognize some of them. just write a few cheap ones you normally eat

[Spindown]

if you write down some usual vegetables here im sure we will recognize some of them. just write a few cheap ones you normally eat

Thats a great idea!

[Dakota]

I have a friend in Malaysia, not to far from Indonesia.. I will ask her.

[Lea]

Hi all,

I saw the food chart in this forum and found most of the stuffs difficult to find in tropical country. Do you have a version that is adjusted for tropical country?
I had my BTS for 11 years now and the diet consists of:
1) fruit juice, I.e. orange, watermelon, cucumber every day (not a mix, just one type everyday) - sometimes twice a day. This is because my skink never wants to drink water. The fruit juice is given fresh and the skink always drinks in front of me.
2) every other day or sometimes everyday (depending on his appetite) I also give it mashed cucumber or watermelon or orange pulp
3) once to twice a month: raw fish or canned cat food
4)in a very rare occasions, the skink actually come to us when we are eating and then we will give it very small amount of our food.
The size of the everyday food I described above is approx 1 tablespoonful.

Comparing yo your food chart, I suppose the diet I gave is very bad.... but amazingly the skink seems to be fine with it.
Id it very weird?

Regards

Pritya

Hi, Pritya. Welcome to the forum! I'm glad you posted your diet, it will help us guide you to formulating something more nutritious for your skink.

As you've seen for yourself on the care sheet, your diet is obviously not quite covering the nutritional needs of your animal. By working out what is available to you from your locality, we can try and a make a food plan. Oranges and citrus fruits are more acidic than other fruit choices and best avoided. Watermelon is a good choice as an occasional treat, along with mango, strawberries and a few other fruits that you may recognise on the care sheet. They do contain a lot of sugar though and can pose a problem the teeth and gum health and the more acidic fruits can also lead to excoriation and ulceration.

I would suggest cutting back the fruit portion of your diet to approximately 10% of what you feed over the month. Approximately 40% should be a protein source. Beef is generally a good choice, as it has a higher calcium content than chicken of turkey. Dog food is generally considered better than cat food, but a good quality cat food can be used if that is all you have available.

So, the veggies! I'm not sure what you have available, but I'm sure you can get hold of bok choy or pak choy, in Indonesia, so you might find those a good choice for veggies. Other veggies, as listed on the food chart, as available to you, but you will have to tell us what you can get hold of. Cucumber has a very poor nutritional value and not a good choice for your blue tongue, but it's certainly not harmful.

Fresh water is essential! He may seem to enjoy lapping at juice, but the sweetness is probably luring him in. Blue tongues can appear not to like water, but they will drink when we are not watching and it's greatly important to have fresh water available at all times.

There is no reason why you can't simplify things to start off and feed a good quality dog food, complete with the veggies in it. Adding a little fruit once a week, may help your bluey eat more readily, since that is what he recognises, but most blueys have no problem wolfing down a good meaty meal.

Getting hold of a calcium supplement, complete with vitamin D3, will help give your blue tongue his nutritional requirements. Just add a dusting over the dog food before feeding.

For now, I'd keep it simple. Go for some good dog or cat food, preferably with veggies included and find a calcium supplement with vitamin D3. This will be sufficient to vastly improve his diet. Once you work out what foods you can get hold of, you can decide whether to enhance it with the addition of fresh vegetables, or even fresh meat. Eggs can also be used occasionally as a protein source and they are usually enjoyed very much!

So, keep it simple, give yourself a starting point to work from and make additions to the diet as you find and understand each element. You often can't see a problem caused by a poor diet, but unfortunately, they are still there and what might seem to be a healthy blue tongue, can be very sick.

I'm very pleased you posted and are keen to learn more about the diet. Your skink will definitely be much healthier for the changes.

[Lea]

Hi, again. I just saw your other thread with the link to your photos on Facebook. Does your skink have a small lump over his hips? This may be evidence of an underlying problem, referred to as metabolic bone disease, or MBD. It is hard to tell from those photos, but otherwise he appears to be outwardly healthy. Once you correct your diet, you'll help prevent any other potential problems, including bone disease or kidney problems. Don't fret about it, it's just obviously something to make yourself aware of and familiarise yourself with how best to prevent it, using a good, varied diet and the use of calcium and vitamin D3 supplementation.

Try not to worry too much about what you've fed or how you've cared for him over the last eleven years, the important thing is that you recognise the need for changes and do things now that will benefit the future health of your skink.

[pritya]

Hi all, thank you very much for the feedback and the inputs. Sorry for the overdue reply.
@LeaBilby: yup the skink has a lump on the hip and it has been there since the day I got the skink. I don't know how the previous owner care for it but the lump has actually become less noticeable now. The skink used to be very skinny when I first got it. The head seemed big compared to the body and the lump was more noticeable back then.
Anyway, after reading your inputs I bought the skink a small can of cat food (the one for kittens). Unfortunately I can't find a small can of dog food so I tried with cat food instead, but this time the one with chicken and liver so not so much fish.
The thing is, my skink is very easily bored with food. Say, I open a can of food, she will eat happily for as much as 1-2 table spoonfuls. So I put the food in the fridge in closed container. It will not have interest in the food a few days later. So I can't buy a big can of dog food, otherwise most of them will go to waste.

Also, the skink really hates vegetables. It really likes grated cucumber, but when I mix it with grated carrot or grated green bean, it will not eat it.

Something interesting happened today. I was eating salad when the skink looked at me and licking its lips. So I got some salad without the dressing and gave it to the skink. It's a mix of lettuce, tomatoes, boiled egg, and chicken. The skink really liked it, so I gave some more. The 2nd round it walked away.

I am planning on moving country in the near future and am hoping to be able to provide better life quality for the skink. Anyone experienced in moving skink out of Indonesia? In my case, to Hong Kong.

thanks

Pritya

[pritya]

Btw, answering SapphireTigress, yes my skink roam around the house most of the day but I put it back in the container in the afternoon to sleep.

[Lea]

Your skink is an adult, so one or two tablespoons, once or twice a week is ample. He's likely not hungry when you feed him, which is why he doesn't appear to eat much. Try feeding only twice a week, even once a week if he doesn't seem hungry. If you seal the can well, it will keep for a week to allow for two feeds.

Cat food isn't bad. It contains added taurine which is why cat food has such a bad reputation, but taurine is an amino acid that is actually present in all meats and is required for many biological process. It's efficacy hasn't been really studied for the benefits for reptiles, but neither have the constraints. A meaty cat food is certainly a HUGE amount better than fish though, so it's an improvement in your skink's diet.

Lettuce has a very poor nutritional value, so it's not worth feeding. Carrot will most likely be consumed readily if grated into the cat food mix, particularly once you cut feeds back to once a week. The cucumber skin has a good vitamin content, such as vitamin C, but the flesh is very watery and is poor in nutrients. Green beans are a better source of veggie for the diet, but have a poor calcium level. You'll definitely need to be supplementing your skink's diet with calcium and vitamin D3 with your current regime.

The boiled egg and chicken will be good protein sources. Tomatoes vary in their acidity and can be a little tart, but you'll usually taste the difference yourself. Generally speaking, a fleshier and bigger tomato will be less acidic, but that won't go for all varieties. It's definitely not a bad choice of food though.