Dogfood.

[mrsgerber]

I am sold on the idea of dog food after reading some threads here, and will try it with my new adult BTS. But not all dogfoods are the same, so which do you recommend? My dogs eat a limited ingredient diet grain free food, something like that but canned? And the other question is; Do you feed your BT's cold dog food or do you warm it up?
If I feed say two tablespoons everyother day mixed with veggies is that about the right amount?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[Fatal_S]

From what I'm told, the cheaper and more terrible the dogfood seems, the better the skinks do. I'm not the voice of wisdom here, but I feed mainly Pedigree beef/chicken. I'll also feed other random cat/dog foods I find on sale. I feed it at room-temperature; they'd probably enjoy it warm, but wow would that stink.

[donkeybuff]

I try to feed the ones that claim to be "high quality", but there's really no dog food that's high quality like we expect it to be (the good meat is reserved for people). Some brands I use are Blue Buffalo, Halo, Wellness, and Pedigree on occasion. I generally warm up dog food if it's been in the refrigerator, but it'n not necessary. The food chart (bluetongueskinks.net/foodchart.html) has good advice on the stuff you should be feeding, as well as the quantity and frequency of feedings.

[Richard.C]

o use pedogree 5 types of meat if i can otherwise same brand in beef if someones claimed all the slabs of 5 kinds of meat,or chum in similar flavours,though its 3 kinds of meat or beef there

[mrsgerber]

So, I fed my BTs for the first time just a few minutes ago. I made a large plate with some 'pedigree' dog food on one side, some canned cat food 'trader joe's with chicken, turkey and rice' on the other, a few butterworms walking around, and some egg shell. i had the egg scrambled i was holding back, just in case she didn't eat anything else thought i would try it, but didn't end up needing it. So, she ate the cat food, it was right in front of her, maybe she would have eaten the dog food if it had been right in front of her nose. She ate all of it which was about 2 tablespoons, she tried and then spit out the eggshell, she ignored the worms and didn't try the dog food.
Thoughts?
Thanks!

[Susann]

Two tablespoons every other day may be a bit excessive for an adult BTS. If he's in good condition.
A healthy adult should only need to eat every 4-5 days at most.
I use mostly Wellness and Blue Buffalo, but go with other stuff from time to time, then mix in my own stuff. Don't forget calcium w/D3.
Eggshell is best fed when it's ground.

And I don't believe we've seen pictures yet ...have we?

[mrsgerber]

you have not seen pics, I have no idea how to post them! thanks for the feedback! regarding calcium d-3, i have flukers and with my bd's i just shake their worms with a pinch, how much and how do i feed it to my BTS? mix it in the catfood I'm guessing? i also have flukers liquid calcium, should i use both? or powder in food and liquid in water?

[Susann]

The amount of calcium powder is a long debated issue. Not debated exactly, but nobody has really been able to say "put X amount on X amount of food" because, it depends on what you're feeding, and how much, and how often, and how big your skink is, etc, etc.
I think the common consensus has been to just shake enough on top of the food (then mix it in) that it looks like the amount of powdered sugar you'd see on a doughnut, on about every other meal.
I wouldn't use both powder and liquid, stick with one or the other. And personally I wouldn't add it in the water, I'd just put it in the food. Too much calcium can actually result in MBD just as easily as too little, so you don't want to overdo it.

And cat food is fine to feed, I just wouldn't personally feed it in every meal as a staple because of the added taurine, that's why I use almost exclusively dog food.

Pictures.
When you've hit SEND REPLY, underneath the box you type in you see OPTIONS and UPLOAD ATTACHMENT, hit UPPLOAD ATTACHMENT; up will pop a box that says BROWSE... hit that and go to wherever on your computer you store your pictures and double-click the picture you want. Then hit ADD THE FILE, then scroll back down, click your cursor in the text wherever you want the picture to appear, then hit PLACE INLINE. And presto!

You may have to reduce the size of your picture first though.

[jdheff1982]

The amount of calcium powder is a long debated issue. Not debated exactly, but nobody has really been able to say "put X amount on X amount of food" because, it depends on what you're feeding, and how much, and how often, and how big your skink is, etc, etc.
I think the common consensus has been to just shake enough on top of the food (then mix it in) that it looks like the amount of powdered sugar you'd see on a doughnut, on about every other meal.
I wouldn't use both powder and liquid, stick with one or the other. And personally I wouldn't add it in the water, I'd just put it in the food. Too much calcium can actually result in MBD just as easily as too little, so you don't want to overdo it.

And cat food is fine to feed, I just wouldn't personally feed it in every meal as a staple because of the added taurine, that's why I use almost exclusively dog food.

Pictures.
When you've hit SEND REPLY, underneath the box you type in you see OPTIONS and UPLOAD ATTACHMENT, hit UPPLOAD ATTACHMENT; up will pop a box that says BROWSE... hit that and go to wherever on your computer you store your pictures and double-click the picture you want. Then hit ADD THE FILE, then scroll back down, click your cursor in the text wherever you want the picture to appear, then hit PLACE INLINE. And presto!

You may have to reduce the size of your picture first though.

Pics do not need re-sizing. The forum reduces them and others can click to see actual size. I posted pics here as attachments that are huge! Like 3264 x 2448 huge.

[Susann]

Pics do not need re-sizing. The forum reduces them and others can click to see actual size. I posted pics here as attachments that are huge! Like 3264 x 2448 huge.

Now, that is good to know! Guess I'm still stuck on the way it was in the olden days

[Dakota]

How do you post them without sizing or through a photo hosting website??

[donkeybuff]

My pics have to be resized. They are 5184x3456 before I resize them, but they have to be made smaller in order to meet the 3mb forum limit.

[mrsgerber]

So, here are some pics of her/him? How do you think s/he looks? Healthy I hope! just at 20 inches from nose to tail tip.

bts4.jpg

bts5.jpg

bts6.jpg

bts3.jpg

[Richard.C]

looks like a nice healthy ij bluetongue

looks in good shape

[donkeybuff]

Definitely IJ, but it looks like it has some Northern in it. It really doesn't matter though; it will still be a great pet.

[Fatal_S]

Gorgeous IJ. It appears to be a wonderful example of a classic IJ to me. It does appear to have an odd back bend/hump, possibly caused by MBD, but overall looks very healthy and beautiful.

[mrsgerber]

thanks for the info. but shouldn't i be panicking or something that my fella has or might have MBD? what do i do? how can i help it?

[donkeybuff]

MBD doesn't have a real medicine or cure, but it can be treated before it becomes overly harmful to the skink with proper Calcium/D3 supplementation.

[Dakota]

Doesn't look like MBD to me. Xaunder, my female Merauke, would get this hump after a good meal, it is just the belly pushing up the spine. It would eventually go down after she has digested the food. I wouldn't worry.

[El Lobo]

Where the hump is in the picture is not where the stomach or main GI tract are situated.