Thought on feeding bad meat

[Dakota]

Occasionally we forget about some meat that we intend to fix the next day, and before you know it; it is stinky!

Could you feed this to your skinks? I know they don't exactly get the freshest of meat in the wild sometimes..

Would it harm them to feed the bad meat? Would it benefit them?

[donkeybuff]

I would imagine that it wouldn't be harmful towards wild caught skinks or skinks that have been housed outdoors for most of their lives. I'm not so sure about skinks that have grown up indoors, since their immune systems might not be as strong due to limited exposure to pathogens.

[Bird_Brain]

Just my thought in it (which has no scientific backing, just what I think), being a captive animal, it's not going to have the natural gut enzymes, bacteria, etc that their wild counterparts have. My example would be a feral dog. They get into all sorts of crap in the wild and don't seem to be as negatively affected as if my dog would get into the trash. I would be rushing her to the vet for a pancreatitis. I would not risk it.

[Linnea]

No, id not feed my skinks bad meat.
Apart from not having the natural gut flora outdoor skinks have, the substances formed in canned dogfood is as bad as any other canned product - it can be quite toxic. especially in cheaper products.

[Dakota]

I'm talking meat like ground beef, ground turkey, ect.. I don't feed canned dog-food.

Would it be any different than a skink eating the food 2 days after it has been in the cage (when it reallllly starts to stink up the house)

[Linnea]

No, its not any different. But who would leave the food there for 2 days?

I dont leave the food in the terrarium for more than 8 hours (while i am in school). 2 days is disgusting imo, and if it stinks up the house its the bacteria that is decomposing it thats smelling and not the meat.
Same thing as changing the water once or twice a day in a warm terrarium is a minimum.

Keep in mind the ground meat you feed can have the exact same amounts of toxic chemicals to keep it red/big looking/juicy/good looking/salty. So its not really any different.

[Dakota]

No, its not any different. But who would leave the food there for 2 days?

I dont leave the food in the terrarium for more than 8 hours (while i am in school). 2 days is disgusting imo, and if it stinks up the house its the bacteria that is decomposing it thats smelling and not the meat.

Lots of people.

[Bluish]

2 days Food rarely lasts more than a few minutes in my enclosures and I'm feeding some of them large meals every day or every other day.
Are you feeding cooked meat or raw? Raw can contain some nasty pathogens that I wouldn't risk feeding to any animal
Leaving stinky meat out is asking for a whole host of problems including fly infestations. I would look at adjusting the amount and schedule of your feedings to make sure it is eaten in a timely manner.

[Mimo]

i don't leave the food at all...
Yellow usally eats it almost all at once

[Dakota]

I feed raw, but I don't leave it out no more than 10 minutes.. since 5 of my 6 are outside.. I just know of a lot of people do... with inside dog-food diets.

[donkeybuff]

If there are leftovers, I regularly leave them in for a day or two. I have only kept skinks for just over 18 months, but I have not noticed any negative effects so far.

[Scincoides]

Out of nearly 30 skinks, i'd say nearly half prefer to wait a while before touching their food. I try to feed in the mornings, then take the bowls out before i go to bed that night. So 10-14 hours or so. I even have one small northern that prefers to wait until i try to remove the bowl before deciding that its time to eat. 10+ hours out doesnt seem to be an issue, although it does attract Phorid Flies which are disgusting. Dakota, as far as bad meat goes, i really wouldnt risk it man. It might be just fine, but its always possible that it could cause an issue that could lead to a costly vet visit.

[Dakota]

Okay yeah, don't want cause an issue with their health.. so probably a no, no