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Blue tongue skinks are native to Australia and make great pets! They are docile, tame, friendly and don’t cause allergies like some household pets. They are also easy

to setup and maintain.

 

Blue tongues are large terrestrial lizards measuring up to 60 centimetres long and over 700 grams in weight. They have a long stout banded body and short legs, giving them a snake-like appearance. Their name comes from the cobalt blue tongue they stick out if threatened, or to taste their environment. They are diurnal (active during the day), ovoviviparous (the eggs hatching inside the female's body) having as many as 16 live young per litter, and they can live for over 30 years if housed correctly.

Because they are fairly large they need a big enclosure with one adult in a 1200 x 600 x 600 mm space.

Blue tongue skinks can have a wide range of substrate and what you choose depends whether you are going to be feeding your skink in its enclosure or out of it. Aspen, bark, and coir coconut fibre are good substrates that will satisfy their like of burrowing, while artificial grass

is easy to clean and won’t get mixed up with their food. With an artifical grass carpet ensure the edges have no loose fibres they can ingest (I usually use a lighter to melt it).

 

Fake plants, rocks and logs look nice in your blue tongue skink’s vivarium and can add enrichment. A cave can supply a nice area to get away from prying eyes but make sure whatever you put in there can’t fall on your skink.

As blue tongue skinks are diurnal they must have UVB/UVA lighting to mimic the sun. Being a forest dweller a 5.0 UVB bulb or a 6% T5 fluorescent tube is probably best and bulbs will need to be replaced

once a year. The enclosure also needs a temperature gradient from around 29°C to the basking spot temperature of 35°C. This will allow them to regulate their own temperature. For heat sources you can buy special heat lamps from pet stores. Remember they get really hot so they must have a ceramic fitting and ensure your reptile won’t be burnt by it.

 

Clean water should always be accessible in an appropriate water dish, blue-tongued skinks are not good swimmers and must be able to easily exit the water. As they are from semi-dry areas and require low humidity with adequate ventilation, too much moisture can create health problems. Humidity levels should range between 25 and 40 percent. Use a hygrometer to monitor humidity levels.

 

A blue tongue’s general diet should consist of 50% veggies, 40% protein (meats and insects) and 10% fruit.

For veggies and fruits, you can use pūhā, water cress, broccoli, tomatoes, zucchini, peas, mustard greens, grated butternut squash, dandelions (should be mixed with other veggies), apples,strawberries, bananas, pear, figs, melon, plums, kiwifruit and raisins. Avoid citrus, avocado, and eggplant.

 

Protein can come in the form of good quality dog food, crickets, locusts, snails (no need to take the shell off -same applies for crickets and locusts), mealworms, earthworms, tiger worms, cockroaches and raw or boiled egg.

The food can be dusted with an occasional Calcium supplement with vitamin D3 but DO NOT OVERDOSE AS IT COULD BE FATAL!

 

 

Unlike many reptiles, blue-tongued skinks are very personable and often seem to enjoy being handled and scratched on the head or chin seeming to love the attention.

 

Blue tongue skinks are active during the day but tend to sit in their caves a lot. They each have their own personalities

 

and their own tastes and what they like and dislike. Unless you have a really large enclosure they should not be kept with other reptiles as feeding habits and enclosure requirements can make them incompatible. This can also apply to housing them together as in the wild they are solitary, usually only coming together to breed, thus they

can be unfriendly to each other and two males put together can create territorial problems and they will fight.

Brumation is a state of hibernation that worries most reptile keepers. Some reptiles brumate when food supplies dwindle in the wild. At the onset of autumn or winter your lizard may refuse to eat for long periods of time, or become increasingly inactive and lethargic. How and where they brumate can be varied for different individual reptiles within

a species. Brumation can last anything from one week to four or more months. During this period their metabolism slows right down and some may wake, have a drink, and go back to sleep again. Don’t try to force water or food on the reptile during this period and try to minimise disturbing it, though a quick check to ensure it is alright is okay. Let your animal decide what it wants and needs. Youngsters often do not brumate the first year, but adults do. Once they wake up they may take a couple of days to get back to their normal behaviour and eating.