[Catherine896]

I have saved a list of everything safe for a skink to eat.

I was just wondering what everyone feeds their skink?

How many types of fruit/veg shall I feed daily?
How often can livefoods be fed?
When people say they feed chicken, why feed chicken? Im guessing its used for protein but is there anything else that can be fed?
Do they require calcium/vit supplements?

Also I have heard people often breed giant african land snails for them, how often do these get fed as I would consider doing this if they can be used regularly.

Thanks

 

[ScottyGurn]

my step dad feeds his mostly insects and i think a tiny bit of veg

also we feed em raw meat like pieces of beef and defrost chicks/mice

 

[PsyKoViggy]

A tiny big of veg really is not at all enough, and chicks don't sound like a great idea.

As long as you are feeding things high in calcium line the spring greens, you shouldn't really need supliments, though i give mine nutrobal once a week just incase, heh.

Like i said before, i mostly use spring greens, butternut squash, mango and grilled chicken as a base and then add other foods to that.

I use chicken because it mixes well with the veg and my skink likes it, otherwise he is likely to leave his veg, especially the greens. Other people use cat food and coat the veg in it.
Live food can be fed as a staple, but i don't keep any so i don't really know what can be fed regularly.
They mostly eat snails in the wild, so you could definatly use them as a staple, yeh.. and the love scrambled eggs, and i'v even heard of people making the occasional cricket omlette.

 

[Catherine896]

Eww, cricket omlette!! Think Ill give that one a miss!

What brand of cat food gets used? Is that OK to use instead of chicken then?

Thanks

 

[PsyKoViggy]

I'm not completely sure, but none of the brands you find in super markets. They have to be slow fat, high meat content cat foods with no salt or preservatives or fish or anything so it'll be hard to find, probably need to be shipped and will be very expencive.
Bit of cooked chicken is a lot simpler.

Something like this might be alright, i can ask for you if you'd like.

 

[Catherine896]

Yep chicken certainly sounds alot simpler lol!
Do they get the chicken everyday then or is it just a weekly thing to add to veg?
Thanks!

 

[miffikins]

Its supposed to be something like 60% veggies, 10% fruit and 30% animal protein....alledgedly. But yeah, as said they eat a lot of snails in the wild, hence the jaw musculature, so GALS would be good. I plan on breeding some this summer along with my roaches.

I get stuff like tesco/morrisons tatsoi salad (has endive and escarole in which are good), butternut squash and stuff. Tiny bit of water, in the blender with a teeny bit of grilled chicken then I mix in little bit of nutrabol and some calypso calcium with it for him. Looks disgusting, but he likes it :lol2: I basically just have a print out of those food charts on the fridge and when we go shopping pick up a few different things for him. He loves grapes but I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to have them too much.

I tend not to use much chicken, mostly livefoods as I have them in for everything else we have. I think you can overdo it a bit with mammalian stuff and make them chubby, I guess thats why most people grill or boil it. I havn't tried scrambled egg yet, might do that!

I'm not sure I want to know how you'd go about making a cricket omlette

: victory:

 

[Catherine896]

I always have livefoods in aswell so if I feed veg/fruit mix daily and livefoods then?
With chicken say, once a week?

Thanks alot!

 

[Johelian]

I feed mine the same greens as my monkey tails, chunks of fruit like mango, papaya, cantaloupe, strawberries, banana, kiwi etc and a totally organic catfood. I have used Natures Menu and I must admit I wasnt impressed by it...its only 70% meat and still contains vegetable "derivatives". The brand I use is called Almo Nature - they sell it in a local Petfood Kingdom. It only contains natural complete ingredients (they do a great chicken and pumpkin one that only contains chicken, pumpkin, about 1% rice and cooking water); when you look at it it actually looks like the ingredients, not the usual brown mess that you get with other cat foods! Plus you can get it in tiny little cans that are great portions for my two. Its handy as its already cooked, already shredded and contains pumpkin for added vitamin A. The skinks also like it alot! Its mainly used to flavour the rest of their food though rather than a separate helping.

I usually add to this a few inverts - frozen and defrosted crickets or locusts (mine are terrible at catching them), moorios and roaches. I also have a colony of garden snails that have been cleaned through; these dont last long as I havent mastered breeding them lol. I also buy Can O' Snails whenever I can find them for sale!

 

[miffikins]

I've always avoided cat food because of the rubbish they put in it and I can never seem to find any of the organic stuff locally Maybe I'll have a google...

Nice to see your lacertas in your sig Jo, they are verrry pretty!

: victory:

 

[Johelian]

I've always avoided cat food because of the rubbish they put in it and I can never seem to find any of the organic stuff locally Maybe I'll have a google...

Nice to see your lacertas in your sig Jo, they are verrry pretty!

: victory:

Hehe, thanks They have all finished shedding now, I will have to upload some more pics! They almost glow! Theyre not particularly bright though and all run away when anyone comes into the room...only to come running back when they see I have food!

I agree with the catfood thing, I wouldnt feed any of the big-name brands; if you look at the ingredients they always have either meats or vegetable "derivatives", or "derivatives of animal origin" - that one doesnt even say what kind of meat it is! Very bad. The Almo Nature just saves cooking the chicken myself...it has that tiny bit of rice for filler, which is the only "bad" thing about it I would say. They do great tiny portions too (meant to be for overweight cats...all they have done is cheekily put less food in the tin lol!)

Have you been away Miffikins, I dont think I have seen you posting in a while..?

 

[Catherine896]

So if I do veg and fruit daily, with livefoods. How often do I do chicken?
I will look into that catfood you mentioned, if I can find it how often do they have this?
Do I blend it all together so its a paste or do I just chop it up?

Thanks alot.

EDIT - is this the stuff?

Almo Nature BioPate for cats with chicken 6x100g on eBay, also Food Treats, Cats, Pet Supplies, Home Garden (end time 19-Jul-08 17:15:12 BST)

 

[miffikins]

Exams, boo hoo. 3 down, 4 to go :2thumb: I'm in the library now actually, been here since 9.15, I think it could be time to go and eat some food :lol2:

I might keep my eye out for that cat food and try it if its not too expensive. Chicken takes like 5 mins on the george forman you see and we give the rest to the army of cats :lol2: Either that or I eat the rest on a nice big oven bottom muffin with some bbq sauce. I definatly am hungry :lol2:

 

[ScottyGurn]

A tiny big of veg really is not at all enough, and chicks don't sound like a great idea.

As long as you are feeding things high in calcium line the spring greens, you shouldn't really need supliments, though i give mine nutrobal once a week just incase, heh.

Like i said before, i mostly use spring greens, butternut squash, mango and grilled chicken as a base and then add other foods to that.

I use chicken because it mixes well with the veg and my skink likes it, otherwise he is likely to leave his veg, especially the greens. Other people use cat food and coat the veg in it.
Live food can be fed as a staple, but i don't keep any so i don't really know what can be fed regularly.
They mostly eat snails in the wild, so you could definatly use them as a staple, yeh.. and the love scrambled eggs, and i'v even heard of people making the occasional cricket omlette.

i said i think he only gives it a bit of veg but iv never seen him put the veg in the bowl so he will do enough for the needs of the bluey.

chicks? what are wrong with them? you can feed em mice and if they was in the wild and found some baby birds you better believe they wud be in its belly within a matter of seconds.

there is nothing wrong with the blue tongue as its grown massive in the short time we have had it and its one of the biggest ones iv seen, ladst time we measured it was jus under 2 and a half feet.

 

[PsyKoViggy]

I never said there was anything wrong with it, only that veg should be the biggest protion of their diet and that i have never heard of them eating chicks, probably because chicks are rather big and they don't tend to eat that much in one sitting anyway, so put the fruit and veg with that and its a big much for one meal really.
Does he cut them up or feed them whole?
How are they going to find baby birds in the wild? They're in trees arn't they?
Birds eat blueys, not the other way around. They'll eat and egg if they find one on the ground, but i very much doubt they'd manage a baby bird.

Biggest as in long, or as in fat?
That is very long for a BTS.

Pictures would be lovely anyway, because i honestly can't imagin it.
And i'm really not having a go, i'm just curious.

 

[miffikins]

I think the thing with chicks is they're not really that great nutritionally, like pinkies, they're not very developed so not packed with that many goodies...thats why people tend to get snakes off pinkies as soon as the snake is big enough. Its also why you see a lot of obese monitors

Snails and livefoods are a good way to go, a lot less fatty, as they are a bit prone to getting chubby :lol2:

And an animal growing fast isnt always the best senario, not having a go, its just something to bare in mind....there is such a thing as powerfeeding

: victory:

EDIT: If its quite long may be a Merauke, they tend to have quite a long tail...

 

[ScottyGurn]

i will try and get some pics for you

as in long, it is quite chunky tho.

but ive jus been watchin some blueys on youtube and there tail is like a stumpy little thing but out blueys tail is bigger than its body, is that normal?

the chicks are very small compared to its head and it swallows it down no probs and then eats the insects in his viv.

i dint know you could feed em african land snails as we have got aload of em and all they do is lay eggs haha

will defo be trying that out

 

[Johelian]

So if I do veg and fruit daily, with livefoods. How often do I do chicken?
I will look into that catfood you mentioned, if I can find it how often do they have this?
Do I blend it all together so its a paste or do I just chop it up?

Thanks alot.

EDIT - is this the stuff?

Almo Nature BioPate for cats with chicken 6x100g on eBay, also Food Treats, Cats, Pet Supplies, Home Garden (end time 19-Jul-08 17:15:12 BST)

The one I buy isnt a pate, its shredded chicken...but it should be the same brand (sorry Im on my work PC and it wont load the page!). I use small quantities on almost every meal, unless I can get a good meal of snails together - then they take the place of the meat Mine wont eat any veg without it, so they dont get a lot of meat - enough to make their veg smell and taste like meat lol! They are fully grown adults though, so babies will need less. I would offer more livefoods to a baby personally though.

Be careful with too much protein/vertebrate prey items; as already mentioned blueys are prone to getting obese as they are not particularly active.

I agree with Miffikins, yours is probably a Meruake; they are considered the largest blue tongues as they have very long tails!

 

[andur]

see nile post

look on post for nile feeding, mine eats most things,blue tongues like variouse fruits banana is good, vegies is try to u find what yours likes.most insects:2thumb: