I'll start by saying that I do not own a BTS but if I did I would steer away from processed dog foods and make your own diet using offal, mince, organs (e.g. heart, liver etc), eggs, whole prey (mice, chicks etc) and add suitable veggies/fruit. Freeze in portions, defrost and serve when needed. I would still also provide live bugs, both for nutrition and enrichment. Be careful of any commercial 'complete' diets.

If you insist on using dog food, I would use a natural raw based food such as nature's menu or Lily's kitchen. A lot of commercial dog food is bad for dogs so pick very carefully.

 

I have bts. If it had the chance it would eat dog food all day long, however it isn't good for it, and only gets a small amount once in a blue moon if I've run out of all other protein foods.

The problem is that most dog food contains bone meal that is not good for the animal. Most is also cooked. In the wild the animal would not be eating cooked food.

I tend to provide a diet that is 70% veg/fruit and 30% protein. Protein items can consist of raw offal like kidney. You can also collect snails and slugs. Keep these for a week or so in a container eating a know source of leaf to ensure any nasties that they may have eaten in the garden have passed through. As my skink is young a chop them up.

Live locusts are also a good source of protein as the animal has to work hard to catch its prey. Keeps it active.

They will also eat raw egg.

It's easy to over feed so portion sizes should be strictly controlled.

Its easy to waste a lot of food with skinks if you buy food from the supermarket as the package sizes are huge and the food expires too soon. I am trying to integrate my own meals into the skinks feeding regime. For instance I'll purchase some broccoli for my dinner and put a small amount to one side for the skink. It's a good excuse for me to eat strawberries and raspberries too, as the little blighter loves to chow on these.

I also find that feeding the animal out of its vivarium assists in making it more sociable and eager to come out. My little one is now taking food from my hands.

I hope this helps....this is only my methodology and may differ to others so please do take on board others people's advice too.

 

Brand

I buy the cesar, chicken with the carrots on top. Meat looks good quality, my skink loves it and the carrot pieces with a tiny bit of jelly, never leaves any. Looking on the ingredients, I can't see anything that would be harmful.

You just have to be careful of the portion sizes, given in the correct amounts its a good source of protein. Good to mix it up though, crickets/snails now and again, mine likes boiled egg as well, devours the stuff.

Ingredients:
Meat and Animal Derivatives (50%, including 4% Chicken), Vegetables (including 4% of a mix of Carrots and Red Peppers), Cereals, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin

If anyone can see anything wrong with this then please let me know because there are other brands I could choose.

 

I buy the cesar, chicken with the carrots on top. Meat looks good quality, my skink loves it and the carrot pieces with a tiny bit of jelly, never leaves any. Looking on the ingredients, I can't see anything that would be harmful.

You just have to be careful of the portion sizes, given in the correct amounts its a good source of protein. Good to mix it up though, crickets/snails now and again, mine likes boiled egg as well, devours the stuff.

Ingredients:
Meat and Animal Derivatives (50%, including 4% Chicken), Vegetables (including 4% of a mix of Carrots and Red Peppers), Cereals, Minerals, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin

If anyone can see anything wrong with this then please let me know because there are other brands I could choose.

Cereals in dogs can cause severe allergens so i would avoid a cereal based diet with a reptile. The other point is only 4% of the product is actually chicken meat based protein so pretty pointless being fed. IF you want a dog food (don't know why you would personally) then do not go with the tinned stuff. It is full of additives, lacking actual meat content and full of fillers such as cereals.

 

i dont even feed my dogs tinned dog food as there is so much additives in it
, anyway its cooked and no animal would know how to light a fire other than humans so raw food is best for them

 

This thing about cooking seems to be a dead argument to me. Humans did eat raw meats at one time before fire, cooking is just a pre stage of digestion and helps us get more calories from our food as it is easier to digest. Why would cooked meat be bad for the skink????

I have seen videos of so many people cooking turkey mince etc for their skink as part of their diet. I can't see why you are making this out to be an issue. Why is cooking the meat harmful???

 

I have seen online that so many breeders feed dog food in the US and Australia, and many other sites say it is a good staple of their diet. But it's best to mix it up.

I agree with you that the cheaper dog foods are full of crap and alot of sugars etc which give dogs terrible problems with tooth decay in the long term.

The better quality dog foods however I don't see as being an issue for skinks, if you can tell me exactly why they are so bad I might reconsider.

What are these additives you speak of and why are they so bad??????

 

I personally won't feed dog/cat food to my BTS again, not only because I have no idea
what it contains that isn't listed in the ingredients but most of it didn't get eaten!
Lean turkey mince is readily available and is a far better option IMO. I separate
it into an ice cube tray and freeze for easy portions and an
excellent balanced, staple diet is 40% turkey mince, 30% butternut squash, 20% mangoes/raspberry
and 10% greens (home grown dandelions are easy).

He also has dubia gutloaded on butternut squash and the odd snail which can also be frozen and used instead of the turkey mince.

 

Unfortunately 99% of forum talk is not based on real experience but hearsay or guesswork.

I feed dog food as a staple to my blue tongues. I vary flavours/brands, and the amount of dog food that I put into my skink mix. I also use lean steak mince or turkey mince instead of dog food for some feeds. Or sometimes I use Repashy meat pie or grub pie as the 'meat' component. But dog food is the commonest type of 'meat'. Grain content or other finer points are not anything to worry about.

I add raw beaten egg, peas, chopped salad greens, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, banana, shredded apple, grated carrot, tomato, cucumber, dandelions, any fruit or vegetable although tending to avoid brassicas. Canned varieties that I use include Pedigree Chum loaf, Cesar beef and liver, Butchers tripe mix. For one skink, you may find the new Repashy blue tongue diet is the easiest/best way. I've not tried it yet myself. I like to use good quality vitamin and mineral supplements such as Nekton Rep, Nutrobal, Repashy calcium plus.

 

Repashy Veggie Burger is popular for BTS. I'm not sure good long term diet though. Maybe 2 days of Repashy per week and a mix of other protein and vegetable sources rest of the days.

 

One of the boys do breed dogs. He feed them on a freah diet now instead of kibble and wet food because hes researched that the tinned stuff is crap and mainly full of water.

 

It's a shame that BTS husbandry hasn't improved like many other species. The only reasons I can think of why people still feed dog/cat food to reptiles is either finances or lack of effort or research.

The below link will help weedle out the bad dog foods from the better quality ones. Some of the ones mentioned above are really poor quality that I wouldn't dare feed a dog - some contain E numbers and cancer-causing chemicals.
The Dog Food Directory - now listing 1477 dog foods!

 

It's a shame that BTS husbandry hasn't improved like many other species. The only reasons I can think of why people still feed dog/cat food to reptiles is either finances or lack of effort or research.

That certainly appears to be the case reading some of the replies here, its a shame.

Lets cut the arguments about lack of scientific research or studies for a moment, if a keeper is feeding their BTS processed 'dogfood', they are doing so because it is easy, its as simple as that.

If they really do want to find the best brand, thats a good thing, certainly, but an even better thing would be to provide an appropriate and balanced diet.

 

It's so easy to get good quality protein for free or very little money.

Snails are a good start. Just feed them for a week on leftover leaves to ensure any nasties have passed through then freeze them. Then defrost and chop up.

Making yourself a nice dinner of liver? Cut a small bit of raw off and give to skink. Cheap and easy.

Making scrambled egg? Before adding milk and butter etc pop some of the beaten mixture into a pot for the skink.

Just got be be inventive.

I admit mine has the occasional bit of premium dog food, but only rarely if I haven't got anything else in.

It's more fun doing it the natural way: victory:

 

I do give snails on occasion, canned insects, and boiled or raw egg for differnet sources of protein.

 

You should also try locusts now and again. It's great fun watching the skink chasing them about trying to catch them. You get a real sense of achievement every time one gets caught:2thumb: Its also great for keeping the skink active.

 

Back to dog food of course....a friend of mine who has kept both reptiles and dogs for years coined it... As humans we should eat a natural diet to stay healthy. The odd bit of processed food doesn't hurt us but if it becomes our staple diet then it is bad for us. The same must therefore apply to animals.

So I guess dog food is the equivalent of McDonald's. Alright in moderation but not all the time.

She also said that genetically domestic mammals have become acostomed to processed food, however this may not be the case for reptiles.

Just relaying someone else's advice that I took prior to getting my skink.

 

My BTS loves locusts.

I also feed her a pinkey as a nice treat every couple of weeks.

I have to say she is probably the most difficult of all my reps in terms of feeding. I offer mango, blueberry and strawberry as this fits with what I have in for the Iguanas. I also put in kale, although she only takes small amounts.

Interesting thread - I might have a look at turkey as we are trying to eat more white and less red meat - Do you cook the turkey or feed it raw?

I feed raw meats to my dogs so sometimes get liver and kidney in, so might start offering that too - Again do you cook first or feed raw?

 

I feed raw liver and kidney. I sometimes do chicken or turkey cooked and unseasoned. I haven't fed beef or lamb and I guess pork is a no no!
Mine tends to be picky with fruit and veg too. I find that if I put meat and veg in at the same time the veg is untouched but it will scoff the meat, so I intend to alternate one feed of meat to two of veg, but pop in a few locusts from time to time.

 

Apollo - I think it would be a good idea to relax a little and take stock... People aren't on this forum for an argument. Those of us that frequent here like to have open conversation and debate, give advice, seek advice, but all in a calm manner.

Your posting manner has been pretty aggressive, which is never good when you are new to a forum.

I don't think anyone is at all calling you mentally deficient or insinuating such. People have different views. That's one of the great things about this place as we all learn from each other.

Just take a step back and calm down a little, take things a little less personally and have a reasoned and rationale debate rather than having angry outbursts.

As per my last post, I am finding this thread very interesting to help with my BTS diet - As one of the newer reps that I keep I am still learning so keeping things calm and considered will be really helpful for anyone else learning from this conversation now or in the future.

 

I'm not argumentative, I am merely responding to criticism I seem to receive, these guys obviously don't like dog food being given so they are trying to make me out to be a bad keeper to win the argument. This I do not like!

When I say I give supplements and the skink doesn't want to eat veg, these guys start asking me questions about my set up and what veg I feed, inferring there is obviously some other reason it doesn't want to eat the veg, other than its probably not its fav food. Why do kids want chicken nuggets and chips instead of broccoli shakes????

I'm not new to this forum, I had an account years back but couldn't remember the details so thought it best to start a fresh. As I know this forum, I also know that many a person will give advise without anything to back it up, this I also dislike.

I'm also on here to learn, if you read further up, I have tried to give a rational argument as to my views.

If I feel I'm being attacked personally then I will have to back up my side of course.

 

Apollo. It's interesting what you said about mixing the food up. My skink will often take the protein dish and ignore the veggies and salad. Perhaps I should start mixing the meals rather than having one dish for meat and another for veg!

 

Yes, it works. Even if you are giving turkey meat or egg, you can mix the chopped veggies in and they will get eaten a lot more readily than if you offer them alone.

I'm guessing skinks are like people though and some individuals will like their veg more than others, so I'm sure some people offer veg alone in a dish and it gets devoured.

 

Nice point (which I actually missed the first time around because of the rest of it..) - Not occurred to me to do this either and often find the same outcome, so I tend to put the veggies in first and wait until they are eaten. Didn't really come to mind to just mush it all up into one

 

When you say you made the decision to feed dog-food based on many factors, what factors do you mean exactly?

When you say you have been told by multiple sources dog-food is OK to feed, who do you mean exactly?



It is entirely your decision to blindly ignore all logic and take the advice of breeders (who base husbandry around care sheets from two decades ago) as gospel.

All you need do is take 5 minutes to do some research on the subject yourself, rather than sitting here repeating the same sentence about what an Australian breeder said about cat-food and insisting we provide you scientific proof via a forum post contradicting that.

People (like the reptile shop owner) can be wrong, or mislead, without the intention of leading you astray.

Nobody here attacked you personally, so I have no idea where you're coming from with that, but having been reading your replies both here and elsewhere I am not going to engage with you further.



I wish you the best of luck getting the issues surrounding diet resolved.

 

I wish you the best of luck getting the issues surrounding diet resolved.

Hi, it would be a shame if you stop offering your opinion based on Apollo11`s responses, it will be much more helpful to the discussion if you continue!

 

Thank you everyone! I made this thread for 2 reasons, 1 obviously I'm getting a BTS soon and 2 I wanted to encourage people to share their experience. There is just not enough experience based info on skinks on the internet but loads of care sheets written anonymously. I'm glad that this thread exists so that people in the future may find it and can learn from your experience, I'm also glad you all have conflicting opinions, that's not always a bad thing, because it reminded me how much we still really have to learn about keeping certain animals, Blue Tongues among many other lizards are overshadowed by Cresties, Agamas, Leos and although these are amazing reptiles that we love, that's where scientific study is focused, leaving us, the community to really learn from each other, obviously skinks haven't been in the hobby as long as your geckos and beardies, so this thread really gave me a lot of guidance and I'm sure it'll help many others in the future too.

Thank You!

 

Would be good to see some pics of the setups in question.

 

Not quite a setup pic but a nice one of my little fellow sat on my knee investigating some fruit:2thumb:

URL=http://s1367.photobucket.com/user/gaz19741/media/image_zps9m2d4vol.jpeg.html]

 

I simply stated that I personally don`t believe feeding dog food is necessary especially these days, because of the wide variety of more "natural" foods that are readily available. hahaha???
Discredit you, with an attitude like yours you discredit yourself (everyone wants to attack you, and try and find fault)????

 

Look, I totally get what you are saying about natural food sources. I have told you why I use dog food, the reasons I think it is practical etc, and as long as the lizard is healthy I don't get why dog food is frowned upon. I'm just waiting for some evidence to back up the other side of the argument.

It's always the same story, when you do something other people don't agree with and yet they can't seem to win the argument, they throw their dummy out the pram and try and attack you personally and make you look incompetent.

I'm not on here to be confrontational, but I have to respond to the persistent condescension and the null hypothesis people seem to have that everyone else on here is a complete incompetent.

 

Dudes... Snails are definitely the way forward. Before I had a skink I had to bat them away as far as possible using a tennis racquet! I reckon the buggers used to find their way back and still eat my greens!

Now I have a snail disposal machine :2thumb:

Who needs to buy dog food when you have molluscs everywhere for free :2thumb:

I do occasionally feed dog food when out of everything else but it is so much more rewarding watching the little blighter chowing on something natural that you've prepared for it.

I think the important thing when it comes to dog food is that it's the premium variety that isn't packed out with bone meal and grain.

To show its gratitude for my attempts to give it a good diet my skink has peed and shat on me tonight:gasp:

 

Surely it is just common sense that feeding a natural food is better than the man made equivalent?

Trying to defend using dog food (for example) seems backwards considering the recent advancements in reptile care.



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I get the argument for feeding 'natural' food, which in your case means insects. I have told you the reasons I don't particularly like giving insects live. It's logical to say that if some food item gives the correct protein requirement, doesn't give adverse health effects to the animal then it's fine to have in the diet, whether man made or 'natural'.

What are these advancements you speak of?

 

Maybe the reason for peopel wanting to argue with you (it seems to be a common occurance so far) is because of the attitude that is carried in your posts. Some things are hard to read in the correct tone so maybe bare that in mind when constructing a post, perhaps we are reading you wrong ?

 

BTS are truly an animal that we have to learn to care for based on the experience of others and yourself, it isn't a popular enough reptile in the pet world to attract a scientific opinion, for example nobody argues what you feed a leopard gecko, because leopard geckos are immensely popular, so many studies have been executed around the husbandry of that species. Being that at this point I do not own a Blue Tongue I'm going to approach this how I have with other reptiles I know and have experience with, I'm not taking sides, I'm going to look at this from different perspectives. Like with all reptiles, natural will almost always be the best you could offer, because that animal you're keeping has evolved to live off of this stuff in the wild, HOWEVER I'm going to express my opinion that the against dog food argument is silly but not completely wrong, If you're against dog foods being fed to reptiles then that's absolutely fine and your argument is partly right, but only partly. There are sooo many brands of dog food and all of them contain many different ingredients so even if one brand is terrible for them there are still many more that have been formulated completely differently that's why some breeders and skink owners have had happy healthy skinks living from dog food (like one of you said you have, can't remember who) because they did the research to make sure this dog food is ok for them. Again like I said BTS are an experience based topic and obviously I don't own one yet. I just thought I'd give my opinion based on what I've learnt and other reptiles I've owned. I don't have experience with this specific animal though so any criticism I will gladly read. :2thumb:

 

BTS are truly an animal that we have to learn to care for based on the experience of others and yourself, it isn't a popular enough reptile in the pet world to attract a scientific opinion

Hi, I don`t know about here in the U.K, but I can assure you the Blue tongued skink is an extremely commonly kept lizard in Australia (and in America from what I see on their reptile forums).
There are scientific studies on them if you search the internet, also a number of books containing info on their biology and captive care.

 

Apollo, is that you?

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