# Blue tongue skink food



## spookynoodle (Oct 29, 2019)

What's the best brands of wet dog/cat tins that you can find at Woolies, Aldi or Pets Domain?

Cheers


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## nuttylizardguy (Oct 29, 2019)

I am not a fan of wet dog/cat food for skinks.

But there are some who claim these are fine as a staple for bluetongues.

I think this is the probably the best guide you'll find for the feeding schedule and diet for an ADULT bluetongue is this :





https://www.completecritter.com/blue-tongue-skink.html.

This is what I follow for my two easterns who are nearly 10 years old now and have never been sick ( except when my male broke his arm as a juvenile ).
I don't offer my skinks cat/dog food ever, nor mice / pinkies ever.
My protein staples are silkworms ( I raise my own ) , superworms (occasionally) , crickets , BSFL , and snails ( I buy big live ones from a farmer ), eggs ( hardboiled ).


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## Herpetology (Oct 29, 2019)

I’ve seen a new “premixed” diet going around by James Bindoff that involves 100% raw meat (no added ****) and some fruit and veg in it

Not sure if it’s meant to be a staple diet or make up a part of it or what though


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## nuttylizardguy (Oct 30, 2019)

Buying "premixed" "foods" is a very expensive way to feed a reptile.


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## GBWhite (Oct 30, 2019)

I've literally raised dozens and dozens of Bluetongues over the years I've been into reptiles and always used Pedigree Puppy food (formerly Pal) as a staple without any issues for juveniles to adults. You can pretty much use any wet cat or dog food as long as it's not fish based. Chicken or turkey based cat food is also fine. They contain all the necessary vitamins and minerals and because of this I've never needed to dust their food with supplements like calcium. I also mix in small amounts of vegies such as peas, grated carrot and chopped broccoli in with the wet food. In addition I occasionally chop up dandelion flowers and leaves, nasturtium flowers and leaves and rose petals and add them as well. You can supplement with snails as long as they are bait free and even give them the odd fuzzie/hopper mouse. In more recent times I've even used meat based rolls of dog food.


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## Sdaji (Oct 31, 2019)

nuttylizardguy said:


> I am not a fan of wet dog/cat food for skinks.
> 
> But there are some who claim these are fine as a staple for bluetongues.
> 
> ...



I think virtue signaling guides like this are of questionable value. There's nothing particularly wrong with the actual diet, but it's completely unrealistic. No one including the person who made this diagram is actually going to put it into practice. A realistic guide people can actually use is more useful than something effectively impossible to follow. The only person who could hypothetically follow this guide is someone willing to spend many times more money than is necessary and someone with a huge amount of free time. It's also best to give commonly and easily available items. Not many people have access to hornworms and even ignoring the fact that it's a fruit not a vegetable and shouldn't be used at all, seriously, who puts prickly pear on something like this even if it was a good choice?

Recommending a staple diet of tinned cat feed with some realistic suggested extras is far better because people can easily follow it. Giving someone an impossible task means they're going to cut corners and if they're a newbie they don't know which ones can and can't be cut.


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## nuttylizardguy (Oct 31, 2019)

Sdaji said:


> I think virtue signaling guides like this are of questionable value. There's nothing particularly wrong with the actual diet, but it's completely unrealistic. No one including the person who made this diagram is actually going to put it into practice. A realistic guide people can actually use is more useful than something effectively impossible to follow. The only person who could hypothetically follow this guide is someone willing to spend many times more money than is necessary and someone with a huge amount of free time. It's also best to give commonly and easily available items. Not many people have access to hornworms and even ignoring the fact that it's a fruit not a vegetable and shouldn't be used at all, seriously, who puts prickly pear on something like this even if it was a good choice?
> 
> Recommending a staple diet of tinned cat feed with some realistic suggested extras is far better because people can easily follow it. Giving someone an impossible task means they're going to cut corners and if they're a newbie they don't know which ones can and can't be cut.



The key is the breakdown into food groups and their frequencies to produce a "balanced" diet , not the specifics.
Not a big deal if it mentions hornworms , prickly pear , it's not a site set up in Australia , not hard to substitute foods available here . Not a lot of effort involved either.


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## Sdaji (Oct 31, 2019)

nuttylizardguy said:


> The key is the breakdown into food groups and their frequencies to produce a "balanced" diet , not the specifics.
> Not a big deal if it mentions hornworms , prickly pear , it's not a site set up in Australia , not hard to substitute foods available here . Not a lot of effort involved either.




Such a wide variety of fresh ingredients every/most days is obviously a lot of effort, especially compared to an easy staple which can be kept on hand. Saying otherwise is disingenuous. That's what these guides are.


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## nuttylizardguy (Oct 31, 2019)

Sdaji said:


> Such a wide variety of fresh ingredients every/most days is obviously a lot of effort, especially compared to an easy staple which can be kept on hand. Saying otherwise is disingenuous. That's what these guides are.



You buy fresh food for yourself , so why not a little extra for scaleys ?


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