Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[miffikins]

Picked up my BTS yesterday and I just have a few queries about him, mainly regarding diet....any help would be great....

I have downloaded both charts of bluetongueskinks.net for reference, so 60% veg/greens, 30% meat/inverts and 10% fruit. Is the best way to balance this having green/veg day, meat day and fruit day or mix the right amount of each group everyday??

Which supplements are best to use for him, I have nutrabol and calcium for the rest of my lot, will these be ok with calcium everyday and nutrabol once or twice a week??

Garden snails, if I freeze and thaw will they be ok for him??

And finally is a mix of orchid bark and ecoearth substrate alright for him??

And here he is....





Cheers in advance!!

Kate

[David Maguire]

beautiful skink
all that's info good but instead of freezing and thawing snails it would probably be easier to bred giant African land snails
and nutrobals fine
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Regards,
David

[miffikins]

Thanks David, I may have a bash at that, along with growing him some greens!

I was told he looks like a Merauke blue tongue, is that right?? He's a lovely little thing

Cheers for the reply

Kate

[David Maguire]

he does look like one but I'm not to good on the different locales but he is a Lil smasher
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Regards,
David

[miffikins]

Thanks He's lovely. I'm hoping he will become as 'friendly' as my ackie

[H.S.]

Nice BTS, it does look quite handleable too. My BTS is an evil little sod.
When I open up the viv for cleaning it puffs up, hisses, shows off his tongue and tries to bite me.
If I have to hold it for any reason, I have to distract it with a gloved hand, so that I can pick it up with my other hand, I can't wear a glove on the handling hand because I am not happy with the lack of feel.

I am not unhappy with the B.A. of the little tike, as I don't mind keeping handling to a minimum, and it adds a bit of character.
Mind you, it is rather crafty, I put some livefood in the other day and watching it actually hunt rather than just run at the prey and hope for the best was quite eye opening.
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31August2008-Kent Reptile Show (Amphibians & Inverts welcome) for more information & Booking e:mail: mrac@sky.com

[miffikins]

So far he has puffed and hissed a fair bit and has shown his mouth off at me once. But it seems he's happy to get onto my hand so he can explore, he seems really inquisitive!

I've noticed him just launching himself at crickets, pretty funny! Still not interested in veg but has had some raspberries and a tiny bit of banana (as a rare treat).
I have tried rubbing the juices from the fruit on to the veg to encourage him but its not working. Any ideas??

Cheers

[David Maguire]

my one is tamer than dog hes bit me twice but that's Cox i was holding fruit
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Regards,
David

[mark_w]

For your questions about feeding, different foods on different days is fine. I use dubia roaches for one feed, then fruit/veg salad, then mice, on a rotation, with eggs or snails as a treat. I only feed once or twice a week, but mine are adults.

He/she is one of the Tiliqua scincoides-like skinks from Western Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) in New Guinea, known as Tiliqua sp. 'Irian Jaya'.

Merauke blue tongues are a subspecies of Tiliqua gigas, a different species from similar/the same area(s).

Mark.

[miffikins]

Thanks Mark Still not interested in green so I'm goin to stick some in a blender with some chicken and see if that works!

I did get very confused about all the subspecies of both T scincoides and T gigas after looking on bluetongueskinks.net. I posted some pics of him on another forum and someone said he was Merauke. I will go with the majority vote when I have a few more opinions
Not that I'm bothered either way, hes loverrrly