Blue-Tongues in the Garden

If you are a gardener then a blue-tongue skink may be an asset for you. They are able to keep the number of snails, caterpillars, and other pests low. It's not difficult to keep a blue-tongue happy in your garden. As long as you ensure there are many things like bushes, logs, and rocks. This will also benefit in allowing the skink to find all the other creatures occupying the garden. Another thing to be careful of is the lawn mower. The skink will not get scared away by the sound of the lawn mower, they will actually turn and face the lawn mower as if it is a threat. Also, it is recommened for you to keep your cats indoors all the time and train your dog not to bother the skink.

Living In the Wild

The blue tongues are able to inhabit a large amount of environments, ranging from deserts, semi-arid savannahs, woodlands, and even suburban areas. They are omnivores and usually feed on berries, flowers, fungi, insects, spiders, small animals, and carrion in the wild. The skinks have also been known to be very fond of snails. When living in the wild the blue-tongue may be prey for kookaburras, raptors, and certain snakes. If a skink lives in a suburban area it may be attacked by a cat or dog.

Genetics/Breeding

If your skink is properly taken care of, it should be able to breed at about 2 years of age. Before breeding you have to check and make sure their tail is large and has an excess store of fat inside. It is permittable to keep all of the females together, but only if one male is with them. The blue-tongue breeding season falls between January to early spring. To help induce the breeding the skinks should kept at a temperature of 13c to 18c for 2 months. If the male skink becomes violent during the breeding time, do not worry, this is common. Fights may break out and because of this it is advisable to keep the animals separated until breeding time.

Handling

One of the things that makes a blue tongue skink such a nice pet is their calm, docile demeanors. Another benefit is that they tame easily and are easy to handle for even a novice or small child. Although they grow claws it is uncommon for a skink to scratch the handler. Not unlike most omnivorous or carnivorous reptiles may be attracted to wriggling humans fingers and they may strike. So, be sure to always wash your hands before handling one to prevent such an incident. One positive side to this, its always easy to tell if your skink is hungry because they will fixate on your fingers or other moving objects and often stand ready to strike with their mouth open.

Captive Care

The blue tongue skink is fairly easy to keep and maintain. The average fully grown blue-tongue needs a fairly large housing facility. A minimum of 55 gallons is recommended. However, in most cases the larger the enclosure the better. For substrate, mulch or wood chips display high effectiveness, but carpet also works. Placing a few branches is always advantageous to your skinks happiness and physical fitness, although your particular reptile may not climb. However, a box for privacy should always be in the animals cage.

Feeding

Blue Tongues are omnivores, meaning they eat plant and animal matter. Their diet should consist of about 60% plant and 40% animal. A common meal for the captive skink is a salad with mixed veggies. However, they will occasionally need some kind of animal matter to eat such as: small earthworms, Zoophoba larvae and pupae, fuzzies and crews. Hatchling skinks benefit from being fed mealworms, redworms, small crickets, and pinkie mice. If you wish to treat your lizard it is found they are very fond of berries and other fruits.

Distribution

The Blue Tongue Skinks are most often found in deserts, semi-arid savannah, woodland, and temperate suburan areas. The Blue Tongues are found exclusively in Austrailia naturally and often are mistaken for Blue Tongue Lizards. However, there are no true lizards found on the island of Austrailia.

General

The blue tongue skink is a lizard in the genus Tiliqua. This genus contains some of the largest of the skink family. This particular skink is characterized by their blue tongues. They are omnivores, meaning they eat both plant and animals. Blue tongues are also viviparous, they give live birth like humans.