Hey, I know this is kinda old, but i'd like to put my 2 cents in! What species did you get? If you have trouble ID-ing it, send me a pic, I've gotten pretty good at it! I have two indo blue tongued skinks (m&f) and i've used both carefresh and shaved aspen. I've avoided the splintered aspen because my skinks tend to get more of it stuck in their ears. I like the aspen, it seems to stay fresher longer and is cheaper than carefresh, but as of right now both of my blueys are on towels because they got into a scuffle while they were out and have open wounds that i want to keep clean. My opinion on UVB is that a BTS can't be a magical lizard that doesnt need any UVB, if all other lizards need it, then skinks should probably have it too. I've always believed in the healing powers of UVB. Although, I think it has less of an effect on the BTS than the Dragon, so I would use the fixture with the dragon until you can arrange to buy a new fixture. My bluey's get the same general salad as the dragon and the iguanas, but i add some baby food or canned dog food (senior formula) to make it all stick together so that they can't pick out what they want to eat. I think I covered everything you asked about... If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Hi, thanks for your reply. We ended up just getting the Aspen from pets mart he seems to be doing ok with it and all and so far we havent had to clean out his tank luckily he has always seemed to do his bathroom stuff outside of his tank while wondering around or while he is soaking in the tub. We soak him every few days in the tub rather than wetting down his substrate. As of yet i have not had the money to get him a UVB light he has an Aqua Glow flourescent fixture over his tank now thats what the guy gave me when i got him. he spends most of his time burrowed deep in the aspen anyway untill i get him out in the evening when i get home so i dont know how much he would get of the UVB anyway i do plan on getting him one at some point when i have the money but with the gas prices like they are it may be a while. I could put my bearded dragons UVB flourescent on his tank for a while and just swap them out if need be. We think he is an eastern blue tongue by his markings from pictures i have seen. He doesnt seem big on greens though but has eaten raw eggs, cooked lean hamburger meat, scrambled eggs, and he loves frut strawberries and mango, as well as bearded dragon pellets. We dust his food every few days with rep cal calcium with vitamin D and the rep cal multivitamins. So far he seems healthy and active. he is the kindest gentlest skink doesnt hiss at you or anything. he loves getting kisses on the lips from me and the kids although he will try and stick his tongue in your mouth if you arent carefull also he is good at giving wet willies to the kids LOL love sneaking up on them with him and having him lick there ear with his wet tongue. I will post a link with pictures as soon as i get them hosted on photo bucker or somewhere so i can link them in here. Thanks Bobby
Hi everyone. I have pictures of the skink. This is my first attempt at putting pictures in a post so forgive me if I mess up....LOL... We held an auction on eBay to pick his name and the winning name was DJ Steelwool. We call him Steely though!! It has ajusted well to our home and fits in perfectly with the rest of our Zoo!
Well I feed Steely and Draco this morning. A nice salad with Turnip greens, pellets, and one strawberry. I had to take pics of Steely because he is such a cute messy eater!! How does one little guy get food all over the place like that. It reminds me of our 2 year old eating...LOL
LOL!! Believe me I know what you mean!! One thing I did was to start placing his food dish in a corner of his tank. I also tear one side of the plate to get rid of the lip which keeps the plate from flipping up when Bulldog steps on it. Really that has solved my messy food issues. Well not mine personally but my BTS's, I still tend to get stuff on my shirt sometimes.
Will our BTS and Our Bearded dragon be ok eating superworms for there insects? we arent able to afford silk worms right now and neither one of them likes crickets that well. Bobby
Your BTS will be fine eating supers but you'll also want to provide greens, veggies, etc. Your dragon eating supers really depends on a couple of things. First, dragons under 13" should not be fed supers as there is a high risk of impaction. Second, supers should not be a staple insect for dragons whose diet is mainly insect matter which should only be the case when your dragon is growing at a good rate(up until about 7-9 months of age). When your dragon becomes an adult and it's growth slows it should be on a diet of mainly plant matter and only get insects a couple of times a week. Basically it should be about 90% plant matter. At this point supers are fine for the staple insect but again only a couple times a week.
Rob, Draco is about 20 inchs long and almost a year old. I feed him insects about 3 times a week and I offer salad daily. Steely is given supers every other day and salad on the opposite days.
