Baby Blue-tongue Diet Recipe
This recipe is not ancient or sacrosanct, and I am sure it can be modified and even improved upon. I would be happy to listen to potential upgrades if other keepers have suggestions!
The important thing is my baby skinks have been flourishing on it, and a few people have asked for details on what my babies are eating. So here it is.
In the Bowl
My primary ingredient is a high-end, natural, high-protein, grain-free canned cat (or dog) food. I use Blue Wilderness brand mainly because I have had good success with it. Other brands are similar and probably just as good in quality.
I often use canned chicken but also duck, beef, and salmon as alternatives. Typically, I use a paté for easy mixing.
When mixing up a bowl, I use multiple cans of cat or dog food because I am feeding hordes of young skinks.
For one or two baby blue-tongue skinks, you need to reduce the volume.
Would it work to mix a large batch and freeze it for later use? I think it would be fine but have not tried it with this mix. (I have often frozen the formula for adults and sub-adults for later use, but that’s a different recipe.)
1. Can of high quality paté cat food such as Blue Wilderness chicken.
2. Three tablespoons of blended raw egg.
3. Two or three tablespoons of baby food fruit purée (not citrus) such as berry, mango, apple, etc. Or blended carrot (or finely grated carrot), canned pumpkin, etc. will also work fine.
4. Small amount of powdered calcium with D3 shaken in and stirred.
5. Tablespoon of dry chia seeds. This is to supply some roughage and additional nutrition. (Blue-tongues ingest seeds in the wild according to stomach content studies.)
6. A couple of tablespoons of thawed (or fresh) green peas. Skinks, honestly, don’t think much of “greens” generally, but most are very keen on green peas. Some of my baby Northerns will pick out the peas to eat first, literally reversing trends observed in young humans.
I stir continuously while mixing the blend and strive for a viscous consistency — soft and malleable — not dry or runny.
7. A teaspoon of powdered ‘Repashy Bluey Buffet’. Note: this is NOT the official recipe for using their powder.
Following the official instructions requires mixing the powder with boiling water to create reptile ‘jello’, which is then served to your skink as a meal replacement.
However, I found the gelatinous glop to be messy, and many of my skinks weren’t even keen on eating the stuff. Since I had purchased a barrel of the powder, and it is very concentrated nutritionally, I began using it as straight supplement.
This seems to have worked out well and I have seen rapid and healthy growth in this year’s babies. I believe this mix is much better nutritionally than straight canned cat and dog food. (Over dependence on canned pet food can sometimes lead to nutritional issues such as metabolic bone disease if the calcium and D3 levels are skewed improperly.)
The babies really appreciate some diversity in their diet so they also get mice, insects, and snails. However, this recipe makes up at least two thirds of their diet for the first several months of their life.
(@Joe Weider) 😺
