Blue Tongue Skink Care

Heating

Blue tongue skinks are hardy creatures, and can tolerate a wide range of temps.  However, the best temperature range is about 75 F on the cool side, with a basking spot of around 90 F.

Lighting

Blue tongue skinks have simple lighting requirements.  They regular light for a day/light cycle, and they do benefit from having a little bit of UVB.

Humidity

Blue tongue skinks require different humidity levels based on their species.  The northern blue tongue skink needs a lower humidity (40-60%), while Indonesians and Meraukes need a higher humidity (60-80%).

The diet of a blue tongue skink is very close to that of a dog.  In fact, it is recommended to feed blue tongue skinks grain free canned dog food!  This makes them extremely easy to feed.  Just make sure to rotate flavors, or types of meat in the canned food.

Blue tongue skinks are very gentle creatures.  When threatened, usually the worse thing they will do is pee on you.  Even though no-one wants lizard urine on them, this is much better than being bit by a three foot lizard.  Unless your skink is an exception, most skinks don't enjoy being picked up, and prefer to keep their heavy bodies on the ground.  So if you respect your blue tongue skink, it shouldn't become stressed when you bring it out to play.  I have even found that some blue tongue skinks enjoy being taken out of their cages, and when they see you they will crawl to the door of their enclosure like a dog would go to the front door to be let out.