genus Tiliqua

The blue tongued skinks are docile and hardy lizards that have been beloved by herpetologists for many years.  They have been regularly bred in captivity for many generations.  This is a tribute to the hardiness of these lizards, which can live for 20 years, and their desirability as animals that will do well and breed.  They are almost without fear, docile, intelligent and even friendly.  They easily adjust to handling.  They have simple caging requirements and are predictably voracious eaters.  The friendliest skinks are those that have been handled regularly since birth.  If you only have contact with the skink to give it food and water, it may learn to associate the human hand only with food – with predictable nippy results.  Take you skink out of the cage and hold it. Let it wander around under your supervision, and pick it up and down several times, and you will soon have a very big, tame and friendly skink.  Of course, being reptiles, some skinks are more aggressive/defensive than others, but even these will calm down with regular contact and handling.  Each blue tongued skink has an individual personality and some may never become as trusting as others.

A number of different species of the blue tongued skinks inhabit parts of New Guinea, most of Australia, and the island of Tasmania.  The different species occupy a wide variety of habitats ranging from interior deserts and savannahs to the subtropical and tropical forest, and high into the alpine zones of mountains.

 Common blue tongued skink (tiliqua scincoides scincoides) is a widespread species of temperate regions of the eastern coasts of Australia.  They are extremely variable in pattern and coloration and are banded or blotched or streaked in various earth tones of brown, ochre, brick red, orange, gray and black.  Most specimens have a dark temporal streak on the side of the head, running through the eye.  Adults range in size from 16 – 20”.  They have litters of 10-20. The newborn young are about 5” and are miniature replicas of their parents. 

Irian Jaya Banded Blue Tongued Skink (tiliqua scincoides ssp) is rare and as yet undescribed.  This species inhabits a limited range in warm tropical areas of southern New Guinea.  They are boldly banded with silver-gray to tan and brown to reddish-brown banding.  They are similar in robust appearance, color patters, size (18-22’) and docile temperament to the Australian scincoides.  They tend to have the uniform gray head color of intermedia, and the belly-to-belly uniformly banded patters typical of scincoides.  They have 5-15 fairly large and robust young.  These skinks have only recently been imported into the U.S.   The babies are more vividly colored than the adults, and are the fastest growing of the blue tongues. 

Northern blue tongued skink, (tiliqua s. intermedia) is the largest and boldest of the blue tongues.  This subspecies inhabits the subtropical areas of northern Australia.  They tend to have distinctive coloration of a series of alternating laight and dark bars across the back with orange and black barred sides.  There is also a silver phase established in herpetoculture that has silvery scales edged in black, giving a fish scale appearance.  Adults range in size from 18 – 30” .  They have litters of 12 – 25, and the young emerge as 6” big headed versions of the adults, ready to take on life from the start. 

Newborn young can be housed in a 10 gallon aquarium with a substrate of gravel, sand, newspaper, carpet or cypress chips (avoid cedar chips) Provide a hide box for shelter, and a basking spot heated by a 30-50 watt spotlight, or a carefully controlled heating pad set at 90 degrees at one end of the cage so that the skink can choose from a variety of temperatures.  Full spectrum lighting emitting UV A/B is required to assist in calcium metabolism.  Blue tongued skinks are best housed individually.  Intermedia are aggressively territorial, and combining even youngsters may result in bitten toes and feet. 

Provide a small shallow water dish in the cage.  Make sure the substrate of the cage stays dry, as skinks kept on damp substrate may develop skin problems.  Present food on a dish or paper plate.  Keep in mind that blue tongue skinks basically feed at ground level, so make it easy for them to find their food and water. 

Blue tongue skinks readily eat a variety of food items .  Sprinkle liberal amounts of a calcium D3 suppliment like Rep-Cal on the food as the growing skinks will need lots of calcium for good bone growth.  In the wild the shells of snails would provide them with a lot of calcium, so most captive diets will need extra calcium.  If the skink has a very light body weight, or if the lips begin to curl or malform, provide additional amounts of calcium  and D3 in the diet. 

The young grow fastest with daily feedings, but also do well fed every other day.  It is best to provide both animal and plant foods in their diet.  Various brands of canned cat and dog food are the basis of many diets, some persons believe that the low fat versions are best.  Mix in a variety of vegetables into the cat food and you will provide a more balanced diet.  Cut up various greens, lettuce, squash, cooked peas, green beans, corn, and sweet potatoes, etc. and add it to the cat food.  They also like sweet fruits such as grapes strawberries, and melons.  Zu-Preen Monkey chow, iguana pellets or chicken egg layer mash may be soaked and added to the diet.  Youngsters seem especially fond of giant meal worms.  Cooked shrimp, squid, or fish are good to add occasionally.  Keep the diet varied, if your skink eats only the cat food, quit feeding it cat food, and encourage it to learn to eat other foods also, as the long term heal of your skink requires a balanced diet. 

On this diet young skinks will grow fast and within 4-5 months can be moved to larger quarters.  They can reach full size in a year.  Plan to provide adult skinks with a floor area of 2’ x 2’ or more. 

Breeding:

Cool down your adults November through January to get them into breeding condition.  Set the timer on your heat source so the skinks can only warm up for 1-2 hours a day if they want to.  Reduce daylight to 10-8 hours.  Lower the cage temperature of the New Guinea and Northern blue tongues to 80 with a drop no lower than 65 at night.  T.S. scincoides can be kept at an even lower temperature.  Make sure the temperature is low enough, 65-60 degrees so the skinks stop eating.  In January to February gradually increase lighting and heating and get the adults feeding again.  Use your judgement as to when each skink is ready to breed.  Carefully introduce the female into the male’s cage and observe their interaction.  Successful breeding can occur – immediately.  The males may follow the female, giving occasional nips to the tail, till they finally secure a firm neck hold and attempt to mate.  If the female cooperates by raising her tail, the breeding even is going very well.  If one bolts, or if the female just seems to want to fight or engage in defensive display, remove the female immediately and try again another day and/or with another mate.  Males can be very aggressive, so anticipate bite marks on your females.  Don’t leave them unattended.  Breed females several times over the course of a month or two for best results.  Gravid females eat voraciously until they are near full term.  Additional calcium is necessary in their diet.  Gravid females may also get very aggressive.  The young will be born in 4-5 months.