Baby blue tongue help

[Dexter_]

Hey guys, may be a bit of a silly question or totally normal but thanks in advance for any help.

In about mid-Feb I adopted two baby blue tongues from the RSPCA, apparently born around the end of November. They're both housed separately but kept in almost exactly the same way in regard to heat and feeding, yet one of them has absolutely taken off and the other has barely grown at all.

Is this something that is normal and I shouldn't be worried about or is there something I can do to change my husbandry? Just wanna make sure the little guy is as happy as possible.

Hot spot is about 33-34 degrees, he has plenty of places to hide, has UVB, and is kept with near constant fruit and veg as well as Vetafarm pellets and is given calcium dusted crickets 4-5 days a week.

Cheers.

 

[GBWhite]

I've bred plenty of Blue Tongues over the years and found that it's common for juveniles not to do real well with a constant fruit and veg diet. Mine have always done well when offered tinned puppy food (not dog food but puppy food) right from the start and then once they are eating slowly introducing some appropriate fruit and veg by mixing it in with the puppy food. Personally I think reptile food pellets are useless.

 

[DRAGONEYE]

My baby blue tongues always thrived on whiskas beef mince canned cat food sprinkled with a bit of wombaroo reptile supplement mixed with raw eggyolk and a dash of calcium powder. They love banana too.
To get them going offer a raw egg yolk on a flat shallow dish..always have water available.
They need somewhere to hide to feel safe. I used cardboard biscuit boxes.
Hope this helps
Cheers

 

[Bl69aze]

for adult
Feed every 2 days - a mix of fruit and veg, some boiled egg as a treat (very little amount) - crickets as a treat (too many can make them fat)
Wet dog food seems to be a favourite

 

[dragonlover1]

My baby blue tongues always thrived on whiskas beef mince canned cat food sprinkled with a bit of wombaroo reptile supplement mixed with raw eggyolk and a dash of calcium powder. They love banana too.
To get them going offer a raw egg yolk on a flat shallow dish..always have water available.
They need somewhere to hide to feel safe. I used cardboard biscuit boxes.
Hope this helps
Cheers

just be careful of banana because it's high in phosphorus, I offer small bits occasionally
[doublepost=1558856484,1558855862][/doublepost]

I've bred plenty of Blue Tongues over the years and found that it's common for juveniles not to do real well with a constant fruit and veg diet. Mine have always done well when offered tinned puppy food (not dog food but puppy food) right from the start and then once they are eating slowly introducing some appropriate fruit and veg by mixing it in with the puppy food. Personally I think reptile food pellets are useless.

I agree with George, too much fruit and veg early on isn't a great thing and pellets are rubbish. pet meat and small snails if available. As they get older meat,fruit and veg is great.

 

[Ryan-James]

The above advice is all top notch, juveniles require much more protein than adults, I personally won't use canned foods for any of our pets but will use a decent mainstream additive like the wombaroo protein based mixes to dust the food with. Healthy growth in reptiles is a priority for so many reasons That's why every zoo and wildlife park in the world weighs their reptiles very regularly.

 

[Dexter_]

Thanks so much everyone, I have tried wet dog food but it was going bad faster than they were eating it when it started getting cooler but sounds like I should get some more of that. I'll give eggs a go as well and see how that goes

 

[DRAGONEYE]

Hi Dexter...when blue tongues are young they require tiny amounts a couple of times per day.
If you find you are wasting food. You can do what i used to do..make up a batch of whiskas,raw egg yolk,sprinkle with wombaroo and calcium, spoon it into ice cube trays, freeze it and onlytake a cube to thaw when they need a meal.
Make sure they have a cool end to retreat....maybe your temps are a little too high.
Worked a treat for my babies.
In my experience you always have a guts and a lagger...prob.not how you keep them.
Good luck

 

[nuttylizardguy]

The above advice is all top notch, juveniles require much more protein than adults, I personally won't use canned foods for any of our pets but will use a decent mainstream additive like the wombaroo protein based mixes to dust the food with. Healthy growth in reptiles is a priority for so many reasons That's why every zoo and wildlife park in the world weighs their reptiles very regularly.

^^ I'm in the same camp as you wrt canned or soft cat/dog foods for BTs.

Your BT is 6 months old , so two meals per day is what I'd be doing for the juvenile.
Can you put the baby bluetongue/s in a wide food tub and weigh them , and put up photos of the skinks so we can judge the size food insects to suggest.

Pellets are only useful as softened and mixed with salad mix. I use bearded dragon pellets to feed my crickets (they are great for them and the crickets love them).
I've got a pack of Wombaroo in my pantry that's never been opened , same with a bottle of Repashi Grubpie and a bottle of Repashi VeggieBurger. My emergency fall backs .

If you go to Livefoods Unlimited or Biosupplies , you can get BSFL , these are great staple insect protein source for a young skink. (he'll eat loads of them if he likes them, my guess is maybe 30 to 40 per day ?? depending on his size , baby mass in grams).

Frog Arcade have blowfly maggots , these are a good option too. ( he'll eat loads of them if he likes them) .

You can also get small batches of silkworms from Livefoods Unlimited ( for baby BTS , I'd order the medium size silkworms , a 6 month old (?) might be big enough to eat large silkworms ) , silkworms are an excellent staple feeder insect.

And if you act fast you can probably still order 100 - 200 fresh mulberry leaves from Paul on Gumtree before the mulberry tree's leaves loose their green and start falling. The leaves will stay good loosely packed in a unsealed ziplock bag in the crisper for 2 or 3 months.

BSFL and silkworms are perfect for baby bluetongues because they are not very fast moving.
Small garden snails are also available as feeder insects too , these are a great feeder insect for a baby bluetongue.

Agree regarding banana - great treat but not as a staple.

Unspiced scrambled eggs is a good protein source , or mashed up hardboiled egg whites and yokes.

 

[Dexter_]

Here is a photo of both with their weight, and a size comparison of them both. Past couple days of been feeding them both a mix of egg and a little bit of puppy food, little one seems to love it and the other prefers fruit and crickets [emoji23]

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[nuttylizardguy]

They will have no problem scoffing down medium sized to large sized silkworms . Even the smaller one and I think silkworms will give the smaller BT the growth boost you want.

2 large silkworms per day would be my suggestion ( one in am , one in pm , + the regular protein & salad on offer ).

 

[dragonlover1]

Something else you could try is a pinky mouse here and there. We had a problem western bluey who I fed a pinky every week for months on top of the dog food etc. When he got bigger I started on fuzzy mice.He is big and healthy now