April's Custom Blue Tongue Skink Chow
Please allow me to preface that you do not have to feed your blueys this way. There are many varied opinions on what makes a good bluey diet. This is just how Ive been doing it for 6 years at the time of writing. I have had many healthy pregnancies, raised many babies, and have seen no ill effects when using this diet though, so I believe its a pretty good one.
Another thing to note is the costs listed are Alaskan prices, which are higher than pretty much all the rest of the states. It is likely that your costs will be even or lower than mine if youre in the states.
Another thing to note is the costs listed are Alaskan prices, which are higher than pretty much all the rest of the states. It is likely that your costs will be even or lower than mine if youre in the states.
Diet Ratios
The recommended feed ratio for blueys is 50% greens (and vegetables), 40% protein sources, and 10% fruits. I have calculated this diet by weight in ounces to fit these ratios, but if you find that you want to make less of a batch, please keep this ratio intact.
Ingredients
Short version, please do read the additional notes for each ingredient below if this is your first time reading. Thanks.
4 Cans dog food (15 oz each)
16 oz (1lb) 97/3 lean turkey
10 oz country greens
8 oz tortoise cubes
16 oz squash
9 oz green beans
2 oz carrots
11 oz fruits (mango, papaya, prune, fig, raspberry)
Vitamins & Minerals
132 ounces total, (8.25 lbs) costs me $24 a batch as prepared. I have a very large group though. This batch would last 1 bluey over 6 months, feeding every other day. So as you can see its very economical. Lets jump right in shall we?
4 Cans dog food (15 oz each)
16 oz (1lb) 97/3 lean turkey
10 oz country greens
8 oz tortoise cubes
16 oz squash
9 oz green beans
2 oz carrots
11 oz fruits (mango, papaya, prune, fig, raspberry)
Vitamins & Minerals
132 ounces total, (8.25 lbs) costs me $24 a batch as prepared. I have a very large group though. This batch would last 1 bluey over 6 months, feeding every other day. So as you can see its very economical. Lets jump right in shall we?
The Dog Food
top blue tongue breeders agree, dog food is a safe, even essential part of your blue tongues diet. It must be grain free, and of high quality. That doesnt mean it has to be the most expensive stuff on the market. I pick up these at walmart for roughly $1 a can. And it really does lack all the weird stuff you dont want in your blues food. I avoid any grains (wheat and the like, corn, tapioca, etc) and also potatoes. Some do feed potatoes. I just find it an unnecessary filler. I do feed meat by products, what that means is basically well, unusable left overs from the butchering process. I.e the guts, tendons, ligaments etc. Blueys in the wild do eat carrion (dead critters), so this is safe, and in my opinion necessary to keep in their diet.
Heres the ingredients list for what I feed, there is a non-grain free version of this, so be sure to grab the grain-free one. Its basically just poultry, meat by products, liver, and vitamins.
Heres the ingredients list for what I feed, there is a non-grain free version of this, so be sure to grab the grain-free one. Its basically just poultry, meat by products, liver, and vitamins.
The ground turkey
I buy mine from the local butchers shop, which I highly recommend. Its fresh, with no added weirdness. I find the store bought often has salt or other stuff listed on the labels. Meh... I get organic 97/3, which is the leanest possible. I just barely brown this, slowly, on the stovetop over low heat. It probably could be fed raw, but it would be more difficult to work with.
Country Greens
I get this prepackaged for convenience, and you can get it at walmart for roughly $3. Otherwise you could just find collard, mustard, and turnip greens at your grocery store. Chop finely. Some blues will try to pick out the greens if they can pull them out of the feed.
Tortoise Chow.
So many people will probably omit this part, and if you do be sure to substitute another 8 oz of greens or squash to keep ratios, but I think its awesome. So keep it if you can k?
My tortoise cubes are similar to this bluey chow in the sense that it is custom made. Shocker right? Any way I collect dandelion, plantain, chickweed, and clover in the summer from my yard (be sure its pesticide free and not possibly sprayed with chemicals such as roadsides, your lawn is likely safe). Then I freeze these over winter (use country greens if you dont have these available). Then I add 4 oz of this mix and another 4 oz of ATC tortoise foliage mix, together. ATC is $12 per 8 oz and will make 4 batches worth of bluey chow once its rehydrated. I love the fragrance it brings to the food and it seems like the blueys do too. To quote the site, "This Dried Foliage Mix consists of over 25 different tortoise edible cultivated plants, weeds, flowers". Its safe for blueys. Its been used with other omnivorous reptiles safely too. Some may notice from my tortoise page that for tortoises I top with fine chopped rehydrated bermuda hay, I dont for blueys. If this part seems complicated, just remember its only 4oz rehydrated ATC mix and 4 oz greens or weeds. Simple. |
Squash
Definitely get you some squash. You can get some squash cheap from walmart in this bag prechopped. Get the organic version of this if its available. Otherwise feel free to use this or even 4 bottles of 4oz squash babyfood so long as squash is the ONLY ingredient, and the glass jars are best. Im not too keen on using the plastic, you never know whats leeching into the food with them. Try not to use those labeled "squash, water". They're pretty watered down.
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Green Beans & Carrots
These two together only make up 10% of the diet actually. I use 9 oz organic green beans that I weigh out on my scale, but you definitely dont have to. There is an 8oz bag of this prepackaged at walmart too. You can up the carrots to 3 oz should you like. I use shredded organic carrots because they are much easier to work with, again weighed out on the scale, but you could use 2oz jarred babyfood too. The carrots are basically used just for color/texture, so try to use the shredded ones if you can.
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Fruits
My go to for fruits is usually mango. Its very palatable. I buy it prechopped in this bag, and weigh it out to 11 oz if its all im using. Its the only ingredient listed. I try to mix it up though and you are welcome to as well. Every other batch (which equals roughly a week for my pretty large group) I weigh out to 7 oz then add jarred prune or a different fruit. In the summer when raspberries are in season, they get raspberries very regularly. Papaya and fig are also excellent choices. If you dont have a scale, 3 jars of 4 oz babyfood mango, or 2 jars mango and 1 prune will work in a pinch.
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Vitamins & Minerals
Being that this diet consists of roughly 40 ingredients, I believe it is fairly diverse by most bluey diet standards. Still its important to supplement with added vitamins basically to round out anything I may have missed. Especially the calcium. Calcium is extremely important the health of your bluey to avoid MBD, so do not skip it! I use what I believe to be the industry standard in this regard, rep-cals herptivite and calcium with vitamin D powder. For 1 batch of feed (8lbs) I use 4 tablespoons of each per the labels directions. If by some reason I find myself out and awaiting a shipment of these (it happens in Alaska) I use repashy superveggie which is a "all in one" used primarily for tortoises. I only use that in a pinch though.
Its worth noting that on occasion I do feed off adult male discoid roaches from my breeder colony to my adult blueys that are capable of overpowering one. They are very much larger than dubia. This is not necessary but it is fun for them I think. I certainly would not begrudge another for doing a live feed on occasion.
Its worth noting that on occasion I do feed off adult male discoid roaches from my breeder colony to my adult blueys that are capable of overpowering one. They are very much larger than dubia. This is not necessary but it is fun for them I think. I certainly would not begrudge another for doing a live feed on occasion.
Preparation
So basically all you need to do is combine ingredients. I finely chop most ingredients and use the blender for the squash since its so fiberous and difficult to chop by hand raw. I sanitize a 15 qt sterilite latch top box using f10, then rinse out thoroughly, but feel free to use a different sanitizing method. I use this to mix in, because at 8lbs this is a bit big to mix comfortably in a large bowl. I mix vegetables first, then add the meats last so they dont spend long in the open air.
This is what it looks like before and after the meats are added.
This is what it looks like before and after the meats are added.
After its all mixed up the way I like, it goes into these silicone ice cube trays. each cube is 1.3 cubic inches, which works out to roughly 2.5 tablespoons each. It takes exactly 6 trays to fit an entire batch. A standard ice cube tray works too, but I like these square ones because they stack oh so nicely. They also are so easy to fill since you can just plop the food in and spread it out with a spatula, then scrape across the top and it will fill perfectly. No mess or sides to clean up and they dont stick together ;)
Then I freeze them, and once frozen, a quick rinse to the back plops them right out.
Then I freeze them, and once frozen, a quick rinse to the back plops them right out.
If you have any questions do feel free to contact me. Also, if you're not already a member, I highly recommend "blue tongue skink hobbyists" on facebok. Lots of positive helpful people there, some which are certainly more experienced and knowledgeable than me. The admins are fair and pleasant, and they would be happy to have you.
Thanks again for reading. Have fun with your blueys!
Thanks again for reading. Have fun with your blueys!