hey everyone it's time for another species spotlight and this time we're featuring blue
tongue skinks so blue tongue skinks honestly in my opinion are probably the best intermediate pet
lizard in general but we'll do a whole video about that later but blue tongue skinks are awesome
cool little skink species so blue tongue skink or the blue tongue lizard but blue tongue
skinks they're an australian species although there are some several subspecies sub-species
found on the like kind of in the pacific ocean like in indonesia and like key island and other
places like that so these guys are awesome they're fairly fostorial which means that they like to
burrow underground but these guys are absolutely really really amazing little lizards so found on
australia like i said which means that as a whole they like it hot but that doesn't mean that they
don't need humidity and it's actually one of the biggest mistakes that people make specifically
when first getting a blue tongue skin because they don't give them any humidity because a lot of the
blue tongue skinks they're the two most commons are the northerns like warlock here and then the
indonesian or irian jayan slash ij all the same one and just different names for them colloquially
in the in the trade um the ij or in or irian jaya uh blue tongue skink there we go they actually
need a little bit cooler and a lot more humidity than you would think like kind of a lizard from
that region would do and so you end up with a lot of skinks with missing toes and stuff like that
we actually had a very old ij blue tongue skink uh that we essentially got in as a rescue
we already got as kind of an older adult and he also suffered from that he had almost no toes kind
of like our uh our like our ackee monitor remus but northerns they're a little bit more typical
of what you think when they need they need that high hot spot you know over 100 degree basking
spot they need uv well so here's the thing about this you guys for a long time including breeders
in australia actually kept these guys in a rack system a lot larger tubs than like a ball python
and they still gave them like paper and would give them hay or straw as well as water dishes
and things for them to climb on and interact with but they did keep them in a rack system and they
did breed house and live them successfully in rack systems for a long time but as we have now learned
and seen that regardless of the species uvb light unless it's a truly subterranean or with no or
like you know troglobite species uvb light is kind of a good thing to have while it's not necessary
it improves their life considerably so i would say that if you get a blue tongue skink
you should provide it with uvb they don't have to but that is what me personally learning failing
experiencing knowing doing new things says you should probably give them uvb light if you can
so that being said give them plenty of substrate they like to dig they like uh they need to be kind
of fed a wide variety of foods so hard boiled eggs veggies crickets some people like to feed like
small pinky mice and rats i would do that very sparingly there are some people do cat food and
stuff i've done it before too but i don't like to only do that it's kind of like okay veggies
today hardball today i'll throw some crickets in there when i do crickets for other people
a little bit of canned cat food a little bit of you know prepared blue tongue skink food things
like that just change up the diet kind of like to do with any other lizard or reptile in general
or turtle so i know i've kind of skipped around i've done a little bit more about their care
but the biggest feature that everybody is famous for these guys is their blue tongues and that
is a defense mechanism so obviously with any wild animal when an animal feels threatened
its first instinct is to run get out of there that applies for lizards turtles snakes whatever that
is it's to get out of there because if it's still there then it's still technically you
know a potential prey item after that then it moves to its kind of last offense which is well
its last defense is to fight obviously that's for everything too but that bright blue tongue
that is its iconic and kind of main line of defense after not being able to get away and
that is that bright blue it doesn't look quite right it's supposed to be intimidating so you know
they'll pop their mouths open really wide and he does this to me warlock we're working on handling
i'm wondering if that's actually why we kind of got him for such a good deal but we'll get
to that in a second um they'll pop bottom open they'll hiss and they'll throw that blue tongue
out really wide and you can actually see it has a small little divot i don't know if you can on him
but it has a small little divot so it's a small little fork tail at the end um and actually and
that's supposed to you know kind of intimidate and scare predators because it's this bright
blue thing and it looks kind of crazy and maybe that's supposed to kind of ward things off and
they actually have done now studies and i just read an article about this that they have found
that the uh there is more uvb kind of receptors um on the back of the tongue than the front so it's a
very uv reflective tongue so when it pops open you know other animals can see shades of ultraviolet
light that we can't like we can't even really know what they can see truthfully and what you know we
and what they can what we can't see but we do know that their tongues are very ultraviolet reflective
and they have a lot more at the back of the tongue than the front so it makes you kind of wonder if a
lot of animals can see you if you'd be like okay we'll put well no we won't put you down quite yet
please don't bite me you have pretty sharp teeth buddy um they have uh they you know they have
very reflective uv light sensitivity maybe they can see things so maybe something about large
concentrations of ultraviolet light you know can throw off a predator more effectively than we even
really know so just kind of really cool things but anyway these guys can be very great pets
i would say recommend anyone getting into this do some research about that there's kind
of a lot of misinformation about there no problem plugging another person's channel reptile mountain
their youtube channel they're a local here in colorado blue tongue breeder um i think they
i think he only really as far as blue tongues go i think he only does northerns and easterns
i don't think he does any uh ijs i don't think anybody really here i'll set you down
i don't think anybody uh is really working with irian jayas they're still very heavy
he has absolutely amazing amazing setups for his blue tongue skinks and he kind of does this weird
hybrid of racks and enclosures and you should absolutely check out his channel when it comes
to his blue tongue setups and if there was one person i would say that you know after seeing one
in person watching this video and you're really considering getting a blue tongue skink go check
out his channel and talk to him because he knows a lot um but warlock here as you can now see kind
of up close his jaw's a little wonky so we picked this up from somebody who got him from a breeder
um and he got out of his enclosure he was attacked by a cat had to have surgery
it was a whole thing but his jaw is now okay he's eating very fine as you can see he's a nice small
little potato and they can get pretty hefty he's still fairly young but he's adult size
so now he's just kind of filling out um but his i don't know if it's because of that or anything
like that he's not a real big fan of handling but they can be very handleable personable reptiles
but warlock we're still kind of working on things and i don't know let's see if you're going to get
that tongue to come out buddy no yes no maybe so i don't know if he's going to or not but
anyway so like i said warlock we're still kind of working on a little bit with the handling but
they can be very hannibal personable reptiles and honestly as far as intermediate goes and so for me
that classification is you know they need uvb more of their diets and things like that i would say
honestly they're they cost more depending on what more for whatever it is you're getting
that they usually cost a little bit more than than a bearded dragon but i would probably recommend
these over bearded dragon for kind of an intro into a larger uh more handleable lizard species
anyway that's the blue tongue skink i don't like to get too too in-depth but they are really cool
little lizards just remember you know when it comes to lizards more space always best
give them uvb vary their diet places to hide don't skimp out on the humidity in a large water dish
you know keep up with handling positive reinforcement positive interactions
and you can have an amazing little lizard for over 10 years and they are really really cool so
hopefully you enjoyed this video please like and subscribe if you have any questions
uh hit me up on uh you know instagram facebook whatever it is interested in baby snakes merch
whatever let me know jzsreptiles@gmail.com i'm jz this is warlock and we'll check you next time