If you are keeping a Blue Tongued Skink reptile for the first time, it might appear a daunting task to determine when to feed the reptile, how often to feed it and how to monitor its health. Hopefully, you should get the hang of things within a couple of months especially when you find out that your skink will eat anything from fruits and vegetables to insects and other proteins. The most common problem you can face while feeding a Blue Tongued Skink reptile is that of overfeeding. People do not realize it but if you continue to feed the reptile, he will keep on eating but this will lead to obesity of the reptile and even sickness.
Other people experience the opposite; their Blue Tongued Skink reptile just does not eat enough or does not eat at all leading to a skinny and inactive reptile. A number of factors can help you determine a skinny Blue Tongued Skink reptile. The first one is that the bones of the reptile will be sticking out and if you compare your reptile to the pictures of other reptiles, you will definitely notice the difference.
You need to keep a track of the health of your Blue Tongued Skink reptile and check for illnesses regularly because some people might have healthy reptiles but negligence and lack of attention might deteriorate the health of the reptile. If a skink is not eating at all, the first idea that comes to minds of most people is force-feeding.
You must avoid force-feeding especially if this is your first time with a Blue Tongued Skink reptile and you are not sure about this odd situation. Normally, if your reptile is not eating well, even if you are providing the right diet, it is not worrying. Sometimes, reptiles naturally go days without eating and in the winter months, they may go for weeks without eating. Make sure you provide the reptile with food and try to encourage eating by varying the food every time between fruits, vegetables and proteins.
The problem with force-feeding is that the chances of choking on the food are very high. If the Blue Tongued Skink reptile is not ready to accept the food, it will throw is back out or will choke on it leading to respiratory infections. In fact, your reptile might not even survive this ordeal, which is why you probably should not consider it. You should, however, keep an eye out for other signs of illness that could be affecting the diet of the reptile.