Keeping Blue Tongue Lizards as Pets
(Tiliqua scincoides)
Licenses
Size and longevity
Handling your lizard
Equipment needed
Lighting and heating
Feeding blue-tongue lizards
Brumation
Sloughing (or shedding)
Routine maintenance
Health
Introduction
Blue-tongue lizards are growing in popularity. They are a member of the skink family, and are terrestrial, diurnal, omnivorous and viviparous. This means that they live on the ground, are active during the day, eat a mixture of vegetable and meat products, and give birth to live young. They make fabulous pets and can become quite ‘tame’ and respond well to handling.
Licenses
Blue-tongue lizards are a protected animal. In order to keep them, you must obtain a Recreational Wildlife License from Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (Ecoaccess >> Plants and Animals >> Appplication Forms) before you purchase your lizard.
Size and longevity
Blue-tongue lizards can live for a very long time and grow to a large size. Juvenile blue-tongues when they are born are approximately 10-15 cm long. They will reach full size of about 50 cm at about 2 years. Sexual maturity is reached in 3 years. Lizards will continue to grow their whole life; however once they have reached adulthood, their growth rate slows down considerably.
Handling your lizard
Blue-tongue lizards are usually very amenable to handling; however they can bite if they feel threatened, or think your hand is food. This bite can take two forms. Firstly, they may just take a jab at your hand, in which case you probably won’t feel anything, or they may grab hold of you and not let go. It is important if your lizard bites you the second way that you do not try to prize its jaw open, as this will only mean that they will bite harder. The best way to handle to situation is to hold your hand perfectly still, and pretty soon the lizard will let go. Alternatively, by tapping the tail, many lizards will let go to look around.
When handling your lizard ensure that all limbs are supported. This means using both hands for adults. Do not grasp the lizard around the midriff, as it will struggle and squirm, possibly leading you to drop it. Likewise, do not hold an adult only by the front end.
If a blue-tongue is handled roughly, they may drop their tail. This will re-grow however you will always be able to tell that it is a re-grown tail.
Lizards can carry Salmonella, so always ensure that you wash your hands before and after handling your lizard.
Equipment needed
Indoor Enclosures
Juvenile blue-tongue lizards will need to be housed indoors. A suitable enclosure to house juveniles would be about 60 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm. To house up to 3 adults, a 120 cm long enclosure would be ideal. Remember, it is impossible to provide too large an enclosure, but if you provide one that is too small, you risk stressing your lizard.
It is very important that your enclosure has adequate ventilation and is easily cleanable. Never house lizards in cardboard boxes, as they will quickly claw their way through.
Enclosure Furnishing
Too many furnishings can provide problems with cleaning. You will also find that blue-tongues when kept in confined areas will be relatively destructive. Remember, blue-tongues do not ‘play’ so do not need many things.
You will need a closely fitting hide area. This can be a purpose bought hiding den, a hollowed log or a PVC pipe. You may want to also put a flat rock or log in for the lizard under the basking light. Branches are unnecessary as blue-tongues are not big climbers, and branches will often aid a blue-tongue to escape or, if the blue-tongue falls, it may injure itself.
Blue-tongues will need a water bowl that is not too deep and is away from the basking site. Some blue-tongues will bath in the water bowl, so make sure it is big enough for the size of your lizard. This is especially important when shedding.
Substrate
There are many different materials that can be used for a substrate. The easiest is butchers paper or newspaper, although blue-tongues may have difficulty getting traction on paper, so is not ideal. If you would like a more aesthetically pleasing substrate you could use artificial turf, aquarium gravel, red sand, lizard litter or bark chips. We find that Max’s Cat Litter, made from compressed rice husks, is an excellent substrate.
Outdoor Enclosure
Once your blue-tongue has gone through it’s first winter indoors, you can move it to an outdoor enclosure (provided you live in an area where Eastern Blue-tongue Lizards occur naturally – you would not for example, keep a Blue-tongue native to Queensland outside during a Victorian winter).
One of the big advantages of housing your blue-tongue outdoors is that there is ample UV light from the sun which is beneficial. With this in mind, placement of an outdoor enclosure should be where full sun is available for most of the day. Provide shady areas, such as hollow logs, so that your lizard can retreat when it gets too hot. A water dish large enough to bath in is also needed.
The walls of the enclosure should be smooth, and not be made with chicken wire as the lizards may damage their nose by rubbing against it. Sheets of metal are perfect. Walls should be sunk into the ground about 20 cm, and extend upwards to a height of at least 60 cm. If cats, dogs or birds are a problem, you may have to cover the top with wire or netting.
In outdoor enclosures you can provide many different plants to provide a more natural environment for your lizard. Generally speaking, any of the native plants are suitable for lizards, but if you are unsure as to which plants are safe, ask our staff or enquire at your local plant nursery.
Lighting and Heating
Blue-tongue lizards are one of the few lizards that do not have a high requirement for UV light. UV rays result in the production of Vitamin D3, which in turn promotes the proper utilisation of calcium for your lizard. A lack of Vitamin D3 will result in bone deformities and other health problems. Provided that you give your lizard a well balanced diet, a high level of UV light is not essential – it is however advisable especially for young blue-tongues.
In an outdoor enclosure lizards are able to bask in the sun and receive high levels of UV light. However when they are housed inside, it is advisable that you provide that light for them. A reflector, with a reptile fluorescent tube (such as Repti-Glo or Repti-Star), will provide enough UV light for your lizards health. Note that UV rays will not pass through glass, so do not use a glass lid directly underneath the reflector.
Lizards will also like to bask. Ideally the temperature under the basking light should be about 30oC. This should be placed at one end of the enclosure, allowing a temperature gradient to the other end where the lizard can cool off. There are many different types of basking globes available and we can advise you on suitable lights for your enclosure.
Heating of part of the enclosure is essential for all juvenile blue-tongues and advisable for adults. This can be provided by placing a heat mat or heat cord under the part of the enclosure closest to the basking light. This allows for the lizard to move to a cooler area as needed. Do not use heat rocks with blue-tongue lizards as there is a risk of burning their abdomen.
CAUTION: Do not let your Blue-tongue experience heat above 35oC as this is likely to be fatal. Likewise, do not let the difference between overnight and daytime temperature exceed a 20oC difference.
Feeding Blue-tongue Lizards
Blue-tongues are omnivorous, meaning that they eat both plant and animal products. Providing them with a balanced diet is essential for the well being of your lizard. Juvenile lizards should be fed about 5 times a week, with adults fed about 3 times. In areas where it cools down considerably during winter, consider feeding about half as often. Lizards will often let you know when they are ready to be fed as they may become unusually active.
The time of day that you feed your lizard is also very important. Ensure that you feed late-morning to midday. This means that all food will pass through the digestive tract before the lizard cools down at night (note that this is more important in areas that experience a larger temperature gradient from day to night than is common on the Sunshine Coast). If you feed your lizard in the evening, food may putrefy in the gut causing health problems.
If you are keeping more than one lizard in an enclosure, closely monitor feeding. This is mainly to prevent fighting, but also to ensure that a dominant blue-tongue is not eating most of the food before shyer individuals get a look in.
Food
As stated earlier, blue-tongues eat a variety of plant and animal material. When feeding, aim to provide 1/3 animal (protein) material and 2/3 plant material. Always mix food items through thoroughly and provide it in a large feed container.
Plant material that you can provide includes most fruit (especially bananas), most vegetables, and grains. Animal material includes live crickets, mealworms, woodies, frozen (thawed) pinkie mice, earthworms, canned dog and cat food (non-fish variety) raw meat (with no fat) and their favourite, garden snails (make sure there is no poison nearby).
Avoid feeding too many semi-liquid foods such as raw egg as this can lead to tooth and gum infections. And always cut food up so that the individual food pieces do not exceed 1/3 the size of the head of the blue-tongue.
Supplementing the diet with a calcium supplement is essential. This should be done with each feed for juveniles, and every second feed with adults. There are various different calcium supplements available.
Brumation
Brumation is similar to mammalian hibernation. It is the period of time that lizards will enter a period of inactivity during the cooler months. Blue-tongues will usually bury themselves in soil or leaf litter, and stay there until the weather warms up again. On the Sunshine Coast, lizards in outdoor enclosures will usually not enter a period of true brumation, but rather slow down over winter. Lizards kept indoors also will not usually enter brumation.
Although it is important for some reptiles, brumation is not necessary to maintain the health of blue-tongues. It is however often needed to induce breeding.
Sloughing (or shedding)
Lizards shed their skin – a process known as sloughing. Young blue-tongues will shed up to 10 times in their first year. In the lead up to shedding, the skin will appear dull in colour and the abdomen will turn a milky white. Your lizard will refuse to eat in the week leading up the shedding, but may drink more water. Lizards usually do not need help shedding provided that there is a rough surface in the enclosure that they can rub against. However, closely monitor the shedding process as it is very important to make sure that the old skin peels off properly from around the toes. If old skin remains, it can constrict the blood flow to the limb resulting in deformities. If it looks like your lizard is having difficulty in shedding, place it in a shallow container of water or use Reptile Science Skin Shed to aid in the shedding process.
Routine Maintenance
Blue-tongues are messy animals. Cleaning out faeces and uneaten food should be a daily process. Depending on the substrate you are using, you may need to change this daily as well. The entire enclosure should be cleaned weekly with a reptile cleaner such as Reptile Science Cage Cleaner or Vetafarm Avi-Care. This will ensure that all harmful bacteria are killed.
Health
Blue-tongues are remarkably hardy lizards, and provided that you look after them properly, you should not have too many health problems. This includes making sure that they have a well balanced diet, as oesteodystrophy due to lack of calcium is common.
Another common problem is scale rot and blister disease. This usually occurs due to the enclosure being too damp or humid, which can also cause respiratory infections.
If you suspect your lizard is ill, strict hygiene should be observed to reduce the spread of infection, and a trip to the vet is often needed to identify the problem. We can recommend a reptile vet in your area if you need one.
You are now ready to enjoy your pet blue-tongue. They are an unusual pet which can provide many hours of enjoyment. Should you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will endeavour to do our best to help.
For more information, Keeping Blue-tongue Lizards published by Reptile Keepers is an excellent book on all aspects of lizard care.
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