If you are planning on getting a blue tongue skink, then you have made an excellent choice. For starters, these lizards are probably the most intelligent specie among all reptiles. They are not only able to recognize faces and voices but they can also be taught tricks once tamed. Usually shy of human beings, this reptile take almost a year to get used to human presence and once they do, you can let them out of their enclosure and can even take them with you in your car. But not all the skinks are suitable for you to have as pets. You need to consider many things before you buy a blue tongue skink lizard.
Firstly, you need to make sure about the blue tongue skink that you are buying is not caught from the wild fields but is breed at home or at a facility instead. The reason behind this is that wild skinks carry a lot of parasites and germs that can create a health hazard for you and your family. Even if they do not affect your health, you will still have to spend a large fortune to get them de-wormed and disinfected. Instead of going through all this hassle, it is a safe option to choose a healthy blue-tongued skink which has no link to the wild. An additional advantage of such lizards is that they are used to human interaction and so require little time to get tamed.
Since blue tongue lizards are hard to find in pet stores, you do not have a lot of options when you go out to buy one; nevertheless, it is very important for you to check the general health of the lizard you are planning to get. Measure its weight and length and find out about its age, compare the two to see if your new pet is in good shape. Along with this, you should also gather information on the current diet the pet is following so that you are able to buy its feed accordingly. Although this lizard can eat meat and fruits, vegetables, it is preferable to maintain a ratio of 60 percent and 40 percent between vegetables and meat respectively, so that your lizard gets all the essential nutrients it requires.
Finally, do not forget to check its gender; especially if you are buying a lizard to breed, you need to pay special attention to the gender. Most of the time, the gender is not easy to determine and require experts opinion, but whatever the case, finding out the sex of your blue tongue skink is crucial.
