Blue-tongued skinks are native to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea.  A skink can be a friendly and docile pet if cared for properly and handled gently.  Carefully handle your skink daily to keep it tame.  Blue-tongue skinks live best alone, happily living a solitary life.  Adults can grow as long as 24 inches long and can live up to 20 years.

When choosing a skink, look for one that appears healthy and has a good store of fat in the tail.  It is difficult to tell the males from the females.  But if you are trying to guess, the male skink has a straighter line and wider head, while the female tends to have a more rounded body and smaller head.  

An adult skink should be housed in a tank size of at least  55 gallons, with 75 gallons being your best choice.  The blue-tongued skink does not dwell in trees, and therefore requires more horizontal space than vertical space.  Your substrate should be bark chips, or bed-a-beast.  Never use sand, which they may ingest, or pine and cedar chips.  Spray the tank every two to three days to keep the environment moist.  The temperature of your tank should range from 85 to 90 degrees during the day.  Never keep the environment colder than 70 degrees during the night.

This little lizard has small feet and does not climb high.  He would much rather explore the insides of bark tunnels and other objects made for lizards.  Use flat rocks and keep moist sphagnum moss in a corner to help him shed.  Place a reptile heating pad under one area of the tank, enabling him to find warmth when needed, but also allowing him to cool off in other areas.

UVB lighting must be used in your skink's habitat.  The light should be full spectrum and needs to be kept on for about eight to twelve hours a day.

Your blue-tongued skink should have clean water at all times in a shallow dish.  At least one meal a week should be dusted with extra calcium.  Slugs, snails, pinkies (baby mice), earthworms, crickets and mealworms are simply delectable to your lizard.  You can also chop up greens for him, while also offering fruit such as kiwi, berries and cantaloupe.  Do not give your skink iceburg lettuce - stick to dandelion greens, spinach, collard greens and broccoli.  To encourage your skink to eat at least 60% veggies, mix them with a high quality beef dog food.  You can also give your skink the occasional piece of steamed and cooled chicken or beef.