Plants for Blue Tongued Skink

Lucky123

Arachnobaron
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I want to make my Indonesian Blue Tongued Skink a more bioactive enclosure, but the problem is with blue tongued skinks is that the eat pretty much anything, and they like to dig and trample. I need some recommendations of tough plants that can survive being trampled/uprooted and are not poisonous incase they get eaten, if anyone knows any good plants or have had live plants with a blue tongued skink before please let me know.
 

l4nsky

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Honestly, the thought hasn't even crossed my mind to try. My old guy (he was a rescued adult I've had for 13 years) is a freaking bulldozer and I think it would be a lesson in futility to even attempt lol. That being said, if I were going to try, I'd use big plants, kept in containers that are buried in the soil to protect their roots and possibly use stonework to further protect them from being dug up and knocked around.
 

emartinm28

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Yeah, any plants that are not very very well anchored prior will be destroyed. Pothos comes to mind as one that can be trampled on and still come back, but it’s toxic to humans and dogs (not sure if there’s any research on toxicity to reptiles.) this is one species that I don’t think will do well with live plants (well the skink will be fine, the plants no)
 

Dry Desert

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I want to make my Indonesian Blue Tongued Skink a more bioactive enclosure, but the problem is with blue tongued skinks is that the eat pretty much anything, and they like to dig and trample. I need some recommendations of tough plants that can survive being trampled/uprooted and are not poisonous incase they get eaten, if anyone knows any good plants or have had live plants with a blue tongued skink before please let me know.
The only thing really for a BTS enclosure is some well secured vertical cork bark/ African hard wood with loads of the hanging trailing artificial plants. Anything else just wouldn't survive or be toxic like ivy or similar.
 

Matts inverts

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Pothos is good. It will regrow after being destroyed or eaten and is safe for skinks. It naturally occurs in the native range.
 

Joey Spijkers

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I’ve seen pothos being used for blue tongues. No personal experience though, and I’m not even going to try with mine haha.
 

l4nsky

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So it should be okay if he eats it?
Pothos isn't highly toxic to humans like belladona, it's more of an irritant that can cause discomfort if ingested in small amounts and can really mess up your day if you eat a salad of the stuff. I haven't been able to find anything specific or consistent for BTS (some say yes, some say no) unfortunately, but I haven't found any cases where it has proven fatal either.
 

Matts inverts

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There was a study saying that it was toxic because the calcium laces with a chemical and makes sharp crystals that mess with animals necks. It doesn’t hurt certain reptiles because they built up tolerance to it. It doesn’t hurt many skinks.
 

Dry Desert

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So it should be okay if he eats it?
I wouldn't chance it as @ Matt's inverts says the leaves have calcium oxalate in the form of glass shrads that can pierce the skin when touched, and there's a lot of skin on a BTS.
 

Lucky123

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I wouldn't chance it as @ Matt's inverts says the leaves have calcium oxalate in the form of glass shrads that can pierce the skin when touched, and there's a lot of skin on a BTS.
Ok thanks, I don't think I'm gonna risk it.
 

Matts inverts

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I think it should be fine. I know a shop that had skink that ate a whole plant and it was perfectly fine but the plant was not able to grow back good. It mostly applies to mammals but you can be careful. Many tropical species have built up immunity towards the calcium in the plant. People have fed this plant to many types of skinks and tropical tortoises with no effects.
 

Reezelbeezelbug

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Apr 24, 2020
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If you just want it for looks, you could grow the pothos on top of the enclosure and let the vines drape down outside the front of the enclosure. Wouldn't help at all with being bioactive, but it might kinda look a little more natural
 
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