Did I hear you scream blue tongue skink toys? Yes, toys! And hey! Hang on a bit.
Your skinks need toys much as your kids do. If not for anything; for a happy and healthy life. Simply put, their toys are what is called “Enrichments”.
In the wild, they have various things to play with, explore, and feed their eyes and curious minds.
For your captive skinks, consider providing them with toys to make up to them for taking them away from their natural habitat.
Now you know how important enrichment toys are for your skinks, we will in this article give you:
- Mind-blowing toy ideas perfect for your skinks.
- Best exercises and activity ideas and
- Pro tips to give your skinks optimum fun and happiness.
Let’s continue reading
Contents
Why Toys And Exercises?
As hinted earlier, the toys for your skinks are to enhance their health and general well-being. Keep in mind that a happy individual is a healthy individual. Similarly, a happy blue tongue skink is a healthy skink.
Let’s bolster further, much attention is always given to feeding blue tongue skinks than to their exercises. That is why it’s more common to hear of obesity among blue tongue skinks than underweight.
You also need to remember that your adorable skink spends a crazy amount of time alone in its cage. How would YOU feel if you spent all day, every day in one room whether large or small?
It sucks right? Exactly! That is how your blue tongue skink feels.
Blue tongue skinks in the wild have a much larger territory to roam and countless more things to keep them busy.
Whether it’s chasing down bugs, finding a new rock to bask on, or simply watching and observing other animals, the truth is they aren’t lacking for fun activities.
Luckily, captive blue tongue skinks that are a bit tamed and who love the company of humans wouldn’t be needing all the bells and whistles pulled out for them to have fun.
But if you chose to go ahead to spoil your skinks with fun activities, it’s okay. To keep it simple, toys like foraging balls and even cat wands will give your skink lots of fun.
Best Enrichment Toys For Blue Tongue Skinks
1.) Foraging Ball
Foraging balls are balls with holes in them. Your skinks would have to roll and nudge the ball around for the treats to fall out. A foraging ball would likely work for any species of skink.
Note- the ball comes empty, so you can put little bits of dry food, mealworms, or whatever food your skink loves. Your skink will start attacking the ball right away once it goes into the cage.
Last update on 2022-12-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
2.) A Wiffle Ball Or Volleyball
There’s no doubt that your skink would love to lunge at small wiffle balls or volleyballs and even chase after it as the ball rolls away.
For safety, get your skink a small, lightweight ball that he could play around within the yard. It’s a perfect idea for a skink walkout.
Last update on 2022-12-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
3.) A Floatie
I for one love this treat real good. How much more your skink, especially if your skink is the scaredy-cat type that doesn’t enjoy baths. These floaties would provide a rest for it while having its bath.
Last update on 2022-12-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
4.) A Tunnel
A cat tunnel is another great toy idea for skinks. Both juvenile and adult skinks would enjoy running in and out of the tunnel during playtime.
To make the exercise even fun, you can stick in some food (not too much please) or try dragging a cat wand through the tunnel to give it something to chase.
New to blue tongue skink? Check out the blue tongue skink care sheet now! We had listed out all the things you need to know about blue tongue skinks as pets. Check it now!
5.) A Hideout
Providing blue tongue skinks a hideout is like getting your 8year old kid either a bicycle, his most desired toy, or taking him to an amusement park. Oh my! They love it so much.
Aside from the fact that they naturally love burrowing, especially during brumation, this enrichment will give your skink a zoo-like or natural habitat experience. And your skink will be grateful to have one to play around.
6.) A Bridge
A bridge in your skink’s enclosure can make up a suitable basking spot. Your skink will enjoy crossing from one end of the bridge to the other end while basking.
Although it’s not considered as a toy, it makes for good relaxation and exercise. However, make sure the bridge isn’t too high and it’s firmly fixed to avoid causing injury to your skink.
7.) A Lazer Pointer
Blue tongue skinks in the wild love chasing after bugs. So getting a Lazer pointer and letting your skinks chase after it thinking that it’s a bug is a great idea.
But over time your skinks can get tired and bored when they realize it wasn’t a bug after all.
To solve this and keep the fun going, only let them chase after it for a couple of days in a week. This way, it’ll take them a long time to realize it was a trick.
8.) A Cat Wand
You can also try attaching a small toy or vegetables to a dangling cat wand for your skinks to chase after.
Last update on 2023-05-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
9.) Crinkled Wrapping Paper Or Cat Toy
You wouldn’t find crinkled wrapping paper in the pet store. It’s something you can do on your own at home. Simply crumpled-up some used wrapping papers or newspapers and put your skink next to it to start playing.
If your skink is uninterested for any reason, gently place it on top of the paper to stimulate it to play.
Last update on 2023-06-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Wrapping up this section, did you notice anything unique about this list of toys?- Definitely!
This list of toys is overwhelmingly inexpensive. You can see that giving your skinks some toys to play with doesn’t mean breaking the bank.
As a matter of caution, when trying out any of these enrichment toys with your skink; make sure that you’re physically available to supervise it. The reason is to avoid your precious skink from getting injured.
Now let’s discuss in detail the activities and exercises that can stimulate happiness in your skink.
Best Activities And Exercises For Blue Tongue Skinks
1.) Hunting
Part of the toys we discussed in the previous section did emphasize on the importance of hunting and how skinks love it. They love it because hunting is part of what they do in the natural world.
Interestingly, you will not spend any dime to give them a hunting experience, provided that you have a large area where there are lots of bugs. Your skinks will be grateful to help keep those insects low.
This activity works great on large open courtyards and gardens.
2.) Swimming
Most blue tongue skinks have been observed to show less interest in swimming. Except for the explorers and hyperactive skinks.
However, it’s still a good exercise worth giving a trial. Who knows? Your skinks might love it. What do you do?
Just fill up your bathtub or little plastic kiddie pools a couple of inches and watch if they enjoy it.
To make the activity fun, you can use the floaties we earlier discussed to stimulate your skinks into activity.
Your skinks will inevitably love swimming with floaties. To avoid them from drowning, make sure you’re right beside them to supervise.
Besides, if your skinks still show no interest in swimming even with floaties, try a different activity. It’s far better to let it be or try something else than bore or stress your skinks.
The water’s recommended temperature in your bathtub is normal room temperature (not too hot and not too cold).
If you’re using a plastic kiddie pool, I would advise first place it in the sun on a warm day before letting them in. With the floaties, they can bask as well.
3.) Take Your Blue Tongue Skinks For Walks
They’re kept as pets, right? And docile pets at that. That’s the main reason you should sometimes take your skinks for walks. (Note- the distance shouldn’t be too long, they might get tired).
How do you make this possible and accident-free?
Attach a cord or strap and fasten it to your skinks, around the neck. It should be done in a way that will not hurt or suffocate them. Ensure the ropes aren’t too long or too short, but enough to keep a reasonable distance from you.
Next time you’re making plans to visit a friend in the neighborhood, instead of keeping your skinks alone in their cages; give them a walking treat.
New to blue tongue skink? Check out the blue tongue skink care sheet now! We had listed out all the things you need to know about blue tongue skinks as pets. Check it now!
4.) Give Your Skinks A Ball Pit
This activity is similar to the idea of stuffing brown papers or leaves in a box earlier discussed. This time instead of papers, you use lightweight balls.
As a matter of safety, don’t stuff the balls to the brim of the pit. And besides, for homemade pits, make sure it is shallow so that your skinks can get out on their own should they get tired.
Please note that this activity should only be practiced with full-grown adult skinks and NEVER with babies or juveniles.
5.) Don’t Be Surprised Blue Tongue Skinks Love Watching TV
How funny this is! But don’t be surprised, like I said; blue tongue skinks love watching TV. For a skink that loves climbing on you, it would be great to let it out its cage once in a while to have a nice time watching the TV with you.
Only make sure that the sound isn’t too loud. That will sure freak them out.
6.) Blue Tongue Skinks Love To Go For A Drive
One of the cool facts about captive blue tongue skinks is that they love to be around their owners. Should we expect less? That’s why they are called pets anyway.
They take fancy snuggling up on you while you read a book, browse the internet, or even drive.
If your skink is an “explore it all” type and not a scaredy-cat, take it along with you for some fun.
Just make sure you keep them where they are secure enough so they won’t fall. Avoid keeping too close to the window.
7.) Blue Tongue Skinks Love To Cuddle Up
(Source: Becca Pane YouTube)
Do you love to be cuddled? Certainly, all living creatures do. Just that some crave it more than others.
Something is intriguing about being cuddled, aside from stimulating happiness; it keeps someone cognitively stimulated. Therefore, your skinks will love a treat of that.
While watching the TV, you can let them snuggle up on you or you provide them with warm fuzzy blankets to cuddle up in.
8.) Give your blue tongue skinks a Puzzle
One of the best activities one can trust and repeat it repeatedly for skinks is to stimulate them mentally.
A foraging ball mentioned earlier will make a great puzzle. Don’t be surprised to see your skinks go crazy batting the ball around trying to get the insects to fall out.
Hahaha! It’s always funny to watch.
Other enrichment toys that can be helpful are toys for kittens, birds, guinea pigs, and other small animals.
Are you still wondering how effective or safe these ideas are? Here are what top skink owners have to say:
In one instance, a breeder in a blue tongue skink forum says that his skink loves clinging on the window to watch birds in nearby trees during summer.
Another breeder shares a mind-blowing idea of stuffing brown leaves or pieces of paper in a box with mealworms hidden underneath the leaves. Since skinks are burrowing animals, they would need to burrow and turn the leaves over to find the worms.
This is not just a great idea for active skinks but will keep your skink cognitively stimulated.
A breeder who found out that her skink loves both indoor and outdoor activities shares her experience. She said, “I found out a couple of weeks ago that my skink loves playing volleyball”.
She said the ball would roll over her and she would get back up and do it all over again. According to her, the skink seems to enjoy playing with the ball. In another instance, she found out that her skink loves going on car rides with her sitting on the car dash.
Another breeder Olivia said something contradictory. Her skink doesn’t seem to be interested in playing with toys or swimming, rather climbing on her back.
I couldn’t hold back my surprise. Who would have thought that “back climbing” would mean a whole lot to a skink?
If this goes down well with your skink, then you have to let it out its cage to have fun with you from time to time.
You can let him climb on you while on a walk, watching the TV or riding in a car.
You can read more about the experiences of other breeders in reptileforums.co.uk
Should baby skinks or juveniles be given toys too?
Yes of course! They shouldn’t be left out in having fun.
If so, what exercises, activities, and toys are suitable for baby and juvenile skinks?
A few of the enrichment toys and activities discussed here are good to try out with much younger skinks. Such as:
- Allowing the climb or snuggle up on you.
- Providing them with tunnels, hideout, and convenient bridges in their enclosures. (Only make sure it’s safe for their age and
- Cuddling them.
Wrapping Up
(Source: Clint’s Reptiles YouTube)
Much like dogs and humans, blue tongue skinks will benefit greatly from having toys to play with and regular activities to keep fit.
If you haven’t been giving your skink enrichment toys or at least planning to, then you’re missing out on an excellent way to care for your skink.
This aspect of caring for your skink is something you should consider as a loving pet owner.
The bottom line is while doing this keep it safe and straightforward especially for younger skinks.
Now you can see that you don’t even have to break the bank before you can provide your skink with some fun toys and activities.
In sum, if you have experimented with something different from what we’ve covered in this article, please let’s have your ideas and what you’ve been up to.
All the best with your skink!
