Discoid Roaches or Isopods? The Real Answer to Blue Tongue Skink Nutrition

I get this question constantly from new blue tongue skink keepers: "discoid roaches or isopods?" People treat it like a fork in the road, like they have to pick the one true feeder and build the whole diet on it. And I understand why — most feeder marketing is built to make you choose a side. But after years of keeping skinks and breeding the feeders that go into them, I can tell you the question itself is slightly wrong, and once you see why, the entire diet snaps into focus.

Here's the honest answer up front: a blue tongue skink (Tiliqua spp.) is an omnivore, not an insectivore. In the wild these are slow, ground-dwelling generalists that eat whatever the forest floor or scrubland offers — beetles, snails, roaches, carrion, fallen fruit, flowers, leaves, the occasional small vertebrate. A captive blue tongue does not live on insects. It lives on a roughly half-protein, half-plant diet, and the exact split shifts with age. So "discoid or isopod" is like asking whether a balanced human dinner should be "steak or a multivitamin." They're not competing for the same job.

Discoid roaches are the best answer to the protein half of the plate. Isopods are a useful calcium-rich supplement and cleanup crew, not a staple protein. This guide takes that real framing and builds it out into a complete feeding manual: what a blue tongue eats by life stage, the precise role of discoids, the precise (and more limited) role of isopods, the other proteins the hobby argues about, the vegetable and green portion that's actually half the diet, calcium and D3 and vitamin supplementation done right, gut-loading, feeding schedules, and a clear list of what to avoid. Read it end to end and you'll never wonder "which feeder" again, because you'll understand the whole plate.

Meet the omnivore: what a blue tongue skink actually eats

Blue tongue skinks are medium-large, heavy-bodied lizards from Australia, New Guinea, and parts of Indonesia. There are several species and subspecies kept in the hobby — Northern, Eastern, Indonesian, Irian Jaya, Centralian, Blotched, Shingleback and others — and while their humidity and temperature preferences differ, their dietary architecture is the same across the genus: omnivore, slow forager, opportunist.

That last word matters. In the wild a blue tongue isn't a precision hunter. It trundles along eating what it bumps into. Some days that's a slow snail or a beetle; other days it's a patch of dandelion flowers or a piece of fallen fruit. This is why their captive diet is so forgiving in variety and so unforgiving in balance — they'll happily eat almost anything you offer, including things that are bad for them in quantity, so the keeper has to supply the discipline the animal won't.

The working ratios I build every plate around:

• ◆Hatchlings and juveniles: roughly 60% animal protein / 40% plant matter. Growth is expensive. Young skinks build bone and muscle fast and need the protein and calcium to do it.
• ◆Adults: roughly 40–50% animal protein / 50–60% plant matter. Growth has stopped; now you're maintaining a body, and too much rich protein on a sedentary adult drives obesity and stresses the kidneys.
• ◆Fruit: a small slice of the plant side, not its own category. Think of it as a garnish — flavor, some vitamins, hydration — capped low because of the sugar.

Everything downstream — which feeder, how often, how much to dust — is just an expression of those ratios. Keep them in your head and the rest of this guide is detail.

Why protein matters, and why more is not better

Protein supplies the amino acids that build muscle, repair tissue, drive the immune system, and fuel the rapid development of a young skink. During growth spurts and (in breeding females) egg production, protein demand spikes, which is exactly when you push the animal-protein side of the plate up.

But protein is a classic case of "the dose makes the poison." A diet that's chronically too rich in protein — especially in an adult that isn't growing — taxes the kidneys, packs on fat, and shortens lifespan. This is the single most common diet mistake I see in adult blue tongues: keepers who never dial the protein down as the animal matures, feeding a five-year-old adult like it's still a hatchling. The fix is simply respecting the age curve: protein-forward when young, plant-forward when grown.

Discoid roaches: the staple protein feeder

If I had to pick one feeder insect to anchor a blue tongue's protein, it's the discoid roach (Blaberus discoidalis), and it's not close. Here's why they earn the "staple" label.

They're a clean, meaty, soft-bodied protein. Discoids carry a high protein load with a moderate, sensible fat level — rich enough to nourish, not so fatty that they fatten the animal the way superworms do. Crucially, they have a soft, low-chitin exoskeleton compared to crickets or mealworms. Chitin is the tough structural carbohydrate in insect shells; too much of it is hard for a reptile to digest and adds nothing nutritionally. Discoids' low-chitin bodies mean more of the roach is usable nutrition and less of it is indigestible armor — gentler on a skink's gut, especially a juvenile's.

They gut-load beautifully. What the roach ate in the 24–48 hours before it becomes dinner is, in effect, what your skink eats. Discoids eat readily and hold a gut full of nutritious produce, so a properly gut-loaded discoid is a little nutrient delivery package. (Full protocol below.)

They're easy and pleasant to keep. Discoids don't climb smooth walls, don't fly, barely smell, and are legal in places where dubia roaches are restricted (Florida being the big one). A bin of discoids is about the most low-drama feeder colony you can run, which means you can reliably keep the staple protein on hand — and reliability is half of good husbandry. If you want the full breeding-and-keeping playbook, I've written that up separately; see my complete discoid roach care and breeding guide.

They move enough to trigger feeding behavior. A discoid is a satisfying, lively prey item that gets a skink's hunting instinct going — useful for picky eaters and for enrichment, and a real advantage over inert food.

The one thing to fix about discoids: the calcium myth

You will read — including in older versions of articles I'm drawing this guide from — that discoid roaches have a "favorable calcium-to-phosphorus ratio." This is wrong, and it's an important error to correct. Like virtually every feeder insect, discoids are phosphorus-heavy: they contain far more phosphorus than calcium, an inverted ratio that, left unaddressed, contributes to metabolic bone disease (MBD).

Why does this matter so much? Calcium and phosphorus work as a pair in the body, and reptiles need to consume more calcium than phosphorus (a ratio around 2:1 calcium-to-phosphorus is the common target). Feeder insects deliver the opposite. The veterinary literature is blunt about the consequences: chronic dietary calcium deficiency or an inverted Ca:P ratio is a leading cause of metabolic bone disease in captive reptiles, as the MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual's reptile nutrition section lays out. So no amount of "they're naturally well-balanced" talk is true, and gut-loading alone does not fix it. The fix is mechanical and non-negotiable: dust discoids with a plain calcium supplement before feeding. Do that and the discoid goes from "phosphorus-heavy protein" to "calcium-corrected staple." Skip it and you're slowly building toward soft bones and a floppy tail. I'll cover the full dusting schedule in the supplementation section.

Isopods: calcium-rich supplement and cleanup crew — not a staple

Now the other half of the famous question. Isopods (terrestrial crustaceans — woodlice, "rolly pollies," and their many cultivated cousins like powder blues, dairy cows, and dwarf whites) get talked about as a feeder, and they are one, but you have to be clear-eyed about what they're for.

What isopods are genuinely good at:

• ◆They're calcium-rich. Isopods are crustaceans, and their mineralized exoskeletons carry meaningfully more calcium than a typical insect's shell. This is their real nutritional selling point: a small, naturally calcium-bearing supplement that adds variety to the diet.
• ◆They're low in fat. A lean addition that won't push a sedentary adult toward obesity.
• ◆They're a bioactive cleanup crew. This is, honestly, where isopods earn most of their keep. Drop a thriving isopod culture into a bioactive blue tongue enclosure and they spend all day breaking down shed skin, uneaten food, and waste, recycling it and keeping the substrate healthy. They're a self-sustaining janitorial staff that occasionally also becomes a snack when your skink noses one up while foraging. If you want to start a culture for either purpose, a healthy starter colony of isopods from All Angles Creatures will seed both a feeder supply and a cleanup crew.
• ◆They add foraging enrichment. A skink rooting through substrate and finding the occasional isopod is engaged in natural behavior, which is good for it.

Why isopods can't be the staple:

• ◆They're tiny and low-calorie. A single isopod is a crumb. You'd need an absurd number to meet an adult skink's protein needs, and that's not realistic or efficient. They simply can't carry the protein half of the plate.
• ◆Their protein is modest. Decent quality, but well below a discoid's load. Good for variety, not for building muscle.
• ◆They're chitinous. The same exoskeleton that carries calcium is also chitin. In small supplemental amounts that's fine (and the chitin acts a bit like dietary fiber); eaten in large quantity as a main course, it's hard to digest.
• ◆Another calcium myth to correct: you'll also read that isopods have an "ideal calcium-to-phosphorus ratio" requiring no supplementation. Be skeptical of the strong version of that claim. Isopods are genuinely more calcium-rich than insects, which is real and useful — but it does not mean you can build a diet on them and skip calcium supplementation everywhere else. Treat their calcium as a helpful bonus on top of a properly supplemented diet, not as a license to stop dusting.

So the resolution to "discoid or isopod" is: discoids carry the protein, isopods garnish it with calcium and clean your tank. Different jobs. Run both.

The head-to-head: discoids vs. isopods vs. other proteins

Here's how the common protein options actually compare. Treat the numbers as approximate, as-fed/typical-range figures — real values swing with diet, life stage, and source — but the relationships are reliable and they're what should drive your choices.

A few takeaways the table makes obvious:

• ◆Discoids and dubia are nearly interchangeable as the staple — pick on legality and what you can source. (Florida keepers: discoids.)
• ◆Isopods and snails are your natural-calcium options. Both bring calcium the others lack — isopods as a small supplement, captive-bred snails as a genuinely nice variety protein that a wild blue tongue would actually eat.
• ◆Superworms are a treat, not a staple. That high fat adds up fast and drives obesity and fatty-liver problems. A few as an occasional indulgence, never the everyday feeder.
• ◆Eggs, lean meat, and dog food are "sometimes" foods, useful for variety but easy to misuse — covered next.

The other proteins, and the debates around them

A wild blue tongue eats more than roaches, and a good captive diet rotates proteins. Here's how I handle the rest of the protein side honestly.

Snails

If I could get every keeper to add one thing, it'd be clean, captive-bred snails. Blue tongues genuinely eat snails in the wild, they love them, the soft body is easy to digest, and the shell is real dietary calcium. The catch is sourcing: never feed wild-collected snails, which can carry parasites (including rat lungworm) and pesticide residue. Use captive-bred snails raised on clean food. Used this way they're one of the best natural-calcium proteins you can offer.

Cooked lean meats and eggs

Small amounts of cooked, unseasoned lean meat (chicken, turkey) and cooked egg are fine occasional protein. Keep them lean, plain (no salt, oil, onion, garlic, or seasoning), and minor. Raw meat and fatty cuts are out — they invite bacterial risk and unbalance the diet. These are convenience proteins for variety, not staples; they lack the whole-prey balance of a gut-loaded, dusted feeder.

High-quality wet dog food — the long-running hobby debate

This is the one keepers argue about, so let me be balanced and clear. For decades, plain, high-quality, low-fat wet dog or cat food has been used as a convenient protein component in blue tongue diets, and many experienced keepers use it successfully in moderation. It's soft, palatable, fortified, and easy.

But the honest cautions are real:

• ◆Much of it is too fatty, which drives obesity in a sedentary animal.
• ◆It is not a substitute for whole feeders and fresh food — it lacks the structural and behavioral value of real prey and the fiber/micronutrient diversity of fresh produce.
• ◆It's easy to over-rely on precisely because it's easy.

My position: if you use it, use a high-quality, low-fat, plain formula, keep it rare and minor — a small part of an occasional meal, not the staple — and balance it within the broader diet. Plenty of keepers skip it entirely and their skinks thrive. Treat it as an optional convenience, never a foundation.

The plant half of the plate (this is half the diet — don't skip it)

Here's where blue tongue keepers most often fall down, because they came in thinking "lizard = bugs." For an adult blue tongue, vegetables and greens are roughly half the diet — sometimes more. This is not optional garnish; it's a co-equal half of the nutrition. Get it right and you've solved most of the diet.

Greens: the everyday base

Leafy greens are the backbone of the plant side. The best everyday greens are calcium-rich and low in oxalates and goitrogens (more on those in the avoid section):

• ◆Excellent staples: collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, endive, escarole, and other dark leafy greens. Dandelion greens in particular are a great calcium-bearing staple.
• ◆Good rotation: watercress, cilantro, arugula (in moderation), squash leaves.

Chop greens so the animal can manage them, and make them the reliable base of the vegetable portion.

Vegetables: color and substance

Beyond leafy greens, build in a rotating mix of vegetables for vitamins, fiber, and bulk:

• ◆Squashes (butternut, acorn, summer squash), bell peppers, green beans, peas, carrots (and their tops), sweet potato (cooked or grated), okra, parsnip.
• ◆These add beta-carotene (vitamin A precursor), fiber, and variety. Rotate so no single vegetable dominates.

Fruit: the small, sweet slice

Fruit is a treat within the plant portion, kept low because of sugar:

• ◆Good options in small amounts: berries (blueberries, raspberries), papaya, mango, melon, fig, and the occasional bit of apple or pear (no seeds).
• ◆Fruit adds vitamins, hydration, and palatability — and it's a great way to get a reluctant eater interested or to hide a supplement. Just keep it a small fraction of the plant side, not a daily staple.

Flowers and extras

Wild blue tongues eat flowers, and edible blooms (dandelion flowers, hibiscus, nasturtium, rose petals — all pesticide-free) are a nice, natural enrichment that they genuinely enjoy.

Putting it together: a sample weekly diet

It helps to see the ratios as an actual schedule. Here are two realistic week plans — one juvenile (protein-forward, more frequent), one adult (plant-forward, less frequent). Portion sizes are illustrative; always size to your individual animal and its body condition.

Juvenile (growing): protein-forward, ~daily

Adult (maintenance): plant-forward, ~2–3x per week

Notice what the adult schedule does: fewer feedings, smaller protein share, bigger plant plate, and a leaner protein rotation (more snails and lean options, fewer fatty extras). That age shift is the single most important adjustment you'll make over a skink's life.

Calcium, D3, and vitamins: supplementation done right

Because every insect feeder is phosphorus-heavy, supplementation isn't a nice-to-have — it's the mechanism that keeps a feeder diet from causing metabolic bone disease. Here's the framework I use.

The two (or three) products

• ◆Plain calcium (calcium carbonate, no D3): your everyday workhorse. Dust most feedings with it to correct the phosphorus-heavy feeders.
• ◆Calcium with D3: used on a lighter schedule. D3 lets the body actually use calcium, but the animal also makes its own D3 from UVB exposure, and too much supplemental D3 is itself harmful (it doesn't flush like some vitamins). So D3 is scheduled, not constant.
• ◆Reptile multivitamin: a periodic all-rounder covering vitamin A and other micronutrients. Used sparingly on schedule — over-supplementing fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E) causes problems, so more is not better.

A workable schedule

• ◆With good UVB lighting: dust with plain calcium at most feedings, and use calcium+D3 or a multivitamin about once a week (or every few feedings). Strong UVB means the animal makes its own D3, so you lean on plain calcium.
• ◆With weak or no UVB: you depend more on dietary D3. Use calcium+D3 more regularly (e.g., a couple times a week) plus plain calcium on other feedings, and a periodic multivitamin. Better still: provide proper UVB so the animal can self-regulate D3 — it's the more natural and safer route.

The principle across both: plain calcium often, D3 and multivitamin on a measured schedule, never everything every meal. You're threading the needle between deficiency (MBD) and over-supplementation (hypervitaminosis, hypercalcemia).

How to dust

Drop the feeders into a small container or bag with a pinch of supplement and gently swirl until lightly coated — a light dusting, not a caked-on shell. For produce, a very light sprinkle works. Feed promptly so the powder doesn't all fall off before the skink eats.

Gut-loading: turning a feeder into a nutrient package

Dusting fixes the surface calcium; gut-loading fixes the inside. The two work together.

Gut-loading means feeding your feeder insects a nutrient-rich diet for 24–48 hours before they go to your skink, so the skink eats not just the bug but the bug's full, nutritious gut. For discoids (and crickets), feed a quality dry roach/insect chow as a base plus fresh produce — leafy greens, carrots, squash, sweet potato, apple. Keep clean hydration available (water crystals or a damp sponge, never an open dish nymphs can drown in).

The protocol that actually improves your feeders:

1. ◆Keep the colony on a steady, decent diet all the time.
2. ◆24–48 hours before feeding off, offer especially rich produce and protein.
3. ◆Harvest, dust with calcium, and feed promptly.

That sequence — well-fed colony, pre-feed gut-load, dust, serve fresh — is the difference between a feeder that's empty calories and one that's genuinely nourishing. For the full feeder-keeping and gut-loading detail, again see the discoid roach care and breeding guide.

Feeding schedules and portions by life stage

The "how often / how much" question, made concrete:

• ◆Hatchlings / young juveniles: feed roughly daily to every other day. Growth is rapid and protein demand is high. Protein-forward plates (~60% protein), calcium at most feedings.
• ◆Sub-adults: transition to every 2–3 days, gradually shifting the ratio toward plants as growth slows.
• ◆Adults: 2–3 times per week, plant-forward (~50–60% plant). This is where most over-feeding happens — adults are food-motivated and will eat well past their needs.

On portion size: rather than chasing a fixed gram count, size the meal to the animal and adjust by body condition. A common rough guide is a meal roughly in the volume of the skink's head, and feeders sized no wider than the space between the eyes (or no wider than the head) to avoid choking. Then watch the body: a healthy blue tongue has a full but not bloated abdomen and a firm, fat-storing tail base — not a sharp spine and not rolls of fat. Feed the animal in front of you, not a chart. Adjust frequency and portion up or down based on weight and condition.

What to avoid: the genuinely important "don't" list

Some of these are hard rules; some are "fine occasionally, bad as a staple." Both matter.

Never feed:

• ◆Avocado — toxic to many animals.
• ◆Onions, garlic, chives, leeks — toxic in the allium family.
• ◆Rhubarb — toxic.
• ◆Citrus (oranges, lemons, etc.) as food — too acidic; skip it.
• ◆Anything seasoned, salty, oily, sugary, or processed — human snacks, seasoned meats, etc.
• ◆Insects caught outdoors — risk of pesticides and parasites. Feed only clean, captive-bred feeders. (This is also why wild-collected snails and wild isopods are a no.)
• ◆Fireflies/lightning bugs — toxic to reptiles.

Limit / rotate, don't make staples:

• ◆High-oxalate greens — spinach, beet greens, Swiss chard, chard. Oxalates bind calcium and block its absorption, working directly against everything your supplementation is trying to do. Fine in occasional rotation; never the everyday green.
• ◆Goitrogenic vegetables — kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, Brussels sprouts. Goitrogens can interfere with thyroid/iodine function when fed heavily. Small amounts in rotation are okay; don't build the green base on them.
• ◆High-fat feeders — superworms, waxworms, fatty dog food. Obesity and fatty liver. Treats only.
• ◆Too much fruit — sugar. A small slice of the plant side, not a daily course.
• ◆Too much protein for adults — kidney strain and obesity. Respect the age curve.

Notice the pattern: most of the "limit" list is about calcium and balance. Oxalates steal calcium, goitrogens unbalance the thyroid, fat unbalances the body, sugar unbalances everything. The whole avoid-list is really one idea — protect the balance you worked to build.

Water and hydration: the quiet half of nutrition

Diet talk skips water, and it shouldn't, because hydration is wound through everything above — shedding, kidney health (especially on a protein diet), and how well the body handles the calcium and supplements you're feeding.

A few practical points:

• ◆Always provide a clean, shallow water dish big enough for the skink to drink from and, ideally, to soak in. Change it whenever it's fouled; blue tongues will defecate in water.
• ◆Food is a real water source. Much of a feeder's body weight is moisture, and fresh produce and fruit carry significant water too — another reason the plant half of the plate pulls double duty. A skink eating a varied, produce-rich diet is getting meaningful hydration from its food.
• ◆Soaking helps shedding and constipation. A lukewarm soak now and then supports a difficult shed and can help a constipated animal pass stool. It's not a daily requirement for most species, but it's a useful tool.
• ◆Match humidity to the species (Indonesians want it more humid than Australians, for example). Chronic dehydration shows up as stuck sheds, sunken eyes, and lethargy — and it makes a high-protein diet harder on the kidneys.

Think of water as the solvent the whole diet runs in. Get it wrong and even a perfect plate underperforms.

Species and individual differences

"Blue tongue skink" covers several species with real differences, and the diet framework above flexes to fit them. The ratios and supplementation are universal — every blue tongue is an omnivore that needs calcium-corrected protein and a big plant half — but the details shift:

• ◆Australian species (Northern, Eastern, Centralian, Blotched) generally take a slightly more plant- and protein-balanced generalist diet and tolerate drier conditions.
• ◆Indonesian and Irian Jaya skinks tend to be a touch more protein- and animal-matter-inclined and want higher humidity, which feeds back into hydration.
• ◆Shinglebacks (Tiliqua rugosa) lean notably more herbivorous than their cousins — push the plant side higher for them.

Beyond species, individuals have personalities and preferences. Some skinks adore snails and snub squash; others inhale greens and ignore roaches. Use the framework as the target and adjust to the animal, offering variety so a picky eater doesn't lock you into a one-food diet. The goal is the balanced average over a week, not a perfect single meal — a skink that eats protein-heavy one day and plant-heavy the next is doing exactly what a wild forager does.

Reading the results: signs your diet is working (or isn't)

You don't have to guess whether the diet is right; the animal tells you. Check these regularly.

Good signs:

• ◆Stable, appropriate weight with a firm, well-rounded tail base (their fat store) and no sharp, bony spine.
• ◆Clean, complete sheds — smooth skin, no stuck shed, especially on toes and tail.
• ◆Bright, clear, alert eyes.
• ◆Strong, straight limbs and a firm jaw — no bowing, swelling, or softness.
• ◆Regular, well-formed stools and a consistent, healthy appetite.
• ◆Active, curious foraging during waking hours.

Warning signs (usually diet, husbandry, or both):

• ◆Soft jaw or limbs, bowed legs, a rubbery or kinked tail, tremors — classic metabolic bone disease, the calcium/D3/UVB failure mode. Address calcium, D3, and UVB immediately and see a reptile vet.
• ◆Poor or incomplete shedding (dysecdysis) — often hydration or calcium-related.
• ◆Cloudy or sunken eyes — can point to vitamin A issues (or other illness).
• ◆Obesity — fat rolls, a bloated look, lethargy — back off frequency, fat, and protein; push plants.
• ◆Refusing food — could be temperature (no appetite if too cold; ensure a proper basking gradient), stress, dietary boredom, or illness. Check husbandry first; if it persists, see a vet.

When something's off, work it in order: temperature/UVB first (a cold skink won't eat or digest), then the calcium/D3/supplement routine, then the protein-to-plant balance and variety.

Sourcing clean feeders

The best diet plan fails if the feeders are dirty. Two habits:

1. ◆Buy from reputable sources. Feeder insects and isopods should come from breeders who keep clean, well-fed colonies — active, healthy, well-conditioned stock, never wild-caught. The same goes for snails (captive-bred only).
2. ◆Keep them clean and well-fed in your care. House feeders in clean enclosures and keep them on a good diet so they're nourishing and so you can gut-load on demand.

If you want to run your own isopod culture — for cleanup duty, supplemental feeding, or both — starting a colony from healthy stock gives you a renewable supply that doubles as your bioactive cleanup crew. And for the protein staple, breeding your own discoids at home is cheaper and more reliable than buying piecemeal once you've got the colony running.

The bottom line on "discoid or isopod"

So, back to the question that started all this. The answer isn't to choose — it's to understand the jobs:

• ◆A blue tongue skink is an omnivore. Build the plate around ~50/50 protein-to-plant (protein-forward for juveniles, plant-forward for adults).
• ◆Discoid roaches are the staple protein — high-protein, low-chitin, easy to gut-load, soft and digestible — but they're phosphorus-heavy and must be dusted with calcium. Don't believe the "favorable Ca:P" myth.
• ◆Isopods are a calcium-rich supplement and bioactive cleanup crew, not a protein staple — too small and chitinous to carry the diet, but genuinely useful as variety, natural calcium, and a janitorial workforce.
• ◆Round out protein with clean snails, occasional eggs and lean cooked meat, and — if you must — rare, low-fat plain dog food. Keep superworms a treat.
• ◆The plant half is half the diet: calcium-rich greens (collard, mustard, dandelion) as the base, rotating vegetables for substance, a small slice of fruit as a treat.
• ◆Supplement deliberately: plain calcium at most feedings, D3 and multivitamin on a measured schedule, ideally backed by good UVB.
• ◆Avoid the toxic list (avocado, alliums, rhubarb), limit oxalate-heavy and goitrogenic greens, and don't over-feed protein, fat, or sugar.

Do that and the discoid-vs-isopod debate dissolves into what it always was — a small detail inside a much bigger, simpler truth: feed the omnivore like an omnivore, correct the calcium, and respect the age curve. Everything else is just keeping good feeders on hand and paying attention to the animal in front of you.

Building a feeder setup for your skink? See my discoid roach care and breeding guide for the staple protein, the ultimate powder blue isopod care and feeding guide for your calcium-rich cleanup crew, or browse the full exotic animal care library.