Narrator: Taronga Zoo keeper

How would you pick up on the health of an animal?

Over time when you actually own the animal. It’s just using it and picking it up every day you would understand how healthy it is or if there’s something wrong with it. It’s a bit like ourselves if you hear a sniffle or see a discharge then obviously your animal’s not healthy.

Talking about sloughing as well. If the environment or the condition that you have set up isn’t appropriate he may not be able to slough properly. You’ll start seeing evidence of this around his toes. He may not be able to shed that layer of skin off his toes and then what it can do is act like an elastic band and start constricting the blood flow in his toes and eventually his toes will drop off.

So, you need to make sure that he is sloughing or shedding his skin correctly. If he’s not you need to look at your set up and just ensure that everything is okay especially if it’s maybe an outdoor exhibit you want to make sure that you’re providing them with enough heat.

The easiest way to know if your Blue Tongue has mites or ticks is they are quite visible. Ticks often sit in or around the ears or even around the eyes or the mouth, they’re the easiest places for them to attach and they do get quite large especially if they’ve been sucking the blood so you’ll see them quite readily. If you do get ticks they can be removed the same as a human. If you’re a little unsure and not happy with removing ticks they can be taken to the vet and a vet’s quite able to remove ticks.

Mites are the same, you should be able to see them, they’re quite small, they’re probably more like a flea-like. But if you’re picking up your animal every day you should be able to see mites. The other thing to do is to check things like their faeces.

So, if you have a healthy lizard the faeces should look quite healthy, so just well-formed usually in a brown colour and shouldn’t have any mites or anything moving around in their faeces.

Again, if you have any concerns a quick trip to a local vet. A lot of vets know how to care for Blue Tongue Lizards, they do come into their vet clinics quite often.

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Narrator: Taronga Zoo keeper

So, when handling your Blue Tongue always let them know that you’re going to enter and pick them up in their enclosure.

So, you want to give them a gentle touch before picking them up. And always be aware that they can get a little bit grumpy sometimes and they have quite a hard bite when they do get grumpy.

So, they often hiss, open up their mouth and pop out their tongue and sometimes they flatten themselves quite wide so they look larger than they are just to look scarier.

So, just be careful that you’re quite happy that he knows that you’re going to pick him up. So, try and use two hands when you’re handling a Blue Tongue Lizard. Support his back legs and his front legs. It makes him feel secure and he’s got something to hold onto as you’re holding him.

Using your hands behind his legs allows you to get a better grip on him. They get quite wiggly at times especially when they’re warm so he feels safe and happy that you have a good hold on him.

You can also utilise your forearm and rest him if you need to hold him for extended periods of time he feels happy again and safe that you have a good hold on him and not going to drop him.

If you were needing to transport him to maybe to the vet or take him in a car there’s a few simple things you could utilise. You can use something as simple as a bin or a plastic enclosure with a secure lid on it so he can’t get out.

The other thing is just using a pillow case or a calico bag and you can pop him inside and he’s happy in his dark surroundings and it’s safe as well. Just pop an elastic band around the top so he can’t get out.

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Narrator: Taronga Zoo keeper

Reproduction happens early in the Spring. These guys do give birth to live young. They give birth to maybe twenty to even thirty live young. They’re just tiny, little miniatures of Blue Tongue Lizards. As soon as they’re born, Mum doesn’t have anything to do with them, they’re off on their own to look after themselves.

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