What Do Skinks Eat? Wild and Captive Skink Diet by Species

As an Amazon Associate, Lizardist earns from qualifying purchases. Some product links on this page are affiliate links.

What Do Skinks Eat?

Skinks are not a single diet type. The family Scincidae holds around 1,275 species. Their feeding strategies split into three main groups: strict insect eaters, omnivores, and a small number of plant only species.

Knowing which group a skink belongs to is the fastest way to answer what do skinks eat for that animal. Most North American backyard skinks are insectivores. That includes the five lined skink and the broadhead skink.

Blue tongue skinks from Australia and Indonesia eat both plants and animals. The monkey tailed skink of the Solomon Islands is the outlier. It feeds almost entirely on rainforest foliage.

The sections below sort skink food by group. It covers wild diet and captive diet, and answers specific questions like whether skinks eat ants. For general husbandry beyond feeding, see our skink care guide and our enclosure setup guide.

What Do Skinks Eat in the Wild?

In the wild, skink diet tracks whatever small prey is abundant near a burrow or basking site. Skinks are active foragers, not sit and wait predators. They cover ground looking for food rather than waiting for it to pass by.

Wild insectivorous skinks rely heavily on smell and tongue flicking. This helps them track prey through leaf litter, under bark, and inside burrow systems. Most hunting happens close to cover.

A skink that strays too far from a hide risks becoming prey itself. Birds, snakes, and larger lizards all hunt skinks. Staying near shelter keeps feeding trips short and safer.

Five Lined and Broadhead Skinks

So what do 5 lined skinks eat? The five lined skink, Plestiodon fasciatus, is a strict insectivore. It hunts spiders, millipedes, crickets, and termites.

It also eats grasshoppers, caterpillars, and beetles along with their larvae. Occasionally it will take a snail, a small frog, another lizard, or a newborn mouse. These larger prey items are opportunistic, not a regular part of skink diet.

The broadhead skink, Plestiodon laticeps, eats a similar range of food. Its diet includes insects, arachnids, mollusks, and small rodents. It will also eat smaller reptiles, including juveniles of its own species.

This skink finds prey two ways. It locates food by sight, and it also uses tongue flick chemical detection. That combination lets it hunt from ground level up into low branches.

Great Plains Skink

The Great Plains skink, Plestiodon obsoletus, is North America’s largest native skink. It is a strictly carnivorous invertebrate feeder. Stomach content studies show a clear pattern.

Crickets, grasshoppers, scarab beetles, butterfly larvae, and ground beetles show up most often. These are all typical insect prey for a ground dwelling skink. The species hunts close to its burrow, relying on scent more than sight.

Great Plains skinks appear to avoid certain invertebrates outright. Earthworms, centipedes, and cockroaches are all on that avoided list. This species also seems to actively avoid ants, which matters for the ant question below.

Great Desert Skink

The great desert skink, Liopholis kintorei, is known to Aboriginal Australians as tjakura. It lives in complex family burrow systems across the arid interior of Australia. Its diet centers on invertebrates.

Beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders all appear in its diet. Termites make up the single largest share of what it actually eats. This heavy reliance on termites fits its underground, burrow centered lifestyle.

Because it lives in true desert heat, this skink adjusts its schedule. During the hottest months, it forages in early evening and at night instead of during the day. It also stores fat reserves in its tail during good seasons, a buffer for leaner stretches.

Omnivorous Skinks: What Blue Tongue Skinks Eat

Blue tongue skinks are the stocky Tiliqua species from Australia and Indonesia. They are the skink family’s generalists. Unlike the strict insectivores above, a blue skink diet mixes protein with plant matter.

Wild blue tongue skinks eat snails, insects, and occasional carrion. They also eat a substantial amount of fruit and vegetable matter. This flexible diet is a major reason blue tongue skinks are the most commonly kept pet skink species.

Because their nutritional needs differ so much from an insectivore’s, we cover the full breakdown separately. Our dedicated blue tongue skink diet guide covers ratios, feeding schedule, and safe foods in detail.

The Herbivorous Exception: Monkey Tailed Skink

The monkey tailed skink, Corucia zebrata, is the best known skink that lives almost entirely on plants. A few large Australian skinks also eat a lot of vegetation, but none is as committed to a leaf diet.

In its native Solomon Islands rainforest canopy, it eats leaves, fruits, and flowers. It rarely, if ever, eats animal protein.

It has one unusual talent. It can digest the centipede tongavine, a plant that is toxic to most other animals. That ability lets it access food sources closed off to most rainforest species.

In zoo and private collections, keepers replicate this diet with leafy greens. Fresh fruits and vegetables round out the menu. Grapes and kiwi are frequently reported favorites.

Newborn monkey tailed skinks cannot digest plant matter on their own at first. So they eat feces from adult skinks early in life. This gives them the gut bacteria they need to process fiber for the rest of their lives.

This makes the monkey tailed skink a genuine exception among pet skinks. Every other skink covered here hunts live prey to some degree. Its full care sheet looks almost nothing like an insectivore’s.

Other Insectivorous Skinks Kept as Pets

Beyond wild North American species, several insectivorous skinks are popular in the pet trade. The red eyed crocodile skink is one example.

It hunts small crickets, roaches, and other soft bodied invertebrates in humid leaf litter. Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital feeds captives small roaches, silkworms, mealworms, crickets, and red worms, two or three items daily for juveniles and every other day for adults.

Fire skinks are another popular insectivorous species. Like the five lined skink, they thrive on a rotation of gut loaded feeder insects, such as those raised on the Repashy Bug Burger, rather than produce. Both species need the same basic feeding approach used for wild North American insectivores.

Do Skinks Eat Ants?

Not as readily as you might expect. Several insectivorous skink species, including the Great Plains skink, appear to actively avoid ants. They do not seek ants out as a food source.

The likely reason is chemical defense. Many ant species produce formic acid, venom, or other irritating compounds. A skink that has learned an insect is unpleasant is unlikely to try it a second time.

That said, a hungry, unselective skink might still take a small bite of an ant. Diet studies vary by species and by region. As a general rule, treat ants as a minor or avoided part of skink food, not a reliable staple.

How Skinks Find and Catch Food

Skinks hunt mostly by scent and tongue flicking. Eyesight plays a smaller role than it does for many other lizards. A flicking tongue collects chemical particles from the air and ground.

Those particles get carried to a sensory organ in the roof of the mouth. This lets a skink track prey through soil, leaf litter, or grass it cannot see through. It is a highly effective way to hunt in cluttered habitat.

Most species forage during the day, staying close to cover. A hide is never far away. Desert dwelling species like the great desert skink adjust that pattern seasonally, shifting to night foraging once summer heat sets in.

Because so much hunting happens underground or in dense cover, a skink’s enclosure needs to match. Our skink enclosure guide covers substrate depth and hide placement in detail.

Feeding Pet Insectivorous Skinks

For insectivorous species kept as pets, skink food should mirror the wild diet as closely as possible. Gut loaded crickets, roaches, and mealworms or superworms form the core of a healthy feeding plan. Offer waxworms or silkworms occasionally as a treat, not a staple.

Prey size matters more than most new keepers expect. A safe rule of thumb: offer insects no wider than the space between a skink’s eyes. Anything larger raises the risk of regurgitation or impaction.

Dust feeder insects with a calcium supplement, such as Zoo Med Repti Calcium without D3, at most feedings. Add a vitamin D3 and multivitamin powder on a lighter rotation. These lizards cannot make enough vitamin D from diet alone without proper UVB exposure.

Feeding frequency changes with age. Juvenile skinks generally eat daily. Healthy adults do well on food offered three to four times a week.

Always offer fresh water in a shallow dish. A skink should be able to climb in and out of it easily. For more on prepping insects before they reach the enclosure, see our guide to gut loading feeder insects and our cricket feeding guide.

Diet also shifts around breeding season. Gravid females of egg laying species need extra calcium in the weeks before laying. Our skink breeding guide covers incubation and clutch care alongside this.

Do Skinks Eat Other Skinks?

Occasionally, yes. Broadhead skinks are known to eat juveniles of their own species when the opportunity arises. This behavior shows up in Great Plains skinks too, though it appears to be accidental rather than a deliberate hunting strategy.

This kind of cannibalism is more common among large, territorial insectivores than among smaller species. It usually involves an adult eating a much smaller juvenile it encounters by chance. It is not evidence that skinks regularly hunt each other as prey.

Keepers housing multiple skinks together should still take this seriously. Mixing very different sizes in one enclosure raises the risk of an accidental attack. Our skink bite guide covers defensive bites and what to expect if two skinks do clash.

Skink Diet and Bone Health

Diet does more than fuel a skink day to day. It directly affects bone strength and long term health. Calcium and vitamin D3 work together to build and maintain a skink’s skeleton.

Feeder insects raised on a plain diet are naturally low in calcium. Without supplementation, a captive insectivorous skink can develop metabolic bone disease over months or years. Early signs include a soft jaw, swollen limbs, or reluctance to move.

Regular calcium dusting on feeder insects prevents most of these cases. Correct UVB lighting matters just as much as diet, since skinks need it to process vitamin D3 properly. Our lizard health guide covers warning signs and prevention in more depth.

Diet related health issues are almost always preventable. A consistent feeding schedule, correctly sized prey, and proper supplementation cover most of the risk. Species that eat plant matter, like blue tongue and monkey tailed skinks, need a different but equally consistent calcium routine.

Skink Diet by Species: A Quick Look

This table is a starting point, not a substitute for species specific care. Body size also shapes how much food an individual needs. Our skink size guide and lifespan guide both touch on how metabolism and growth rate connect to diet.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do skinks eat in the wild?

Most wild skinks eat insects and other small invertebrates, such as crickets, beetles, spiders, and caterpillars. A few species, like the blue tongue skink, also eat fruit and vegetation. The monkey tailed skink eats almost nothing but leaves and fruit.

What do skinks like to eat the most?

Insectivorous skinks tend to favor soft bodied prey, like crickets and caterpillars, over harder prey items. Omnivorous species such as blue tongue skinks often show a strong preference for sweet fruit when it is offered alongside vegetables.

Do skinks eat ants?

Not usually as a preferred food. Research on species like the Great Plains skink shows they tend to avoid ants. This is likely because of the formic acid and stinging defenses many ant species carry.

What do skink lizards eat as pets?

Pet insectivorous skinks eat gut loaded crickets, roaches, and worms dusted with calcium. Omnivorous blue tongue skinks eat a mix of protein and produce. The right skink food depends on which species you keep.

How often should I feed a pet skink?

Juvenile insectivorous skinks usually eat once a day. Adults do well eating three to four times a week. Omnivorous and herbivorous species are typically offered fresh food daily or every other day.

Can skinks eat fruits and vegetables?

It depends on the species. Strict insectivores like the five lined and Great Plains skink get little benefit from produce. Blue tongue skinks and the monkey tailed skink rely on fruits and vegetables as a core part of their diet.