Pepper

Pepper is the spice of the collection, which is exactly how she earned her name. She huffs and puffs when startled, but it’s all theater: that’s a scared skink telling you she’d rather be left alone, not an angry one. Pepper lives in a custom bioactive enclosure with underground tubing I built especially for her, because if there’s one place Pepper wants to be, it’s underground.

She loves hornworms and vegetables, but her staple is actually wet dog food. It sounds odd, but like dogs, blue tongue skinks are opportunistic omnivores, and a quality dog food covers the nutrients they need surprisingly well.

Indonesian blue tongue skinks (Tiliqua gigas) come from the tropical rainforests of New Guinea and the surrounding islands, where they cruise the forest floor eating almost anything they come across. Unlike their Australian cousins, they love high humidity and damp soil to burrow in. Indonesian blue tongues are also known for coming with more attitude than the Aussies, so Pepper is simply upholding a proud family tradition. With good care they can live 15 to 20 years.

Fun fact: that famous blue tongue is a defense weapon. When threatened, a skink gapes wide, sticks it out, and huffs, betting the sudden flash of blue startles the predator long enough to escape. The blue even reflects UV light, making it extra alarming to birds. And despite being lizards, blue tongue skinks don’t lay eggs: they give birth to live babies.