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Juicy619 Janmccri Juicy619 Janmccri Juicy619 CatherineB Sinosauropterix CatherineB Janmccri Sinosauropterix Sinosauropterix CatherineB Janmccri Sinosauropterix Janmccri CatherineB Sinosauropterix CatherineB Sinosauropterix CatherineB Sinosauropterix Janmccri

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#2001941

Juicy619
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I need help with a fire skink

i got one last week and when i saw it in the pet shop he was walking up and down climing very active but wen i took him home and put him in his new talk all he does is hides is there sumthing wrong and i havent grab him or anything cuz i dont want to stress the little guy ...and i was wondering if i should get another one so it wont be alone cuz in the pet shop they had 6 of them together ...let me know what u guys think will help

05/10/09 04:42pm

#2003248

Janmccri
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Message To: Juicy619 In reference to Message Id: 2001941

I need help with a fire skink

No, don’t get another one. He is just adjusting to new surroundings. Give him a couple weeks. Is he eating? Pooping? What are the temps? Substrate? Lighting? skinks spend a good amount of time burrowing to avoid the extreme heat of the afternoon.
Janice

05/12/09 06:55pm

#2003563

Juicy619
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Message To: Janmccri In reference to Message Id: 2003248

I need help with a fire skink

sumtimes he eats and i havent seen any poop ...my temps during the day are between 85 - 90 i dont use heat lamps cuz my room gets direct sum and it stay pretty worm ...and substrate i use Eco earth but i keep it moist ....i want to make the little guy happy so any advise is most appreciated thanks

05/13/09 12:36am

#2004929

Janmccri
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Message To: Juicy619 In reference to Message Id: 2003563

I need help with a fire skink

Fire Skinks are supposed to be quite easy to care for. However, they spend a lot of time burrowing so him hiding a lot is what he is supposed to do. He was most likely stressed in the pet store and is now quite happy. They are omnivores and eat insects, worms, crickets, pinky mice, low cal premium dog food, canned iguana or monitor diet, fruit, etc. They grow to about one foot in length. they can live for 20 years. They should have a temperature gradiant-Keep it around 80-85 with a basking area around 90-95 and a night temp of 75. Humidity level should be about 80%, but not dripping. They should have a water bowl that they can drink from or lay in(not too deep). A UV photperiod of 12-14 hours is reccommended as is a undertank heat mat. Food should be dusted with vitamins. For more info Repticzone has a care sheet as well as centralpets.com, TheReptilehouse, and Lizardlounge. After he settles in for a week or two, handle him for short periods daily. They are supposed to tame nicely, but have to get used to gentile handling on a regular basis. Please post a photo for they are quite beautiful. I hope this helps.
Janice

05/15/09 01:30am

#2005365

Juicy619
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Message To: Janmccri In reference to Message Id: 2004929

I need help with a fire skink

ok thanks for everything ...and i was wondering what kind of worms ...and can u give me pics of what u give other than crickets pinkys ...and ill try to get a pic

05/15/09 08:50pm

#2025924

CatherineB
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Message To: Juicy619 In reference to Message Id: 2005365

I need help with a fire skink

He sounds normal to me. I have had fire skinks for years and they are secretive. I am usually the only person to see them. I think sometimes that that is their appeal. They are very beautiful and seldom seen. When they are out, it is special. How many pets do you get excited about when you see them. I find my pair are often watching me, but in hiding. Give your lizard time and he will come to know you and be curious about you.

06/20/09 04:03pm

#2030983

Sinosauropterix
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Message To: CatherineB In reference to Message Id: 2025924

I need help with a fire skink

I agree. I rarely see mine at all and, when I do, it’s a special event. Even other members of my family get excited when they see him. He doesn’t have a fixed basking schedule either, which makes it more rare. When he is out he doesn’t shy away from anyone. He just sits there and looks back at you so you have a chance to get a good look at him. The one thing I worry about is that you can’t really tell how they are doing when they hide so much. You can’t tell if they have an injury, an illness, or some other ailment. I even wonder sometimes if my skink is getting enough UVB. You can only really tell at that rare moment when you do see them.

06/29/09 01:31pm

#2032424

CatherineB
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Message To: Sinosauropterix In reference to Message Id: 2030983

I need help with a fire skink

I wonder how much UVB they really need. Fire Skinks normally live in the leaf litter of the jungle. How much light could they possibly get under those conditions. I wouldn’t say my pair even bask. Usually only the head is out in veiw. Full body sightings are a cause for celebration. Seeing both the pair at once is even rarer. My male was actually born/hatched in my tank and I didn’t know there was an egg. It was hidden in one of their tunnels. I have soft soil in my tank and they have tunneled the whole thing. When you see them, the colours are so beautiful that it is worth waiting for.
I worry that they may be in trouble and I wouldn’t know it.

07/01/09 09:53pm

#2032502

Janmccri
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Message To: CatherineB In reference to Message Id: 2032424

I need help with a fire skink

I am not opposed to digging them out once a week and inspecting them for any signs of injury or illness. I don’t think it would be unreasonable for you to do so in a gentle manner and then putting them back in to burrow.
Janice

07/01/09 11:57pm

#2032697

Sinosauropterix
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Message To: Janmccri In reference to Message Id: 2032502

I need help with a fire skink

The question is how you would dig them out without scaring them silly. I have to poke my finger into the cocofiber and flush him out, then pick him up without actually holding onto him. And all that time he is either running away or squirming like crazy. After a while he gets used to it though and he’ll just sit in your hand.

One mistake so many burrpwing skink keepers make is assuming that the animals don’t bask because they clearly do. My skink makes trips above ground and spawls himself somewhere so that he can soak up what little UVB those compact fluorescents actually give off. And most of the time he doesn’t care who’s watching him but, for some skink keepers, their animals are so secretive that they only come out during those short times when your back is turned. Then they’re back down into the substrate just like that. You could sit by your skink’s terrarium for a while day and you still wouldn’t see them. Some new skink owners say they don’t see their skink for as long as a whole month after they get it.

But yes, skinks do need UVB and if you don’t think your skink is getting enough of it from your lighting you can always take them outside on a warm sunny day. The best thing for them, really. I’ve been thinking that skinks in the wild normally don’t live in such close proximity with humans so they probably spend a lot longer above ground taking in that natural sunlight. So we should take special measures to make sure they get that same amount of time basking in captivity.

07/02/09 11:16am

#2032760

Sinosauropterix
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Message To: Sinosauropterix In reference to Message Id: 2032697

I need help with a fire skink

I just realized something when I re-read my last post. When I said "scaring them silly," I meant to say "scaring them uncontrollably." I wasn’t trying to call anyone "silly." Sorry if I offended you Janice.

07/02/09 01:12pm

#2033735

CatherineB
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Message To: Sinosauropterix In reference to Message Id: 2032760

I need help with a fire skink

I suspect my fire skinks bask when I am at work. I give them UVB just in case. What I really want is a surveillance camera so I can know what my skinks do when I am not here. I sometimes stir things up a litle, but I do not want to scare them. The other day when I was watering the tank the male came out and "danced" in the water. He is so like his mother! Maybe the water is the way to get their attention.

07/04/09 09:14am

#2034576

Janmccri
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Message To: CatherineB In reference to Message Id: 2033735

I need help with a fire skink

I wasn’t offended. Blue does bask in the morning and then hides for a few days if the weather is cool. I think, if I kept track of it, that I could find a pattern in his behavior. when he is getting ready to eat, he may come up and warm himself up for a couple days. If I see him up and around for two days in a row, i know he wants to eat. He never gets upset being "dug out." Rather, he enjoys the company. He gives me kisses and sometimes stares at me to take him out. It’s been so long since we got him, that it is hard to remember if he was scared or not. We did not get him as a baby, but around four years old. I just pick them up securely using two hands and if they wiggle I try and be calm and reassuring and get them to my chest where they aren’t dangling in the air any more so they feel safer. I calmly pet them and talk quietly and soothingly. there is an area on their heads-like a triangle with the point of the triangle being between their eyes and making a triangle to the middle of their heads. My BTS loves this area being gently rubbed. The only reptile I have had problems calming is our crestie and I think she has an anxiety disorder. but that is another story in itself.
Janice

07/05/09 08:58pm

#2035325

Sinosauropterix
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Message To: Janmccri In reference to Message Id: 2034576

I need help with a fire skink

Bah. I just noticed a few other things in my post. Spelling mistake corrections are in square brackets:

Quote:
One mistake so many burr[o]wing skink keepers make

Quote:
My skink makes trips above ground and sp[r]awls himself somewhere

Quote:
You could sit by your skink’s terrarium for a wh[o]le day

Next time I will read my preview post much more carefully before I post it. I sure wish this board would allow us to edit though.

@ CatherineB: If you ever did get a surveillance camera I still don’t think you would be missing much. But then that bathing ritual does sound interesting. Abuto will let me watch him eat worms but I have yet to watch him eat crickets and the couple who acquired him for me said he really likes them. The lady even said she loved watching him hunt them. I would also like to know why he dirties his water so much sometimes, and why I sometimes see bits of cocofiber or bark chips in his calcium dish. I would be thrilled if I knew he was actually eating the dust because then I wouldn’t need to put it on his bugs. Does your skink actually try to swim in the water or do they just sit in it?

@ Janmccri: How often do you feed your skink? Abuto sort of does the same thing but I don’t think he’s trying to tell me anything. Rather, I think he expects food to be in his dish by a certain time and if it’s not there he stays out, basks, and waits for me to drop him a worm. Abuto eats just about every day though so this is like a daily event. When he’s not there, I assume he’s not hungry and I feed him later on at night. And yeah, I have heard about how docile blue-tongues can get. You’re lucky. While Abuto will let me pick him up (more willingly on some occasions than on others) I think he only tolerates being held and doesn’t really appreciate a minute of it. Was your skink already being handled often before you got him or do you think he’s just like that?

07/07/09 12:20am

#2035354

Janmccri
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Message To: Sinosauropterix In reference to Message Id: 2035325

I need help with a fire skink

Since my skink is older, he eats only 2-3 times per week. He was taken care of by ayoung man who worked at a pet store and I think this young man took a fancy to him. I don’t know how often he was handled. I know that he wanted to give him to a special home where he knew he would get great care. He hadn’t been sold yet due to his tail imperfection(a piece of it broke off when he was younger). He was four already when we got him so I don’t know how much time he spent in the pet store prior to us buying him.
Janice

07/07/09 02:12am

#2037754

CatherineB
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Message To: Janmccri In reference to Message Id: 2035354

I need help with a fire skink

My fire skinks do not have a water dish big enough to soak in. When they did have a big one they wouldn’t go near it. I don’t even know if they drink from the dish, I have not seen hem. When I spray/pour water into the tank(and the dish) the male comes out of the substrate and dances in the falling water. He almost does back flips and leaps and dances. He doesn’t do it every time, but his mother did the exact same thing. It is playful behavior and I love watching him. He is nearly five and he is still in the tank where he hatched.

07/11/09 05:30pm

#2039080

Sinosauropterix
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Message To: CatherineB In reference to Message Id: 2037754

I need help with a fire skink

@ Janmccri: Yeah, that is probably why he was so tame then. Another reason why he might be tame could very well be the increase in vegetable matter in his diet. Herbivorous and omnivorous lizards seem so much more docile than the insectivorous (with exception to leos and other eublepharines) and carnivorous lizards do. Compare a blue-tongued skink, a uromastyx or a bearded dragon with an aggressive lizard like a monitor or tegu that primarily eats meat and you will see what I mean.

@ CatherineB: That situation with the big water dish sounds plausible when you consider that skinks are not really good swimmers and thus have a reason for being afraid of water that is higher than their back or head. I think they would drown easily if they ever got into something that deep. I got a smaller water dish shortly after I got Abuto. Primarily because I wanted something he could get out of easily but also because it seems to fit better at the corner of his terrarium and it took up a lot less room. The old water dish I used was a flower pot saucer and the one I use now is a medium-sized dish from Exo-terra. I find those water dishes very handy now so, whenever I can, I try to get an Exo-terra dish for each new lizard I acquire. The exception might be my green basilisk (whenever I decide to get another one) because it might prefer to have the dish in the upper branches of the enclosure where it feels safe and those Exo-terra dishes are hard to keep up there. Not to mention the larger sizes get expensive. That is interesting about your skink playing in the water like that. I should try it with Abuto and see if he likes it. I wonder if the appeal for sprayed or poured water is instinctive rather than hereditary...guess there’s only one way to find out.

And now I have a couple of questions for both of you: What kind of substrate do you use and how often to you change it? I use Eco-Earth Plantation Soil (the expanding brick) from Exo-terra and I have used the exact same stuff I had in there since I got my skink. Which would be about three months ago. It doesn’t smell but I am assuming there are a lot of droppings in there by now. There is a lot of substrate in the tank and it seems like a waste of both material and money to get rid of it now, but I will remove it if I have to or if someone thinks I should.

07/14/09 10:48am

#2041432

CatherineB
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Message To: Sinosauropterix In reference to Message Id: 2039080

I need help with a fire skink

I use a mix of fine potting soil and fine cocoa bark. I have live plants growing in the terrarium and hollow "logs" and moss and dried leaves. The soil is about 4 in deep and is fully tunneled by the skinks. I don’t really clean the tank. I might do some tidying, but droppings are absorbed and broken down by the plant life. The tank has been running as an ecosystem for 6 1/2 years. I add more soil and moss and replace plants, but it is essentially the same tank my lizard was hatched in. I didn’t see an egg, he just popped out of a tunnel one morning. Both parents are gone now and I have a new female in with my male.

The male really loves to dance in the water. The female never does that. She is much more secretive as well. The larger water dish I tried is a flat shallow plastic dish made for terrariums. It slopes gradually to the deep section which is only an inch deep. The fire skinks did not like it in their tank. I gave it to the golden skinks and they like to stand in the water when they drink. I also use a sonic fogger and the fire skinks like that.

It is hot and humid here now and I am seeing more of my fire skinks. Even though I try to control their environment they still respond to the outside weather. I don’t know how they can be aware of it, but they are.

07/18/09 10:44pm

#2045285

Sinosauropterix
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Message To: CatherineB In reference to Message Id: 2041432

I need help with a fire skink

Ah OK, so the skink froppings serve as fertilizer for the plants. That is interesting and something I may want to try. A part of the driftwood log in Abuto’s terrarium broke off and fell apart surprisingly easily. I am assuming that is because it got wet so often and the wood was originally so dry that the water couldn’t be absorbed so it broke down. It is now a part of the substrate. I think it is so cool that organic material can be broken down and re-used like that. Right now I am using fake plants so do you think it would make a difference in keeping the terrarium clean if I put in live plants instead? Someone on another board also suggested putting in springtails but that was for my white-lined gecko’s terrarium. I think I might try that for Abuto’s terrarium too. Do you think that would be a good idea?

It is strange that your male fire skink likes to play in the water and your female doesn’t. It must have something to do with genetics. He might also just like water dor some reason. Was your female fire skink born in the same tank or did you get her from somewhere else? If she came from someone else’s terrarium then maybe she had different experiences when she was growing up?

I also found it sort of odd that your golden skinks like to stand in the water. Golden skinks in general don’t seem like great swimmers either so I wonder why they would tolerate being surrounded at leg height in water like that. Was your old water dish a commercially sold water dish by Exo-terra or Zoo-med, or was it custom-made? I have a medium brown Exo-terra water dish in Abuto’s terrarium and I guess he likes it. I keep seeing cocofiber in it so he must be doing something in it.

07/25/09 07:34pm

#2048406

CatherineB
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Message To: Sinosauropterix In reference to Message Id: 2045285

I need help with a fire skink

Live plants really make a difference. The lizards like them and they add a natural touch. Plastic plants look more perfect, but they don’t grow or change. Fire skink droppings are small enough that they break down and the plants use the nutrients. My soil is four inches deep so the plants have lots of root room and the lizards have tunnel room.

The female is from another store, different supplier. She has a completely different backgound. I bought her to breed to my male. The water dancing is not learned. Brendon never met his mother. She died after egg laying. He hatched unexpectedly weeks later. His father raised him. They were together until the father died last year(dad was a much older lizard). I am hoping that they will breed this year. They are so secretive that I may never know unless something hatches. The little female is being very secretive so I am hopeful. I don’t like to disturb her just in case.

The water dishes are either ceramic or they are Exoterra. I think the big one is Exoterra, but I can’t move it to check. It is not that deep and the Golden Skinks do stand in the water. It slopes gentley so they are never in the water fully. The fire skinks have a ceramic dish and they will drink from it a little. They do like the tank to be sprayed and they love the sonic fogger. And then of course Brendon dances in the watter. They spend a lot of time watching things outside of their tank. The fire skinks and the goldens can both watch things on my computer screen. The love reptile specials, but like my screen saver. They look into each other’s tanks and generally are curious about my other reptiles.

07/30/09 11:11pm

#2054005

Sinosauropterix
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Message To: CatherineB In reference to Message Id: 2048406

I need help with a fire skink

Yeah OK. So if I don’t have live plants in, should I be cleaning the terrarium out any time soon? And is there an alternate way to keep the terrarium clean(er)? I’m still going to try to get some springtails for both terrariums but are there any other things I can do in conjunction? Or am I just going to have to clean the terrarium thoroughly every once in a while until I get some live plants?

Hmm, maybe the difference in your fire skinks’ behaviour is also due to personal experiences. Your female might not have been handled that much before you got her. Was she captive-bred? And have you tried spraying her? I forget whether I asked that before so sorry if I repeated myself. I have no idea how Abuto reacts around water because I have never sprayed him before. He is still getting used to me picking him up so he often tries to hide when he notices the door on the svreen top opening. And I think he would be too freaked out if I sprayed him in the bath tub (it would be empty, of course). Then again, he has been pretty docile in there before. He just needs to learn to calm down after being picked up.

Oh, and BTW, I sent you a PM a while back. Did you get it?

08/09/09 11:19pm

#2055900

Janmccri
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Message To: Sinosauropterix In reference to Message Id: 2054005

I need help with a fire skink

Sorry, my life has been very hectic lately. I have Blue in a 50 gallon tank with coconut fiber as a substrate. He has a cave to hide in and I do use an UTH on one end and a basking light plus a UV strip. For water, I bought a white plastic silverware holder which is long and narrow. Just the right size for him to sit in like a bathtub(and poop in-LOL). I actually let him swim once or twice a week in the bathtub with shallow water and he loves it! I have one fake plant in the tank and some fallen fake leaves. He spends most of the time burrowed under the cocnut fiber and when he wants to eat, I see him basking on the cave/rock and then he will make his way to the opposite side of the tank where I usually put his food and stare at me. As far as cleaning the tank, I am not obsessive. I clean out the whole thing every summer. The rest of the time, I sift through the fiber looking for poop or white pea pieces and discard them.
Janice

08/12/09 10:46pm

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