Skink Arrival

[John1982]

My baby pink tongue skinks(Hemisphaeriodon gerrardii)arrived today! I've been wanting to work with these for a while now. Happened upon some nice CBB babies from a couple different females so I nabbed a small group. I have them set up communally in an arboreal enclosure with bioactive substrate. Going to see how that goes for a while and switch things up as needed.

[jclaiborne]

Awesome, and a little jealous!!! What size enclosure are they in? I have been wanting to get a few of these for a few years as well, but have been showing great restraint haha.

[John1982]

Awesome, and a little jealous!!! What size enclosure are they in? I have been wanting to get a few of these for a few years as well, but have been showing great restraint haha.

It's a 18x18x24 exo terra. As fast as they grow, I'll probably upgrade to a 4x2x2 enclosure within a year. I'm eyeballing animals plastics T12, just need to call them and make a few modifications. The breeder I got these from keeps 4 adults in a 30x12x12 and they do well but I want to set up a big display piece - or two, depending on how many females I have in this group.

[jclaiborne]

Even more jealous now haha and more tempted I have all the pieces for two of my 4x2x2 cages that I built waiting to be assembled, but have been focusing on the reptile room first...I guess I will have to live vicariously through your updates for now haha...

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[Mustang5]

Man, those little things look awesome

[Jhill001]

That seems like a LOT of food. How fast do they go through a pile like that?

[John1982]

That seems like a LOT of food. How fast do they go through a pile like that?

Sorry for missing the question. It was a LOT of food and they barely scratched the surface. I'm still playing it by ear with these and rather have leftovers than not enough. I offer 1-2 tablespoons of food each day and roughly half is eaten. I'm pretty sure they're working on it in shifts, only coming out to eat every second or third day. The most skinks I've seen out at the same time, since I set them up, is five but typically there are only two or three active at any given time of the day. They're still pretty shy but we're making progress. They no longer retreat when I enter their space to feed and water. It's lots of fun watching them glide around the enclosure and I'll be upgrading very soon I think - they've almost doubled in size in less than two months!

[PitOnTheProwl]

Nice setup.

[John1982]

Here's an update on the skinks. I have 5 remaining lizards out of the original group. One animal failed to thrive like the others and eventually succumbed. Despite this bad news, the remaining 5 are healthy as can be so I can't really complain even though it sucks to lose a critter. I went ahead and took the rest out for some natural sunlight and updated pictures today. They're getting to the size where they don't squirm and are handled easily.

[jclaiborne]

Beautiful animals, sorry about the 1 loss, but the remaining look amazing, are you finding that they tolerate handling well without being stressed out like a bluey or are they more of a stand back and admire animal?

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