Schneider Skink Questions:

Hello 1st of all. I am new to the board. But we have rescued a new creature.
A guy at my husbands work no longer wanted his Schneider skink so left it with my husband.
Now are are snake owners and currently have 6. So we are not educated on Skinks...That is why i come to you!
We've had the skink for about 2 wks and all it does is lay under the sand. I never see it come out.
It hasn't eaten or drank that i have seen. The guy we got it from says it eats crickets but i put about 10 in there and they are all dead. I have tried meal worms, and collard greens. Nothing....It just all rots.
And the cage that its in, is huge! Its substrate is some kind of reptile sand. So i am unsure if we need to change that because i have heard that sand may be a bad thing. But once again i am unsure!
Not to mention this thing is little. Of all the pictures i have seen of this kinda skink they all look nice and fat. This little one is skinny, and its tail is very kinked. My sister said that might be a calcium deficiency.
So my question is to you. What do I do to make this little thing eat, do i need to down grade his housing? change the substrate?
Thanks so much!

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Do you have any UVB lighting on him? They definitely need that to digest and process calcium. I think your sister's right, it does appear that he may have a calcium deficiency. A nice UVB light and proper temps should help get his appetite going. Here is a pretty indepth website I found on them. http://www.helsinki.fi/~tuomola/schneider.html Also, http://www.anapsid.org/schneiderskink.html has some pretty good info. Good luck with the little guy, he's awfully cute :)

A lot of schneiders skinks (especially if bought from a pet store) are wild caught. You may want to consider a trip to a reptile vet.