Cohabing a Pink Tongue Skink and Crested Gecko

[skylord0110]

Thank you for posting here. It's nice to have someone on here with real experience. I'd like to know how many hides should I have for both? I was kinda hoping I could provide enough for the crestie to just live off ground to try and discourage it going to the ground. I know it's almost impossible to prevent it from going down, but I figured it would help. Also where do you get food for the pink tongue, and what do you use? I know they eat snails, but I've found conflicting stuff on what they eat some saying just snails, and others saying a mix of things closer to a blue tongue's diet. I was planning on asking the person that sold it to me that so don't think I was just going to wing it. If you have any other advice I'd love to hear it.

[tegu]

I'm losing patience really fast here. You simply won't listen to any of my points. I started this thread by saying don't tell me to not do it because I'm not changing my mind. And what did I get, "stop stop you can't do it". My research says otherwise. I know I need more experience than I do research. You keep saying I'm ignoring your advice, BUT THAT'S WHAT I SAID I WAS GOING TO DO. I realize you all mean well, and are concerned for the reptiles, but has anyone actually looked into to doing this? Have any of you done any direct research into people's successful attempts at this? The cage is a little small yes, but it's not long until Christmas, and I plan on spending everything I get on improving their housing. If I don't get enough I have my birthday, and a summer job which is far off but is still something. I came here for one question. "I was wondering if it would be better to buy 2 slightly older ones instead of babies(1-2 years old)", and I got my answer real fast. That's all I needed. I'm just going to use this thread to upload pictures, and stuff rather than creating a second thread of nothing but criticism. I don't want to hear, "Hey that's a great idea you should do it", or "Hey that's a horrible idea don't do it". I'm going to do it. I don't want you to just tell me no don't do it. Why can't you propose ideas to improve it instead? Ideas that aren't have them separated. I would initially separate them then introduce them in the same cage later, but I've been told on here that that wouldn't be good. And outside of this thread I have found nothing to go against that or go in support of it. I'll probably continue to respond because I get annoyed very easily by this stuff despite my best efforts to be polite again and again and again. So if you have any suggestions for plants, or anything tell me now. Also pink tongues have their teeth towards the back of their jaw from what I've heard. Assuming that's true they'd probably struggle to clamp down on a struggling crestie even if they manage to catch them off guard. That's just a guess, but I'm just throwing that out there from what I have heard.

Cresteds are very soft and even if the teeth weren't in the front of the skinks mouth the force alone would be enough to seriously injure it. Not many people have said straight up you can't do it, but that you don't have the experience or the resources from what you've posted to successfully do it. And no, that cage is not "a little small" It's way too small to keep both animals happy. Even in zoos most of the cohabs I see are too small.

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[Kcl]

Requiring specific experience with co-habbing these two species is like requiring specific experience for telling someone not to take a shower with their iphone 6 without a waterproof case. Documentation is limited to non-existent because it's well enough covered by the general rule of don't put your electronics in water that people don't try it just because sometimes it maybe survives. It's an Australian skink and a New Calcedonian gecko. They would not overlap in the wild at any point. They can carry bacterial loads that the other would not have been exposed to. In general, animals can safely and normally carry certain bacteria that other species would be highly susceptible to. What gut bacteria or skin bacteria do these two species carry? Who knows. It's certainly not studied for the skink and probably not for the gecko.

The skink isn't even herbivorous. Even many herbivores are less strict than people think - even deer have been documented eating meat. Pink tongue skinks are said to be fully willing to eat beef, dog food, cat food, and chicken in captivity. They are clearly not that picky about their diet.

Here's another species of skink eating a gecko if that's more compelling for you. I wasn't able to actually watch this at this time, but am putting it out there anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wdgQAwUdfY

Animals explore things with their mouths. A curious skink could kill a crested gecko without trying to eat it at all, just checking it out.

People will generally not propose ideas on how to improve this plan that are not "keep them separated" as it is unethical to facilitate an unethical plan. There are extremely few individuals out there with the expertise to create community tanks properly and every single one of those tanks begins with species that share a range naturally. No research will turn up knowledge that simply doesn't exist, there is no way to gain the expertise to cohab these animals. It MAY be possible to gain the expertise to cohab different species with the same native range, but it would take years and funds.

[John1982]

First hand experience keeping does not an expert make(could be keeping them poorly), nor qualified to give sound advice. From what I've read of the thread, looks like you've been getting some pretty fair feedback, even if it's not what you wanted to hear.

My babies were started out on a mixture of chopped snails and lean ground turkey. Depending on what you want to be your main attraction, you can start cutting back on the snail portion and adding that instead. The main thing is to get them associating a different scent with food and turkey is available in a variety of forms(baby food, cat food, ground fresh, etc). Then you can supplement as needed with variety and calcium/vitamins. You could also start your own gastropod colony and feed a more natural diet but I never had much luck in that department. Mine will eat just about anything I present in a bowl with turkey scent.

[wolfy-hound]

You had no purpose in posting here then. You don't want to hear advice, you claim you didn't want to hear "go ahead", you don't listen to either common sense OR advice from experienced keepers.

As far as studying it, that's complete nonsense since you already stated you wouldn't even be there, that someone else would be watching and telling you how things are going. So either you are planning on making up all the information for your "capstone" project, meaning it's all a lie and false... or you don't intend to use it as any sort of project for school and just want to see how long it will take to get a skink to eat a gecko.

My bet is that you'll just make up whatever you need for some junk paper and never admit anywhere that your animals did lousy in the cohab space.

I'm done here. I'm not posting to someone who doesn't care one bit about the animals welfare and just claims "passion" for animals he's blatantly proposing to neglect and harm through poor husbandry out of some sort of malicious curiosity. As far as I'm concerned, you should fail the course if your professor knew anything at all about the animals in question.

[skylord0110]

So you win guys I'm not doing it. Instead I'm just going to buy 10 of each and house them together. A joke obviously, but I'm not going to house a pink tongue with a crestie anymore. It's now going to be a gargoyle gecko and crested gecko. I don't know if that will make any of you feel any better, nor do I care, but I figured I should say it before I started posting pics. I decided to change just because of how rare the pink tongues are, and the tank size. While I could afford one eventually it would be too late. I'm getting them at a reptile expo on the 26th and the tank I was buying was not only too small, but also had been sold. I switched to a 18x 18x 24x for the both of them. I was recommended this size by the same person that first recommended it to me. Although I think someone posted here about it as an alternative. Gargoyles just seem easier and cheaper. I know I said I wasn't changing my mind, and I'm being hypocritical, but to be fair none of you changed my mind but rather someone I know in real life. They didn't say I couldn't do it they simply said they didn't know. They agreed it would be a bad idea to have a pink tongue and crestie, but said they didn't know enough about pink tongues to form a real opinion about it. I already bought the tank. All I'm missing are plants, and the reptiles.

[wolfy-hound]

Gargoyles are from the same region so you'll probably have much more success housing the two species in the same enclosure.

They're also about the same size and definitely built about the same so you won't have a big armored heavy lizard with a small delicate lightweight lizard.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Gargoyles are from the same region so you'll probably have much more success housing the two species in the same enclosure.
.

Gargoyles are very aggressive and territorial, I would not recommend even housing two females gargoyle together in a cage, while you can do it with crested it need to be avoided with Gargoyles in a confined environment

Now some people have done it and hybrid were produced, but it does not make it right, smart or not risky.

There are many geckos from the same area Crested, Gargoyles, Chahoua, Leachies but they are not confined and the only ones that do well in captivity and communal housing are crested. Other are territorial and aggressive.

So you win guys I'm not doing it. Instead I'm just going to buy 10 of each and house them together. A joke obviously, but I'm not going to house a pink tongue with a crestie anymore. It's now going to be a gargoyle gecko and crested gecko. I don't know if that will make any of you feel any better, nor do I care, but I figured I should say it before I started posting pics. I decided to change just because of how rare the pink tongues are, and the tank size. While I could afford one eventually it would be too late. I'm getting them at a reptile expo on the 26th and the tank I was buying was not only too small, but also had been sold. I switched to a 18x 18x 24x for the both of them. I was recommended this size by the same person that first recommended it to me. Although I think someone posted here about it as an alternative. Gargoyles just seem easier and cheaper. I know I said I wasn't changing my mind, and I'm being hypocritical, but to be fair none of you changed my mind but rather someone I know in real life. They didn't say I couldn't do it they simply said they didn't know. They agreed it would be a bad idea to have a pink tongue and crestie, but said they didn't know enough about pink tongues to form a real opinion about it. I already bought the tank. All I'm missing are plants, and the reptiles.

I wonder why you absolutely have to have 2 animals in one cage when you can easily have 2 in two cages near each other.

But then again it's a GREAT idea you should do it because it's really not about the animals its about what YOU want.

You have so much to learn.

[MmmBanana]

If you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.

[skylord0110]

Yea so I'm thinking about switching back to a pink tongue and crested gecko. It seems like the better option, although the skink will be harder to care for. So please everyone continue to [trash] post me. Here's a picture of their soon to be cage. And no it's not done yet. I looks pretty bad right now. I need plants, hides on the walls, and just better arrangement.