Broad Banded Sand Swimmer Care?

[spookynoodle]

I can't find much about these guys online, has anyone here kept them? What's your experience? How humid should their substrate be? How often/how much are they fed?

 

[Herpetology]

Super simple to care for, you grab a tub, put about 2-3”of sand

And bobs your uncle, healthy lizards

With cricket feed once every 2 days

 

[Sdaji]

I can't find much about these guys online, has anyone here kept them? What's your experience? How humid should their substrate be? How often/how much are they fed?

These are arid zone specialists. They don't exactly need extremely low humidity but that's what they've evolved to generally cope with. Err on the side of dry, don't try to make it high or moderate, but don't worry about going out of your way to actively make it dry.

Keep them on dry sand and otherwise just keep them like any typical medium skink. Don't use UV, use calcium and multivitamin supplements, you can use spotlights if you want but they're not necessary, make sure there are warm evening temperatures after dark (floor heat is easiest). They'll become active during the day in captivity but are naturally most actively looking for food in the evenings.

They're very easy to keep, you could keep them like a typical skink and they'd still thrive.

 

[spookynoodle]

These are arid zone specialists. They don't exactly need extremely low humidity but that's what they've evolved to generally cope with. Err on the side of dry, don't try to make it high or moderate, but don't worry about going out of your way to actively make it dry.

Keep them on dry sand and otherwise just keep them like any typical medium skink. Don't use UV, use calcium and multivitamin supplements, you can use spotlights if you want but they're not necessary, make sure there are warm evening temperatures after dark (floor heat is easiest). They'll become active during the day in captivity but are naturally most actively looking for food in the evenings.

They're very easy to keep, you could keep them like a typical skink and they'd still thrive.

Cheers!
I've kept blueys before, do these guys like the occasional green or are they completely insectivorous?
And do you mean a heat mat? I read somewhere that you shouldn't provide that, but again, info on these guys is really hard to find.
Do they mind handling?
[doublepost=1569395869,1569395804][/doublepost]

Super simple to care for, you grab a tub, put about 2-3”of sand

And bobs your uncle, healthy lizards

With cricket feed once every 2 days

Can't go wrong!

 

[Sdaji]

Cheers!
I've kept blueys before, do these guys like the occasional green or are they completely insectivorous?
And do you mean a heat mat? I read somewhere that you shouldn't provide that, but again, info on these guys is really hard to find.
Do they mind handling?
[doublepost=1569395869,1569395804][/doublepost]

Can't go wrong!

Not sure if they'll eat greens, some probably will and it wouldn't hurt to offer. They'll take a bit of fruit, but mostly they like insects, which is what I'd base their diet on. Actually, it's funny what lizards will eat. A few years ago in Bangkok I was washing dishes outdoors, there were some scraps of hot chilli which get left in the sink, and I was surprised to see a gecko rush down and eat them. I thought it was aberrant behaviour and managed to take a picture, thinking no one would believe me. A few weeks later the same gecko did the same thing and I thought it was a peculiar individual. Early this year I was in east Thailand, I tried ripping up fresh hot chillies into small pieces and threw them over the floor and the geckoes rushed down to eat them! This surprised the local Thais who watched with amusement. You never know what these critters will eat!

Heat mat or cord. I've only been keeping lizards for a bit over 30 years so something you read on the internet might be worth listening to over my words. Your call there, although I would add that the majority of lizards (and all reptiles) kept in captivity are kept with floor heat, and almost all of the world's largest privately owned reptile collections are primarily or exclusively heated with floor heat (large scale keepers tend to use cords, small scale keepers who use floor heat tend to go for mats. Personally, once I tried cords I quickly converted and never looked back at mats). I'd personally keep them in tubs with about a quarter to a half of the floor area heated, depending on the ambient temperature (eg in tropical north QLD just a little, in Melbourne I'd give more heated area). I probably wouldn't bother with overhead heating, but if you wanted to go all fancy it would be ideal.

Handling small/medium skinks is about as appealing to me as handling goldfish. If I specifically want something to physically interact with I'll go for a mammal. Dogs and cats etc can be fun, ferrets are brilliant if you don't mind the smell, even rats are quite fun and even affectionate but my preference is for a female human. If handling a reptile is important to you I'd suggest a python, or if you want a lizard to handle you might as well go for a Beardy, or if you want a skink to handle you can't go past a Bluey. Once in a blue moon I'll handle a reptile for fun, but usually it'll be a snake or large lizard. I've had a lot of fun keeping and breeding small and medium skinks, fish, etc, but I just don't personally see them as handling animals - they don't like it and I don't see any point. Even some insects are better for handling. Sand Swimmers are very interesting, fun to watch and work with. If you really want to I'm sure you can physically interact with them, but I've literally never handled Sand Swimmers any more than catching, holding/restraining and inspecting. Even when cleaning their enclosure I generally wouldn't physically touch them. Your lizard your choice of course