Small skinks to keep in a captive colony?

[killimike]

You see most of the skinks listed by GP on RDU from time to time. Except for delicata and guichenoti, of course

 

[Mister_Snakes]

White's skinks seem to pop up often enough, they are a very cool little skink in a colony.

 

[snakeynewbie]

Thanks I'll look into those too

 

[r3ptilian]

I'd go for a colony of Desert Skinks (Egernia Inornarta), They are full of character and you can throw live crickets into their enclosure and watch them fly from the burrows and take the crix. They are an often overlooked little skink that can bring hours of enjoyment. Good to see someone taking interest in the smaller herps for a change.

 

[Rocket]

If you decide to choose Morethia boulengeri or Morethia obscura, please PM me.

 

[snakeynewbie]

Is that because you keep them or because you want to keep them rocket?

 

[Rocket]

Is that because you keep them or because you want to keep them rocket?

A local mate of mine, as well as mysef, keep and breed both species and have some available.

 

[snakeynewbie]

Thanks, might have to do some investigating as to whether those might suit my wants.

Can you give me a range of price to expect for the smaller species of skinks? Pretty much common knowledge how much a blue tongue or a cunninghams is worth but I reall have no idea what I should be expecting with these sorts of species. Pm me if you prefer

Pity we weren't having this convo a few weeks ago, my husband is in Adelaide all this week :lol:

 

[ianinoz]

Thanks GP but short of googling every single one I don't really have enough skink knowledge to know which would suit my purposes, I probably don't want to go any larger than about 3-4 inches maximum(smaller is fine though) and I want something that would live happily in a colony of 5 to 10 individuals in a well furnished six foot tank.

Thanks mathew but they are probably just a bit big for what I'm wanting this time around.

My observations of my resident gang of wild but friendly EWSs (nearly every day over the last 12 months) is that they are quite territorial.
I visited the shed this avo to give some foodtreats to old girl who lives there and think I now know where the baby EWS has been evicted to by Scrapper , it's in the shed, both a baby (or a very young EWS) and the old girl EWS both came straight out to greet me when I pulled the roller door up and went inside with a tub with some dead and live mealworms in it. The old skink sent the baby skink packing and monopolised me and the worms. I also think she is very heavily pregnant - she's one fat EWS.

I think the mother will tolerate her babies for a while.

I'm not sure how a bunch of mixed sex and mixed age EWS will get on together in a restricted area. There might be a lot of fighting and injuries.

EWS are great lizards though, full of character and really cleavour too and the one's here have become very interactive (with me).

Maybe someone who has a captive colony of EWS can chime in on their suitability for your enclosure as a colony.

I also think they like a lot space and plenty of interesting things to investigate.

 

[Australis]

White's skinks seem to pop up often enough, they are a very cool little skink in a colony.

First species that came to mind for me to, very attractive smaller species (not garten skink small but still small).

 

[GeckPhotographer]

I was hoping you would show up Rocket, I made the M.boulengeri suggestion in mind that I knew you had some. I like the Egernia suggestions, personally I think if I were going small skinks I'd go with a Egernia, they are certainly often colony based and have tons of attitude. My reasoning behind not putting them in my few recommended was mostly their size. You wont find many Egernia smaller than an EWS and you had discounted that already. Keeping that in mind I reckon for a 6ft tank the smaller Egernia would probably still do fine in a relatively small colony, especially if height could be utilized as it could for some species. Hope you manage to find a skink you are happy with, certainly good to see someone taking an interest in these reps which are rather undervalued I believe.

 

[MathewB]

I'd keep Cunninghams if you want a communal lizard, but keep us updated

 

[-Peter]

Ok, well they POSITIVELY exist up here in PLAGUE proportions. Really ? GARDEN skinks ?


Dan may have kept those commons; but I guarantee they wouldn't be his first recommendation !!!!

Pretty poor arguement on all three counts. Yeah, they're pretty common all over the country, they're native. They aren't common in the hobby on license. Not everyone wants the hero species that you have.

 

[jamesjr]

White's skinks are a great small species of skink to keep.

 

[Tassie97]

First species that came to mind for me to, very attractive smaller species (not garten skink small but still small).

SAME i had a pet one awesome she was

 

[snakeynewbie]

Both of those look awesome and exactly the look I'm wanting. I'm probably planning a forest style enclosure would one of those species suit do you think?

 

[MathewB]

What's the husbandry with the Whites Skink? They look awesome!

 

[Tassie97]

only the tassie ones have the stripes lol

 

[MathewB]

I like the ones jamesjr had...no offence

 

[Tassie97]

oh :/
fine then! lol