i just was given 2 week old osc. skinks. they have become quite active and are feeding on pinhead crickets and sm. mealworms. anyone have any other advice for these little guys so they can thrive. thanks. sabredoll

Be VERY careful with humidity. I've bred skinks (golds) before and I know that they died in less than 24 hours if the cage wasn't basically soaked down 2-3 times per day. That was a species who lives at like 30 Celcius. What temps do you have them at? Also, too much moisture, especially in adults, will cause scale rot to appear. So try to hit their perfect humidity and offer several VERY SHALLOW water sources with safety rocks in the middle (they can drown in a shockingly small amount of water). It helps when spraying to spray right on the babies so that droplets form on and around them. They are more prone to drinking this than they are standing waterdishes.

Make sure to give them calcium as often as 4 times per week. They use calcium at an astonishing rate. Give them lots of hides, as baby skinks tend to jam into small crevasses that only they can fit in. I use fossil oyster shells for baby gold skinks, but I'm sure you can find something small that will make them feel secure.

Oscillated skinks are a smaller species. Keep in mind their size when feeding; once you increase the size of the crickets you feed, you will notice a growth spurt. There's lots of 'feeder size' rules out there, but I go by this: If they can swallow it, it's all good. Basically if it's a little smaller than their head, go for it. I've seen skinks eat things bigger than their heads, but don't try that. Try to feed less larger items rather than more smaller items (ie 10 pinheads is not as good as 3 2 weeks).

How many babies do you have? Make sure to note, carefully, their growths and any 'battle damage' they receive. Skinks, even siblings, are quite nasty to each other as part of their tough love personas. Missing ends of tails (which grow back) as well as bite marks on the back are common in communal baby cages. No big deal, just make sure they don't get infected by applying a bit of polysporin once or twice to the area.

As babies they are VERY impressional. Try to hold them often, at least once per day, and the adults will be much more likely to be handleable.


Hope that helped. I'll be lurking with any more quesitons, as I am the unofficial 'skink guy' around here (I have 5 species at the moment, lol).

Hi sabredoll,

Welcome to Herp Center! Sorry I cannot help you, but you've come to the right place for help. Enjoy the site!

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Steve

Welcome to Herp Center! Paleo is pretty good with skinks, so hopefully he's helpful to you. As for your thread, it's more about the skink question than it is a personal introduction, so I've moved it to the skink forum so the skink folk will notice it better Feel free to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about yourself and your pets in the introductions forum though!

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