Reptile & Amphibian Forums

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT EVERYONE IS FEEDING THERE SKINKS? ALSO DO YOU GUYS HANDLE YOUR SKINKS ALOT? ALSO DO YOU HAND FEED THEM?wHAT IS THERE FAVORITE TREAT? I currently have four skinks three females and one male. What season do they guys usally breed or is it year round? Also I know they only have babies once a year. Please post some pics of your skinks and there enclosures. Thanks

WOW! Four!Thats great!

Well, i have only one, a juvie, and i feed him the same food i give to my iguanas.Greens and vegetables.He eats a lot but never during the day.He starts eating at 6PM and continue eating during the night but not so much. Since he arrived home 1 week ago i handle him everyday and he is geting used to it and enjoy it!On the begining he hated to be touched (mainly on the back) and turned the head to bite me.Before attacking he used to bark (kind of, lol!). So i used a towel to take him.
Now he is geting used to it!He loves to be on the back of my neck, the tongue licking my right year and the tail around my left ear!Like iguanas he loves to be on the top of the furniture not under it like my BTSs.He is not easily frightened and walks around the house peacefully and slowly.I think he is the successful baby of a marriage between a Slow Loris and a Iguana!

I keep my MTS in the kitchen in a wire coated cage. The cage is high, around 5 feet and it has a huge branch and 2 bowls of food hanging on the cage's walls.On the bottom of the cage i put a huge bowl of water where he can swim if he wants!I put in the cage a hiding place where he loves to sleep during the day and during the night he is a free roamer (English?Sp?). He watches tv with me in the living room and stays at my side. I give him the same food i give to my iguanas (i have 6 adult green iguanas) and i can tell you he is much easier to tame than iguanas!And not so easy to scare!
I dont have any artificial equipments like uvb lights or heater od whatever because i live in a very hot country (Malaysia)where the temp is ALWAYS around 85-90 (even inside my kitchen!)and the level of humidity is never below 90%. Thats why i allow him to wander around the house during the nights because i know the temp is always perfect for him and the level of humidity too. I forgot to say that my kitchen is very sunny during the day so he gets real sunlight everyday.

SOUTHERN FLORIDA CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (SFCRC)

Location: LEE/1.

Monkey skinks seasonally aligned themselves in breeding to a humidity spike at the start of the wet season. If kept in the extreme Southern U.S. outdoors, Mating occurs May-June with birth occurring 7.5 months later. Northern Indoor enclosures with varied conditions would show a variety of different times.

Some main Foods;
Romaine lettuce (not Iceberg etc and NO Spinach! Sorry, Popeye!
I eat it though so I can be strong to the
finish LOL!).

Cantaloupe
Yellow squash
Bananas
Pothos leaves
Apples

Occasional side items: (good for water content mostly)
Cucumbers
Watermelon

Brian
SFCRC

2 PTS enclosures. One PTS is visible in a cork hide at the top for scale.

Shower day- Gertie and her first twins.

Gertie, Chip, Candy, Jenny and baby Bletcher.

oops, sorry- Chip got cropped out of that last photo---

Diet: Mixed dark leafy greens ~75% (kale, mustard, mulberry, chard, bok choy, parsley, water cress ect) I do not feed any lettuce unless I have run out of skink food and have to break into the people food. ~25% grated veggies (usually orange veg such as carrot or yam, plus broccoli, squash, beans). I squeeze fruit juice and pulp on the mix to make it tasty (kiwi and mango are favorites). I also mix in pieces of seasonal fruit (berries, stone fruits, tropical stuff).
I batch my mixes, and make it about twice a week. I add supplements usually every other mix (Oxbow critical care or calcium/D3 powder).
Temps: room temp in the cool zone usually around 70 degrees. Bask zones are 90's. I try to aim for low 90's.
Humidity: I try for 60%, higher would probably be better if I had a good way to prevent mould.
I have a mercury vapor lamp at the top of the enclosures to provide UV, visible light, and heat. I add supplemental heat zones during the winter when room temp gets down to the 60's.
Handling: I do NOT handle my PTS except to weigh and do medical checks. I generally try to avoid stressing them by handling- but each one is usually out monthly to be checked for shed issues and mouth crud. I am a firm believer that most reptiles do not in fact like to be handled. Iguanas are sometimes an exception...
cheers, Jess b

Absolutely gorgeous.
Does the mother actually look after the babies? If so, for how long?
Susan

She doesn't really seem to guard the babies themselves or interact with them any more than she does with the adult male Chip- but she aggressively guards the birthing area on the bottom of the enclosure for a week or so after birth- even after the baby(ies) have climbed higher. She has never shown any aggression toward any of her babies, though she snaps at Chip when he sniffs her too much. I think she knows they are either her babies or at least not any threat to her. They can climb on her and she doesn't move. If Chip walks over any part of her she puffs and huffs and may move away.
jess b

Does she clean or lick their babies to show any kind of affection like mammals do?

They sniff each other or 'taste' each other, I think to identify each other as a 'known' PTS, but they don't really seem to show any interaction like cats or dogs. They more seem to peacefully co-exist in the same general area. They are in a pile in the photo because I put them there for the photo... they don't usually make a big pile like that... when eating they may pile up though. Right now Chip, Gertie and Candy are laying on the food plate. Jenny and Bletcher are in the soaking bowl.
Jess b

Hello, I feed my Monkey Tail Skinks a varied diet, the usual staple is collard greens,parsley, kale, dandelion leaves and baby spinach leaves. I never feed them iceburge or romaine lettuce because it just does not have enough in it for a good diet. I also used grated carrots, diced apple, grated yellow squash, sweet potato, kiwi, bananas, mango, tomatoe and occassional blanched broccoli and a few other seasonal items that come on the market now and then. I think that collard greens is one of the best items you could feed them if they will eat it, it has alot of nutritional value to it more so than most leafy greens. I do not handle my skinks much except for when I am soaking them or need to clean their cage, I try not to stress them out if unneeded. They require a high humidity level so it is best to leave them in their enclosures instead of roaming around a room. My skinks also breed all year round, I have several and all breed at different times, I have found that they have no particular time as they breed from winter through spring(once ayear for each skink just at different times}. The funny thing is most books say skinks only breed every other year but I have found that to be a myth, I have had babies from the same skink year after year.

Gertie as well has been gravid three years running (I have had her 3 years). Jess