Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok my male Broadhead skink is like not eatting good and I just gave him some jump start. IS that going to help becaues my vet said it would.

Do you have a warm basking light over the animal's cage? Sometimes a regular incandescent bulb is not enough for even skinks. I had to use a 75 watt spotlight for my southeastern five-lines just to keep them warm in a 20 long. Dispite common knowledge, a mere 75 degrees F is not enough for our five-lined and broad-headed skinks in the USA. While I do not believe they need UV light, they do need warm basking sites. Temp range should be min of 78 degrees F in the cool end, with a temp of around 90 F in the warm end. And another thing: THE ANIMAL MUST BE ABLE TO HIDE IN BOTH THE COOL AND THE WARM END OF THE TANK! If they only have a hiding place in the cool end of the tank, they will hide in the cool end all the time, and they will not get enough body heat. This is a common problem faced by first time keepers of things like corn snake and leopard geckos: provide hides in a variety of temp ranges. It's fine to have only cool hides for things like anoles, day geckos, chucks, bearded dragons, and other baskers, but skinks and many nocturnal lizards don't always like to be exposed under bright lights when heating up.