Hey everyone, I recently got a pair of ocellated skinks. I plan to get a couple more, but I already have a problem. One seems to keep on bullying the other one. Before separating them, the aggressive one wouldn't let the other one into the basking site. I tried putting more than one basking log under the lamp but the other one would still be too afraid to go in that area. Before separating them the aggressive one even bit off part of his tail. I have the submissive one in a smaller, temporary enclosure right now, but I don't have the space or money to setup a whole other enclosure for him. The submissive one is larger but looks older and and is slower than the other one. He is also missing part of his front limb (he already had that when i got him.) I need to return one of them, so my question is: which one should I return? My first thought was to return the one thats being pushed around, but I'm not sure if the aggressive one would make a better cage-mate for the new ones. If I were to keep just one skink, I'd probably go with the older one as it does actually look nicer and is in good health, but as I said I plan to get a couple more. So if I decide to keep the older one, is he likely to get along with the new ones or just get pushed around some more? I rarely ever keep more than one animal per enclosure, so I'm not too sure what to do in this situation. Anyway, thanks to anybody who read up till the end of this post and to anybody who can give advice.
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problem with ocellated skinks(long post)
Replies (2)
I know nothing about occilated, but I think you may have two males. Many lizard species males will fight with or bully into submission any smaller male. A male and two or three females together would work out. Good luck.
Quig
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We keep ocellated skinks (and breed them). They are not quite as easy as some folks woukd have you believe.
Could it be that where you got them - the folks didn't know how to sex them? It sounds like you might have 2 males. We keep 1 male and up to 5 females per tank. There are times when the females squabble - but it is more like a game of run, grab and tickle. Most times, they are in a pile when basking.
They get more aggressive when one is gravid too - we always remove the gravid females to their own tanks until after the birthing. Babies can be eaten by adults - so the little ones have to be kept separate as well.
One way to help sex them is the eye pattern (ocellated) on the back of the skinks. The more pronounced the eye pattern and the longer the tail - the better chance it is a male. The males have wider heads too. FYI - The tail will regenerate.
It doesn't matter which one you return - as long as you get the sex figured out. See if you can get a female and a male - or two girls if you don't want to breed them.
~Morgana
