Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey- can a 1.2 or a 2.4 group of Prehensiles live almost completely on a 8-9' tall Ficus tree in my room in Central Florida? I'd love to study these beautiful reptiles. The tree would be in a corner, so that's two out of four sides covered, what about the other two? Any ideas? Thanks. Brooks

You should not put more than one male in a cage. I don't know what species of ficus you have, but most ficus, as a house plant, have pretty narrow limbs that are not ideal for PTS to climb in. Another thing about ficus is it is not the not a good thing to have around PTS as the y will destroy/eat just about any plant you put in with them and ficus is not something they should be eating. Also, when ficus gets pruned or broken, they secrete a really nasty sap that is very irratating to eyes. How large are you planning to build this cage, just big enough to enclose the ficus or large than that? The two walls, which I assume are just drywall, would problably need t be sealed either by chemical/paint, or by something like laminant or what you would put in a shower. Hope this helps, jrbl

Hello, do you already have the MTS? In all honesty I don't think that 0.1 or 1.0 could live completly or comfortably in a 8 or 9 foot ficus tree!! MTS do love to climb but in captivity they will also come down to ground level to roam and explore.

Your best bet is to build an enclosure to house them in. It is not recommended that you house two males together in that close of proximity either, they are likely to fight each other. They are an arboreal species and that is good that you know that and are thinking along those lines.

I built several of my own enclosures with materials bought from Home depot and Lowes. My dimensions for an enclosure that I use to house a breeding 1.2 are 5ft by 4ft by 3ft deep. I constructed a wooden frame with plexi-glass walls and a rubber coated screen top. I have other enclosures that are smaller which hold 1.1 adults, juvies and younger, but just found the above dimension work great for a breeding 1.2 . From my experience with MTS, bigger is better!! I use hollowed out cork bark for shelves and hiding places as well as strong silk and plastic plants. I also use grapevine branches and branches that I have cut myself from outdoors that I have dried and sterilized.

There are several other folks in this forum who are MTS owners and have tons of other great Ideas and hopefully they will add to your post. You will see this species reffered to as MTS=Monkey tail skink, PTS= Prehensile tail skink and of course Corucia Zebrata, so if you see any of these names take a read and learn knew things like the rest of us. I have learned alot here and am here to help if I can.
Good Luck