Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I got a little four moonth old baby monkey tailed skink about a month ago, so I guess that makes it a five month old. Well they guy I got it from had no idea of the sex, but since about a week ago, its officially a female! Well I just wanted to find out how long it takes for them to get settled in? I am just wondering because she won't eat unless I hold her and feed her. I have tried to leave the food in her enclosure, but she doesn't touch it. I feed her collard greens, acorn and butternut squash, green beans, carrots, mango, and banana. Oh, there is also a big pothos plant in the enclosure she has nibbled on a few times. I have also never seen her drink or soak. I mist her often and she laps up the dew, but I don't think that is enough. Is there something I should be doing different? How do you people perserve your food? With greens, I wrap them in paper towels and put them in a ziplock bag. The problem is my mustard greens went bad in a week and my collard greens are staring to look a little yellow. Any help would be appreciate. Thank you, Josh

It took Leonardo a few weeks to start eating.The first thing he ate were pothos leaves.I continued offering him my iguanas salads and he finally ate some cabbage, some squash, some bananas and some carrots.But he is not a great eater!Sometimes he refuses to eat, other times he only eats pothos leaves. If i was you i wont worry that much.Just leaves the pothos plant inside her cage and check for missing or half eaten leaves.
Do you know how long is your MTS? I would like to know how old is Leonardo.He is 53 cm, around 20/21 inches.Do you have any idea how old he must be?

By the way how do you know for sure your MTS is a girl?

makes that chair come ALIVE, LOL hes great looking !

Eve

It would be helpful to know what temperatures you're keeping her at, the humidity in the cage and whether she has places to hide. Also, where does she spend the most time in her cage? Is she active or does she stay in one place all day and night?

The other thing I would recommend, if you haven't already done so, is to take a fecal sample to the vet for a parasite check.

-Z

Flavia, I have not measured her yet, but the guy I got her from said she was 9 inches snout to vent. I have noticed you have been posting her for a while, and leonardo was probably in the pet store for a while as well, and if he has not grown since then, he is probably full grown. While monkey tailed skinks can grow two feet or more, some adults don't even grow to 20 inches.

zeteki,
I am keeping her in the mid 80's(82-86) during the day and somewhere around 80 at night. I have a humitity gage that shows it is from 60-80% most of the time, but it is one of those cheepo stick on ones, so it is not infallible. The enclosure has a large pothos, a large soaking bowl, and I mist the whole cage 2-4 times a day, so the humitity should be pretty high. She has places to hide, under the pothos vines and in a shoe box. She spends most of the day time hours in the box. I notice her moving around at night, so she is probably pretty active. I have been meaning to take a fecal sample to the vet, but have not yet done so. I also want to take her there for a physical. I am planning on getting a microscope so I can do my own fecals, but I will not be doing that any time soon. Thanks for the help, Josh

Josh, I know you care for and are very concerned about your Baby MTS, from what you are describing though, I really do not see any problems.
Baby MTS (In my experience, I realize others may have different experience raising these guys)tend to eat very little up until about 9 to 10 months old!! The ones I raise when offered food will take small nibbles and then walk away from the food and not eat anything else until I offer them fresh new food hours later or the next day. With the babies I will sometimes offer them food twice a day.
When I first started out with baby MTS I would offer them a huge diverse plate of food to make sure they had as many items to choose from that they could want. Every time I would look at the plate after feeding I would feel disappointed because it looked as though they had not eaten anything.
It was only until I actually observed them eating that I realized they "were eating" and that 2 pieces of collard greens about 2 inches by 2 inches each would fill them up for a couple of hours, sometimes even the day.
The Babies that I have and others I have raised to juvie to subadult seemed more interested in water than anything else. I have noticed an increase in the amount of food they consume with each shed.
Try putting out measured amounts of food, in that, I mean cut pieces of greens into 2 inch by 2 inch squares and only put a certain amount in that you can keep track of.
One thing that works for me everytime(I seriously mean 100% of the time) and has helped several other folks with MTS feeding problems is heavily misting( I prefer soaking sopping wet, like a rain storm hit)the entire enclosure each time you offer food. This should stimulate a feeding response.
The majority of my colonies are captive bred and born, but I do have a healthy trio of long term wild caught captives that have produced and have had no problems with any of their babies. A vet visit cant hurt and may help to ease your mind.From what you describe everything sounds like a normal baby MTS and their finicky eating habits!!!!!!!!!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Eveyone Is In A Hurry To Get Nowhere Quick, Fast!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Josh, your best bet with preserving food is to only keep it for 5 days and then buy new stuff (I mean the greens Items mostly)fruit and vegies stay good longer. Ecapecially with it being a baby skink, you want to give it only the freshest food items possible. Ziploc actually has bags that are designed to keep vegies fresher longer, they are plastic bags with several holes in them, they work good!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Eveyone Is In A Hurry To Get Nowhere Quick, Fast!!!!!!!!!!!