Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have two oscillated skinks and i was wondering if there was any way to tell their sexes sithout the dreaded probe...

...one is a bit larger and brighter yellow than the other...

...i thought maybe they were trying to breed the other day...can anyone help me on that? do they breed the same way as other lizards? do they lay eggs or have live births? is there any way to get them to breed?

thank you,

amanda

I bred Chalcides ocellatus for a few years a while back, heres what I know-

The males will generally be slightly less robust, and have a denser distribution of the ocellie pattern, while the females have a much more broken up pattern, and overall be much lighter than the males.

I gave them a cool side of 75-80 day, 70-75 night, and a basking spot of 95-100. Lights were on for 14 hours(the usual spot + UV flourescents). That was before the new UV spots, but I would hesitate to use those unless you had the bulb several feet from the enclosure; reptisun 5.0 UV flourescents worked fine for me, and that is what I would recomend you use. I fed them (5-6 times per week) crickets, silkworms, roaches, and some wild insects every now and then.

For breeding, I cooled them down during October to a daytime high of 75, with a hot spot of around 80 during the day. Night temps were in the low 60's. Lights were on for 8 hours a day. Feeding was reduced to 2-3 times per week with no great loss of condition. I brought them out of cooling from mid-February to mid-March.

Breeding was observed March through May for the most part, and the females gave birth July through early September. They are livebearers, and clutch size was generally 3-10 relatively small young. Make sure to separate gravid females because males and other female cagemates will not hesitate to eat the neonates.

I enjoyed the species quite alot, but watch out for fungal infections on the skin (scales will start to fall off), it is tough to get rid of. If you do encounter it, just use some Tough Actin Tinactin! or similiar over the counter anti-fungal; apply the cream lightly to affected areas every other day, and it should clear up within a month.

Hope this helps!

Okay, I looked at your pic and had this to add;

Get them off of the sand- they have a tendancy to be messy eaters and get impacted easily (and the calci-sand stuff is no better than regular play sand). I used a mix of peat and sterile topsoil, baked in the oven to kill off any hitch-hikers, and slightly (very slightly) moistened every morning with a spray bottle. Never had impaction problems with the above substrate.

hi. thanks for all your helpful information. it is impossible to find a care sheet for them anywhere online. the first one i got i got about three years ago as an add on with some girdle-tailed lizards. i was told he was a sandfish skink, and it took much research before i discovered his true identity. my instructions were to just keep them the same way as the girdles--right in the same cage was ok. alright i said, i didn't know anything about them but he was awful cute so i adopted him.

i kept him for about a year and a half before getting him a friend. i found one at a herp show in manchester. 8 bucks. i thought, "cool!" it was quite a bit smaller and a lot less yellow--more tan, but it had the same markings and everything so i picked it up.

they now live in a thirty gallon with three flame bellied armadillo lizards, and have for a long time. mostly they don't interact, but when they do they don't pay any attention to one another. they all seem to thrive on the sand--and the skinks in it. i have never had any problem with impaction and would not feel right taking them out of it. mostly they eat mealworms out of a bowl anyways, so there is very little chance of them ingesting the sand during mealtime.

one question though: you sprayed your soil mixture daily? didn't it make it too humid for the little guys or are they supposed to have it a bit humid? mine has never had any problem with fungus...or any noticable illness at all. one has been trying to escape though for the past week...i don't know why that is...it's rather strange...

also, you didn't mention if there was any way to tell if one was gravid (do you call it that even though they are livebearers?) or not...

thanks again =)

amanda

I too had to do a bit of digging on these guys before finding anything out about them; they really are interesting little skinks.

If you feel that they are not ingesting too much sand, then by all means keep them on it; just be aware that impaction can be a problem and keep a watch out for it. If it makes you nervous at some point, they do burrow just as vigorously in the substrate mentioned in the previous post, so they do not miss out by not being on a sand substrate.

With the females that i kept, it became quite obvious that they were gravid (yes, gravid is the term used). They fattened up a lot in the abdominal region, it being most obvious just before the back legs. As they came closer to laying, the underside of their abdomens became somewhat transluscent, so much so that you could see the darkness of the internal organs showing through the belly scales.

If you suspect that one is gravid, you can (if you would like) email me pictures and I should be able to tell you if this is the case.

Kael Hooten
squam8@ziplip.com

I really need to read these posts more carefully- I am forgeting to answer your Q's!

Yes, I did spray down the cool side of the cage in the morning just before the lights came on; this simulates dew in the morning, and helps to keep some moisture in one side of the cage. While these animals do live in semi-arid regions, they are burrowing animals and experience high humidity when below the surface or deep in rock piles, so maintaing a completely arid enviroment is not appropriate.