Care Sheet for Red Eye Armour Skinks
Natural History: Crocodile skinks or Red Eye Armour Skinks are found mainly on the northern parts Irain Jaya and Papua, New Guinea. These skinks are usually found scurrying around the undergrowth of the forest floor, mainly located near a water source.
Physical Description: Croc skinks are a small, shy, stocky bodied skink that ranges in size about 3.5-4 inches for snout to vent length, with a total a size of about 7 inches. The body of Croc skink is usally a dark brown to flat black in color. Croc skinks have a bright orange circle running around the diameter of its eyes, that develops with age (hatching croc skinks do not have these rings). Head and body of this animal reminder me of a toy dinosaur, or medieval dragon. The head is in a shape of a triangle with head having heavily keeled scale to the rear of the skull. These keeled scales continue down the back of animal in 4 rows until reaching about half way down the tail. Croc skinks as have the ability to vocalize when disturbed or restrained. More often I have seen this in freshly wild caught animals and hatchings.
Housing requirements: I believe that single Crocodile skink can be comfortably house in a ten gallon glass aquarium, but 20 longs are a lot nicer. For Pairs and trios highly recommend at least a 20 long or higher. From my own personal observation I believe that a lot of vertical height is not considered necessary. The cage temperatures for Croc skinks should be maintain at around 80° F in the daytime to 70°F in the nighttime. When the temp rises above 85 °F the animals in my collection seem to exhibit some signs of stress. For lighting full spectrum lighting dose not seem to be need ( cool florescent bulbs are all I use) as long animal’s diet is properly supplemented. Basking light’s are also optional, if using a basking light use a lower wattage bulb (20 watts or below). For substrate I prefer a shredded coconut fibers at a depth of 3-4 inches ( Bed a Beast )( ratio of Bed a Beast I use is 1 brick for every 10 gallons of tank space), but I believe any good moisture holding material would work just fine.(examples clean top soil, peat moss, and shaguphm moss). The cage should be spot cleaned often with substrate being changed once every 2 to 4 weeks.
Croc skinks like to borrow, so I avoid putting any plants in the cage to the destruction that I have seen in the past. As mentioned up above Croc skinks are shy animals, so to reduce unneeded stress ( especially in the first few days of acclimation) try placing a slab of cork bark lying
flat on the ground. If you don’t have cork bark try using a opaque plastic lid or deli container. The Croc skink(s) will most likely make a nice hid out for themselves were they will safe.
Water Requirements: In captivity Croc Skinks appear to be very good swimmers, so at minimum I like to provide my animals with at least enough water to fully sub merge their entire body. (Take care when working with hatchings and juveniles to avoid drowning). If you have the ability to make the cage 1/3 to ¼ water go for it, but it gets messy quick with fecal material and substrate. The method that I found works best is a flat bottom bowl that obtains a depth about 2 to 3 inches. Recessing the bowl into the substrate provides easy access for adults to enter. ( clear plant saucers 6-8 inches in diameter are my favorite to use, they can be found at many garden supply stores). In conjunction with supplying a fresh clean water source, I mist my Croc skinks once a day just to keep the substrate damp not soaked..
Food Requirements: The main staple of Croc skinks in captivity is gut loaded crickets. The size of the cricket will depend on the age of the animal, from pinheads for hatchings to ¾ inch crickets for adults. Feeding should be done once to every other day, again it depends on the activity level and stage of life.. Younger the animal the more often. I highly recommend dusting the prey insects with a D3 multivitamin, three times a week for adults and daily for hatchings.
Other food items that Croc skinks seem to love is wax worms and butter worms. Wax worms and butter worms are great for getting reluctant animals to eat.
Reproduction / Sexual Maturity: Males can be determined from females by looking at the rear feet. Males will have a series of planter pores on the third and fourth toes that appear grayish in color, for younger animals this can be a little difficult. Not much is know about the reproductive habits of the Crocodile skinks but, from my own account the courtship ritual contains a series of head bobs displayed by the male, and then male grasping the female by the nape of the neck then sliding his tail beneath the females. I’ll let you fill in the rest of the blanks, for what happens next. After successful courtship has occurred the female will deposit one leather egg (gestation time for the egg seems to take anywhere from 30 to 60 days depending on the health of the animal). The egg is about 1 to 1.2 inches long with a diameter of about ½ inch. The egg’s of the Croc skink seem to be able to handle pretty damp conditions, so to incubate them I use shedder coconut fiber. The incubation temp found in most articles and has work well for me in the past is 75 to 78º Fahrenheit for an average of about 70 days.. After the first egg Hatches be on the look out for another egg, Females seem to lay the following egg about same time that first one is hatching. Croc Skinks usually have a clutch size of about 3 eggs per season..
Please all information.. Comments .. and Criticism is greatly apreceated... and Just to let you know its about 2/3 of the way completed...
Bob Sabol
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