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I had him in a 10 gallon glass tank with a false bottom of about one inch of small rocks, covered by about an inch of dirt. The tank was placed on top of a undertank heater. The temp over top of the dirt is only showing 72 degrees, which seems too cold. He is not lethargic, when I check on him. He does his little bark and head defense move and will scurry away to a different area.

He seems to spend all his time in one of those turtle shell hide boxes. I put mealworms and small crix, but never see him eat. There do seem to be about the same number of mealworms and crix in there all the time, so I am concerned that he is not eating.

Will raising his temps with a heat lamp make him eat more? Or should I ditch the dirt and the false bottom of rocks and just go with a paper towel substrate to keep the belly heat?

Is it possible that he doesn't like crickets or mealworms?

Thanks for any help.

phflame

n/p
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Edward
Carpe diem

If you could only do one, which is more important? To raise temps or to provide burrowing substrate? Just a question to ponder.
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sue

Your croc skink will die if you dont put a large bowl of water inside his tank.Although crocs love to burrow they will not die if they dont have soil to burrow.I put a bowl with oats and mealworms inside my crocs cage and he is happy burrowing the oats to find mealworms.

Croc skinks love water.Did you put a LARGE bowl of water inside the tank?Mine ( I have had him for almost 2 years now) spends great part of the day inside the water.About the temp i keep mine at 80F during the day and 77, 78F during the night.IMHO 72 is too low for croc skinks.If i was you i would get rid of the soil.Crocs are VERY messy and his cage will become a mess with the soil.I covered the bottom of my croc skink cage with aquarium decorated plastic paper.Its cheap, beautiful and easy to clean.I think a 10 gallon tank too small for a croc.The minimum size is 20 gallons.Mealworms are ok.Thats all mine eats, gut loaded mealworms and mealworms beetles.

I switched him into a 24X12X12 BARRs cage for now, with the undertank heater. Hot side is now running 82.4 degrees and cool side is at 73. He has a large (enough for him to fit in) water bowl in there with him. Haven't seen him in his water bowl yet. He is only a tiny thing, maybe 2-3 inches not counting his tail. I am using paper towel for the substrate, to keep the heat up.

How about UV light? I don't think he eats the food insects fast enough for any vitamins/calcium to actually still be on them. Yours will actually eat the mealworm beetles?
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phflame

The water bowl must have 2 deep if you understand what i mean.One less deep than the other.To achieve that you must put a rock or a sponge in the deep side like that your baby croc will not fear the water. When crocs are cold they do not enter the water what is bad for them.They can become dehydrated.

My croc do eat the mealworms beetles because those beetles keep disappearing from his cage. Dont worry so much about vitamins inside the mealworms.If you keep your baby warm, hydrated and protected he will thrive!

having a deeper end and a shallow end? or do you mean having something in there so he can climb out of the bowl? Kind of like steps. Right now the bowl that I have is not too deep, but if I go deeper, then I do worry about him getting in and not being able to get out.

Thanks for your help.
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phflame

Both.It will help him if you put something like a rock without sharp ends to help him to go in and out whenever he wants.The deeper side will be good also for when he is shedding and really needs to immerge his whole body in the water.

72 is a perfect temp for him. they don't move around to much and stay hidden most of the time. the best time i see mine is when i get late at night and they just might be out. its a rareity for me to see them eat. mine have laid around 12 good eggs over the last 4yrs.