Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Owning many different herps, I like to keep a variety in their diets.
I recently aquired a prehensile tail skink.
I feed him greens,( kale mustard collard ) sweet potatoes, kiwis.
He loves the kiwi, and the sweet potatoes.But hardly touches the greens.
I dont wanna overdo it with the kiwi, and spoil him with sweet potatoes.
How do I get him to eat greens, or is there another option?
What does everyone here feed their PTS?
Thanks in advance.
Bob

Bob -

Congrats on your new PTS. To get it to eat more greens you might try chopping the veggies and fruit up more finely. Dice them well and stir them throughout the greens before serving. This will make it difficult for the lizard to eat the goodies without getting a mouthful of greens and will also flavor the greens somewhat to make them more appetizing.

I feed my PTS quite a mix of foods. The usual staples are mustard, collard, mixed baby greens (spring mix), green and yellow squash and bananas. They also get: escarole, kale, bok choy, chard, carrots, mushrooms, green/red peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, cactus fruit, etc. Basically they get whatever looks good at the store or whatever raw ingredients I have left over after preparing dinner.

Where did you get your PTS from? Do you know much about it's history (WC/CB, age, past owners, etc)?

I've been doing exactly as you wrote. Except the what's leftover from dinner part.
Kale, mustard greens, collards. Cooked sweet potatoes.
This guy sucks down kiwis, and bananas. Which I feed in moderation.
I chop my greens in a small food processor. So dicing is not an issue. I have been trying to mix them in with mashed sweet potatoes.That works to some extent.
I try it with kiwi too, but dang! This guy is better than my dogs about eating around the less delectable stuff.
I just tried banana. He inhaled it. I think the next step.
Chopped greens smashed into the banana.
I know nothing of the origin of this animal.
Got him from a guy that took him in trade for some snakes. And decided not to keep him.
I had been looking for a while, and this guy advertised here on KS, and lived about 40 mins from me.
He appears to be male. And that's the best I could tell you.
I could not find one anywhere. I was offered a CB baby. But wayyyyyyyy outta my price range.
So here I now own one. You are making we wish I did know more about him. He is going to be used in my educational talks...
which leads to another question.
Is it normal for them to pee and poop when you pick them up?
He makes no attempt to bite, but pees all over me...and then poops.
Will more handling help him stop this? Or dies the stimulation get things going?
Except for this bad habit, he is a pretty cool animal. I should have him in his own special custom made enclosure soon.
Thanks for your help.

Bob

You could also just stop feeding out fruit and sweet potato until the lizard begins eating greens. Given no other options, he will eat the greens rather than starve.

I've got a PTS that is recovering from surgery right now. I have to give her injections every three days. At first she was lethargic enough that I could do it without removing her from her cage. Now I've got to haul her out, put her in my lap and restrain her to give the injections. She leaves a gift dripping down my leg every time now. (Hey, at least I know she's going...) Urination/defecation are definitely a stress response! Take it easy with your guy and build up slowly to longer handling periods. He'll get used to it if you keep at it.

The reason I ask about the origin of your lizard is that I'm beginning to get curious about how much breeding is being done in this country, and by whom. I've started compiling what is right now a very short list of U.S. breeders. I'm thinking that if the borders stay closed forever (let's hope!) we'll may need to start thinking about studbooks and managed breeding. Just something fun for me to think about...

I think I might be making prgress. Last night I fed some kiwi, and some mustard greens.
Ate it all. Maybe mustard greens are the answer.
He has no eating schedule. Day, night...when the urge hits he eats.
And the only origin I know of this guy, is he came from Deep River CT.
I doubt if that helps much. : )
Great idea you have though. I have thought about how I would replace my PTS, as it is not a long lived species.
Major captive breeding programs would be great to start.
And as far as the poop/pee thing. I figured that keeping at it would help the situation.I have a very large burm that used to do the same thing to me as a hatchling.
Within no time at all, because of persistence, I was able to easily handle this guy.
Thanks for all your help!

Bob