Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
I am interested in keeping a feew ground skinks in a 30 gallon long tank and wanted to know if anyone has kept them ?
I cant find any info on their care and imagine same care as 5 lined skink except smaller insects but would like info from anyone that has kept/keeps them for some time.
Thanks.
Rita

I have kept and bred both species. The ground skins need more humidity. Their food needs to be much smaller than a 5 lines. Small mealworms, 2 week old crickets, etc. They calm down pretty good but don't take to handling. Clutch size is 2-3 eggs. Babies are very tiny and I found that they needed very high humidity and 2-3 DAY old crickets. It helps the babies to catch the crickets if they are dusted with calcium, minerall, etc. Adults need 2-3 food items a day. Babies 6-10 over 2-3 feedings per day. Babies will bury themselves in the substrate. I simply kept the babies in the hatching boxes. Since both species bask I provided UVB bulbs (chroma 50 in my case). The ground skinks like it a bit cooler than the 5 line. Basking site about 85 degrees. 5 line basking spot about 95 degrees. Room temp on the cool side of the tank. Baby 5 lines will eat massive amounts of baby crickets. 10-20 per meal 2-3 times a day. Very hard to keep up with feeding babies of both species. I trained them to eath small chunks of a cut up adult cricket dangled on a thin piece of copper wire. Both species grow fast. They will breed second season. Female 5 lines do a better job guarding eggs, but I removed all eggs from the females anyway. My colony of 5 lines were around a dozen adults. Clutches 5-6 egg average. If I remember correctly (this was early 90s) the eggs hatched in about 45 days at 80f.

Hope this helps. It's off the top of my head going by memory, so it's a bit sketchy.
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James and Vickie Bryan
Bryan Reptiles
bryanreptiles.tripod.com
bryanreptiles@lycos.com
A good name is more desirable than riches
Proverbs 22:1

This info is excellent and a lot of help.I havent been able to find anything on them. Did you find the ground skink males aggressive with each other like 5 lines as adults?
My tank is a 20 gallon long it measures 30 inches long think 12 inches wide. I was planning 4 ground skinks for it do you find this number okay or to many?
I love the Chroma bulbs I find them excellent. I will use that also. I plan to use basking incandescent on one side and cooler on the other.
Thank you