Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, so a while ago my two fire skinks mated and I asked here but no one replied, so I'll have to ask again. (I would like to know soon, because the female is starting to get fat from the eggs.)
1 - How long from mating till egg laying time?
2 - How to and at what temp/humidity to incubate?
3 - Any other info that you think would be helpful in succesfuly hatching and raising fire skinks.
Thanks so much for everybody's help.

Jeremy,

My first successful clutch was laid in the tank without my knowledge. The eggs subsequently hatched and I had little fire skinks scampering all over the place.

I'm no expert on the subject but this is what I've learned:
The gestation of eggs can last from 2-4 weeks after initial mating depending on food supply and temps. The number of eggs per clutch will be determined primarily by the size of your female. She can lay up to six clutches per season over an 8 month period consisting of 4-9 eggs per clutch.

Incubate your eggs at a range of 77-82F for best results. You can keep them as high as 86F but hatch rates are evidently better at lower temps. Ideally, you should cycle your incubator for a night time temp drop the lower end of the range as well. Incubation time is only 50 days!

I suggest setting up a seperate brood tank for the female or removing the male from the enclosure prior to egg deposition as they will consume the eggs if given the chance. I found this out the hard way with the second clutch.

I am currently using a standard 10gal incubator setup and sharing the space with gecko eggs. My temps are actually lower than recommended, but my other incubator is cooking leopard gecks and its too high. Time to setup #3 I guess.

There is an article in Reptiles Sept 2001 issue that is useful. That was my initial inspiration for trying to breed these guys in the first place and the source of some of the info posted here. The article was written by Neil Meister, so I am confident that it is accurate.

Hopefully this will help,

E

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well, for the cage "moderately high" humidity is suggested. No particulars are given but a moisture gradient in the substrate coupled with twice daily heavy misting has worked well for me.

For the eggs, I don't have specifics but the ones that hatched in the enclosure were well buried in slightly moist soil. My incubators run at 90-95% humidity all the time so I guess I'll find out with the clutch that's in there whether that's too high or not.

I've found that for eggs requiring lower humidity, I can use a chamber within a chamber method to reduce the moisture levels for eggs requiring drier conditions. Time will tell if modifications are needed to my system.

E