I'm new to lizards, and I recently bought a pair of fire skinks from a pet shop. This is an independently owned pet store that generally provides very good in-store care for their reptiles, but sometimes their imports come in sick and weak, and they sell them anyway. (For this reason, I'm pretty much ready to write off pet shops entirely and just go straight to breeders from now on. (I've had too many bad experiences and haven't learned fast enough from them.)
Anyway, to get to the point, these fire skinks seemed a little bit sickly even as I was buying them, BUT because I had special ordered them I was obligated to buy them! They are low energy, don't eat enough, and pretty stressed. I am saving up to bring them to the vet, but in the meantime I wanted some advice on what I can do to strengthen them up!
Please let me know if there's anything in my setup that I can change to help them out! I have a 20 gallon long with coconut mulch substrate, deep enough to burrow in. They have a humidity gradient - it's more dry and hot on the side with their basking lamp, and the other half of the tank is kept humid with a spray bottle. They have hides on both sides of the tank. Temps are 85-90 on the hot side and 70-80 on the cool side. I'm feeding crickets, mealworms, waxworms, and fruit. However, they never eat the fruit and I don't think they're eating enough of the crickets/worms to provide proper nourishment.
Is there anything in my husbandry that can be changed to give them a fighting chance?
Thank you.
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1 amel corn - Geislandi
1 okeetee corn - Valis
1 snow corn - Orlando
2 fire skinks - Loki and Prometheus
2 Chinese tree dragons - Trapezoid and Trapezium
2 cats - Lucky and Moony
7 betta fish
