I found a Fire Skink

[5HiddenLizards]

Awesome Fire Skink! I have a 2yr old male. He's fun to watch catch roaches.

You can buy Eco Eath at the common pet stores like Pet-Co and Pets-Mart. I prefer the bricks of coco fiber. To me they have less dust. I mix my damp coco fiber with some sand. The fiber by itself will hold a tunnel, but the sand helps to hold them when it starts to dry out.

 

[waterfaller1]

Hi Michelle, thanks for your reply. I have a new block of coco to add, and sand I can work into it...perfect!
How do you know yours is a male? Do you have some pics? I would love to see him.

 

[waterfaller1]

New substrate addition
mix of coco fiber,playsand that was left in the sun,oak leaves,bark,spanish moss

 

[5HiddenLizards]

Sorry for the late reply. We got ours from a petstore. They had special ordered him for someone else but they never came to pick him up. I eyed him for like 5 mo & finally made my bf get him. They said he was a male, about two years old. We've had him about a year. He's a little over a foot long. I think I have some photos of him on my profile album...

Disregard the paper towel. I had some baby crickets hatch out in his tank & i hid food for them in the paper towel so i could get them out, but he kinda squashed it.

Waiting for his tank to be cleaned.

 

[5HiddenLizards]

New substrate addition
mix of coco fiber,playsand that was left in the sun,oak leaves,bark,spanish moss

I like everything in your tank. He must have a good time catching thing in there. Mine used to hide all the time when we first got him but now he sometimes perches on his hide & watches us go about our day.

 

[waterfaller1]

Thank you for replying Michelle. Your skink is gorgeous, and I love his set up with the ancient pics in the background, and the little people. It makes him look like a dinosaur.
I have changed out the cardboard hide on the cool end, for a cork tube. It looks more natural, and if he is there I can see him. He has a hide made from natural oak bark on the warm side.
I am going with mine must be a male, because his colors are so vivid. But that is just a guess.
I have made a couple more changes to my set up. I had bought a 10.0 Reptisun bulb online, but then realized and was told it would be too intense for him.{more for desert lizards} So I went yesterday and got a 5.0 instead. I had to take back the small deep fixture, and get a larger one, as the Reptisun bulbs are too long and stick out. It works in the bigger,deeper fixture. I got a power center, which has several on all the time outlets, and some that have timers, for day and night.
My basking bulb is a 75 wt Zilla, and it is making the hot spot a bit too hot. Someone told me I could get a dimmer to control it. I also bought a Rheostat, which I have not used yet.
I am wondering if this would this control the basking bulb, and lower it some?
I got a small cricket keeper online, which is ok, but smaller than I would have liked. It has some useless items, so I would have been better off, and it would have been cheaper, to just pick up a regular larger one at a local store. I used to use a box that was like a portable file folder, but it was too big. It made cleaning up after the crickets a big chore. I need to find something in between that and the size I have now. I got some gutload, some water cubes, and am feeding crix, med. superworms, and mealworms so far. I got plain CA, and Reptivite, to alternate dusting. I am keeping the worms in a small dish with organic baby cereal, to keep them available to him, and the cereal keeps them fed and busy, so they won't try to crawl out. I am keeping a small water dish in the viv for the crix, and larger, deeper one, on the cool side, for Sizzle.
I have tried romaine, blueberries, and banana so far, but no luck getting him to try them. Does yours eat any veggies or fruit?
I am misting down the viv twice a day to keep up with the humidity. I also added some sphagnum moss as a top layer, so it will help maintain the moisture. I added a combo temp/hygrometer, a strip thermometer near the cool side, and a thermometer with a probe for the hot spot.
Am I missing anything?

 

[waterfaller1]

I want to find a fire skink! Shame on whoever let it go, but that's awesome that it found a permanent home!

Man why cant I find cool stuff like that!? Congrat on the new friend! But he's definitely not a native haha

Reading back through your posts now...
This is funny, critters just seem to have a way of finding those who will take care of them. About five years ago, a huge purple land crab was on my patio at an apt. I lived in at the time. He had a big hole in his shell, and was suffering from improper care. I took him in, and soon learned what a mistake it is for these to be sold, let alone to children. They have very special needs, which are not easy to meet. I found a lady who loved them, she had many of different kinds. So I drove an hour and a half to meet her and give him up to her. He was better off with someone who could meet his care requirements.

 

[waterfaller1]

I'd have a stool sample checked for parasites as these guys are usually imports and have a heavy load, and give him a nice deep substrate to burrow in. Good luck with him!

Hey, there is a reptile show here for two days at the end of the month. I read about it yesterday, and noticed they will have someone there to check stool samples. Is this an ok way to do this? He looks really healthy, so I am not thinking it is extremely necessary to take him to my vet, and pay over $100. I was also thinking it might be nice to talk to some local herp keepers too.

......................................+1 Also make sure to give him a nice hot basking spot 110F-120F.

Oh...so here is the problem. I have not found two caresheets that agree. The hot spot is running around 100F. Actually I have seen it as high as 106F, while I was getting it working.So maybe my hot spot is not too hot? Most of the caresheets suggest a hot spot of 90F.

 

[acpart]

Just a few notes on your long post: a rheostat is the same as a dimmer and it does work well to decrease the power of the light. I have a halogen puck light as a basking light fora P. klemmeri in a pretty small enclosure and use a rheostat to turn it down.

Cricket keeper: I have had much more success using a medium size faunarium (plastic container about 12"x9"x6" with vented plastic top) or a 5 gallon tank with screen top than the cricket keeper. I put a few toilet paper rolls in there as well as a few shallow dishes of water crystals and can always shake out the crickets I need.

Enjoy your skink. I'm really jealous, but I have room for only 1 large tank and that has my beardie.

Aliza

 

[T-ReXx]

If the person checking stools at the reptile show is qualified it should be fine, but I'd be cautious, unless they're trained to recognize parasites they may not do a very good job. Setup looks good and temps sound good. Fires are pretty hardy skinks, and most will do very well as long as they have the right temps/humidity and are fed a quality diet.

 

[waterfaller1]

Just a few notes on your long post: a rheostat is the same as a dimmer and it does work well to decrease the power of the light. I have a halogen puck light as a basking light fora P. klemmeri in a pretty small enclosure and use a rheostat to turn it down.

Cricket keeper: I have had much more success using a medium size faunarium (plastic container about 12"x9"x6" with vented plastic top) or a 5 gallon tank with screen top than the cricket keeper. I put a few toilet paper rolls in there as well as a few shallow dishes of water crystals and can always shake out the crickets I need.

Enjoy your skink. I'm really jealous, but I have room for only 1 large tank and that has my beardie.

Aliza

Thank you. Hubby corrected me when I repeated what you said about the dimmer and rheostat being 'the same' He explained how each worked. So I asked.."well is the outcome the same?" he said yes...lol..so that's all I needed to know...
Thanks for the tip on the crix keeper. I was pretty disappointed when I saw this contraption, for the price...but chalked it up to another experience.

If the person checking stools at the reptile show is qualified it should be fine, but I'd be cautious, unless they're trained to recognize parasites they may not do a very good job. Setup looks good and temps sound good. Fires are pretty hardy skinks, and most will do very well as long as they have the right temps/humidity and are fed a quality diet.

Here is the show info. It says he is a vet from a local animal clinic.
http://www.repticon.com/orlando.html

Thanks for the compliment, and as always the advice.

 

[T-ReXx]

Vet looks qualified to me! Just make sure you bring a fresh sample with you.

 

[5HiddenLizards]

Right now I'm just using a plain 60W full spectrum bulb. I got it at WalMart. Under it i am using one of those turtle ramp things. The top of the ramp is between 95-100, but underneath it stays between 87-90. He is usually only under there right after he eats & at night, since that side retains it heat most of the night. The cool side is around 85 on top of his hide and like 80 at dirt level. He usually perches on top of the cool hide & watches us. I have a big water dish for him that I try to keep filled to the top. This helps keep the humidity & I usually mist every 3 or 4 days. Since he has about 5 inches of subtrate the bottom layers keep their humidity, so misting isn't needed too often. Currently he eats mealworms, superworms, small dubia roaches & crickets. I haven't gotten him to eat any type of fruit or veggie. Some other people I've asked say they just feed them bugs. I think that if they were fed veggies in the beginning, they might be used to them in addition to their bugs, but since he shows no interest, I assume he was fed just bugs.

 

[T-ReXx]

As long as you're gutloading feeders well there's no real reason to feed fruits or veggies. Some fires will take them, some won't. A variety of gut loaded insect prey works just as well.

 

[VampyricAngelX]

You found him? Wow, I searched all over the place for mine XD He looks great for being randomly found.

I can't get my fire skink to eat anything but insects either, but he's been doing good with just gutloaded crickets/mealworms/superworms so I'm not too worried.