Herp help?

[Sue]

Found a visitor this morning. I would love help on some questions:

1. What is it?

2. Will it die if I put it outside?

3. What would it eat, in case hypothetically I considered putting it in my terrarium?

 

[Heather]

Sweet! Where did you find it?
I've no idea of any of the answers, but I say, keep her(p), if you can!

 

[Sue]

She showed up in my room, in an empty clay pot, near the plants. Not sure which way she came in.

 

[SlipperFan]

Have no idea, but it is cute.

First thing is an ID. The rest will follow...

 

[Rick]

It's a native skink species. Most likely a blue tailed skink (though the young of a few other skink species also start out striped with blue tails.

It came in from out doors, so it'll do fine going back out doors (unless you put it out when its freezing).

They eat small insects.

There are allot of them around my house too. They especially like living around the railroad ties that suround the base of my greenhouse.

 

[Sue]

Thanks! Just looked up a care sheet. Seemed remarkably well suited for the terrarium, so I put her in there. It took about a minute before she was on the hot spot on a rock directly under one of the halogens.

I'll have to make some time later today to get some mealies or crickets.

 

[Heather]

It's adopt a skink day!

 

[nyorchids]

it could be a 5 lined sking as rick said other babies start with blue tails

 

[Mahon]

I must agree, that is a juvenille 5 lined skink... those are poisonous, and if a dog or cat eats one, they die... I think other wild animals are smart enough not to touch them... pretty cool little guy, they are very colorful!

-Pat

 

[Stoneledge]

They are cute little critters. I have them all over the stone walls on my property. Males of the species can put on quite a territorial display. Just be careful...never pick one up by the tail! They pull off very easily. They grow back but never to the length of the 'former' tail.

My dogs occassionally bring me a tail as a 'treasure'. Nothing more gross than a squirming blue tail found under a cushion on the sofa

Pat, I've never seen a reference to the tail of the 5 lined skink as being poisonous . Can you provide one?

I brought in a couple of tree frogs on my cattleyas when I moved them back inside. I returned them to their territory when I discovered them perched on top of plants, as close to the MH lights as they could get. It was a miracle that they didn't end up as toast

 

[Sue]

They're very agile as well. The skink is now somewhere in my office.

 

[likespaphs]

heehee. my evil plan of populating sue's office with a mysterious skink is working...

 

[PHRAG]

I think if you find him, you should help him outside. We are all eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the Skinkshank Redemption. Keep us updated.

 

[Heather]

heehee. my evil plan of populating sue's office with a mysterious skink is working...

I think if you wanted to populate Sue's office, you'd need to infiltrate at least two skinks.

 

[likespaphs]

oh crap...
i mean, of course i thought of that.

 

[Sue]

No sign yet, but I have two more meetings today, so there's still hope for an amusing incident. I suspect she's made it out into the hallway by now though.

 

[Jon in SW Ohio]

I think you will notice an eerie lack of spiders at the office this winter. When I used to have geckos as a kid(the Houdini of the lizard world) they would always escape and my mom never complained, only joked that I must have lost another because all the spider webs in the corners of the house were gone.

Jon
________
AVANDIA CLASS ACTION

 

[L I Jane]

I posed this to a friend who said try feeding small crickets or wax worms from the pet store.What do I know?I think filet mignon is out!
:rollhappy:

 

[NYEric]

Herp Help

I feed my herps [10 Leopard geckos] crickets w/ wax worms as a special treat. It's cool to have the chirping noise around the house in a 20th floor NYC apartment. [Although my neighbors don't seem to appreciate the escapees that make it thru the walls.] If you want to keep it you have to have a tight lid or screen on your tank. And Heather, the females of many species can store the sperm to produce babies later.

 

[Heather]

And Heather, the females of many species can store the sperm to produce babies later.

Ah...Brian, as the master of skink sneaking must have known that. Yes, Brian?