I was walking back from a store when my friend noticed a small lizard crawling around on the sidewalk. Interested, I crouched down to investigate the creature and it was fantastically beautiful; rainbow colors from head to tail. So, being the good citizen/nature lover that I am, I decided to imprison this misplaced reptile for my own selfish interests.
This evening I had a chance to research my find on the internet, and it turns out to be a young Japanese five-lined skink (Eumeces latiscutatus.) Presently, I have him residing in “Le Chateau de plant with a drinking glass covering any escape route.” To be honest, s/he seems fairly content burrowing around in the dirt.
Now comes the part where I solicit advice from fellow dopers: What should I do with him? I would really like to purchase some appropriate living quarters for it, and raise it for as long as it feels like staying alive. They eat small insects, which shouldn’t be much of a problem to obtain, so I think I can be a decent care provider.
Do skinks make good pets? How long do they live? How big can I expect it to get? Will it turn on me in the middle of the night and suck my breath out? If I can’t get him to eat anything, I’ll end-up returning him to the great outdoors, but is there any other reason why I shouldn’t keep him around the house?
No matter how many times I go hunting for those damn snipe, I can never seem to catch any. It’s the damndest thing, you know? I mean I see them scurrying through the grass at night, but I have yet to catch one. Anyway, I’m giving up on the snipe suggestion for something that is more in line with what I wanted to do in the first place: keeping it alive.
Skinks are great little pets. They don’t get too big (depends on the species) and are pretty easy to care for.
You can probably buy crickets at a pet store. I can’t remember what it’s called, but there’s some kind of flaked vitamin stuff you can sprinkle on the crickets to make sure the skink is getting enough nourishment (we used to refer to this as Shake and Bake Crickets at the nature center).
Just remember not to pick it up by the tail–it snaps off (defense mechanism). It will regrow, but the new tail won’t be as attractive as the old one.
They sell those little suckers (skinks, not snipes) at an “exotic” animals store around the corner from my house. Apparently, they can be quite tame, and make fabulous pets (at least, according to the owner who is trying to sell the little suckers).
At their shop, they are housed in glass aquariums with water dishes and a supply of hoppy but unhappy crickets. I believe the ideal habitat (gravel vs. sand vs. moss, temperature, etc) is based on particular breed; I know that’s the case for their geckos, which are adorable.
The largest one they have at the moment, if memory serves me correctly, is about a foot and a half long. And has a bright blue tongue.
