Things You'll Need
- Aquarium
- Substrate (wood chips, sand, sphagnum moss)
- Humidity retreat box or wet towel
- Aquarium lid
- Rocks, sticks, hollow logs and other decorations
- Shallow bowl
- Nonchlorinated water
- Heat lamps or heating pads
- Thermometers
- UV light
- Electrical timer
- Meats, vegetables and fruits
- Vitamin and calcium supplement
- Bleach
Instructions
Choose a large aquarium that will provide your grown skink with plenty of room. Blue tongue and Schneider's skinks require a 40-gallon tank, but do best in a 50-gallon tank. Smaller skinks, such as those native to America, need a minimum of a square foot of space per skink. Healthy skinks display their most natural behavior when they have a generous area in which to live.
Fill your tank with a substrate suitable for your skink's particular habits and origin. Blue tongue skinks, for example, enjoy a humid environment. Pine or aspen wood chips or shavings, along with cypress mulch, are good bedding. Fill the aquarium with about 4 inches of substrate, placing either a humidity retreat box or a damp substrate at one end. A loosely piled damp towel or slightly wet sphagnum moss provide essential moisture in the damp area. Use mostly sand for a Schneider's skink, although a moist area with sphagnum moss is suitable for them as well. Avoid aromatic woods such as cedar for all skinks.
Place a top that allows air flow and movement on top of the aquarium. Since most skinks are not big climbers, there is little risk of them getting out of their home. Protecting them from predators and accidents is the main consideration.
Arrange rocks and sticks for climbing and to simulate a natural environment inside the aquarium. Create caves and burrows to make your skink comfortable and provide a place to hide, especially if there is more than one skink in the tank. An upside-down piece of wood bark, a hollowed out log, a bowl turned on its side or similar objects make good hiding spots.
Place a shallow bowl with nonchlorinated water in the acquarium. Keep this bowl full at all times. Make sure the bowl is not deep enough to drown smaller skinks, but large enough to give them a place to soak and drink at all times. Skinks tip water bowls easily, so check it regularly to ensure the skinks have enough water. Clean the bowl often since skinks also like to defecate in their water bowl.
Place a heat lamp or heating pad under one end of the tank to maintain a temperature gradient within the aquarium, with one end of the tank warmer than the other. Temperatures ranging from 75 to 95 degrees Farenheit is appropriate for most skinks, depending on the natural environment of the subspecies you have. Hang thermometers on both ends of the tank to monitor temperatures.
Set up a UV light and keep the tank lit for 12 hours a day, and dark for the entire night time. Use a timer to maintain the light schedule, if necessary, but remember to keep the heat on during both day and night.
Feed your skink 3 or 4 times a week when it is an adult, or daily when it is a youngster. Some skinks, like blue tongue skinks, are omnivores, eating both plants and meats. Carnivorous skinks like Schneider's eat mainly meat, although all skinks benefit from vegetables. Meat choices include mealworms, earthworms, snails, crickets and small mice, along with canned cat or dog food. Good plant choices include squash, beans, parsnips and leafy greens such as spinach. Fruit tidbits like peaches, pears, bananas and berries and baby food are other suitable choices.
Give your skink a reptile vitamin and calcium supplement once a week, especially if it is mainly carnivorous. This will provide essential nutritional requirements for best health.
Clean your skink's home once a week, removing everything and washing it down with a solution of 3/4 cup bleach to 1 gallon water. Let the bleach water stand 10 minutes. Rinse and dry the aquarium thoroughly before placing your skink back inside; chlorine fumes and traces may make your skink sick.