# keeping garden skinks



## kwaka_80 (Jun 27, 2006)

Im looking to keep some garden skins in my enclosure... would they be hard to keep, I have UV and Heat for them... i asume they eat little bugs and insects and could i add bigger lizzards in there with them say a netted or bearded dragons??


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## Thor1 (Jun 27, 2006)

which ones are you looking to keep?
those dark brown ones that get to around 15cm or more or 
those yellowy ones with the racing stripes. damm they are quick!!!


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## SurrealReptiles (Jun 27, 2006)

I think they need to be on license in NSW


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## jordo (Jun 27, 2006)

It would be illegal, and if you put large lizards with them they would be lunch.


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## kwaka_80 (Jun 27, 2006)

illegal... i have hundreds out in my garden i wouldnt class them as endagerd so i dont feel as bad taking them, i would just like them to "fill" my enclosure... i dont mind if they are food they can be thought of as feeder lizzards... why not i can get feeder fish


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## SurrealReptiles (Jun 27, 2006)

Whats the use of having "UV and Heat" for them if your just going to feed them off?
IMO if you want to fill you enclosure, do it the legal way by buying more lizards


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## mrboajangles (Jun 27, 2006)

kwaka_80. wouldnt you be concerned about parasites etc?? and if your other lizards are eating other stuff (eg insects) already, why feed them other lizards?


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## jordo (Jun 27, 2006)

> illegal... i have hundreds out in my garden i wouldnt class them as endagerd so i dont feel as bad taking them, i would just like them to "fill" my enclosure... i dont mind if they are food they can be thought of as feeder lizzards... why not i can get feeder fish


Just because they are numerous, it doesn't make it legal to keep them :roll: 
Why waste food, electricity and time for garden skinks when you have them in your garden anyway??


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## kwaka_80 (Jun 27, 2006)

yeah good point, i was mainly "wasting" the energy and food on the dragons and not particularly the skinks, but still avaliable for them


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## jack (Jun 27, 2006)

I wish I had been forward thinking enough to catch a heap of small skinks prior to the NSW amnesty. A few hundred clean garden skinks bred for feeding elapids would have saved a whole lot of bother and allowed more keepers to keep some pretty snakes.


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## MrBredli (Jun 27, 2006)

> I wish I had been forward thinking enough to catch a heap of small skinks prior to the NSW amnesty.



I wish I had been forward thinking enough to catch a heap of Green Tree Pythons &amp; Womas prior to the NSW amnesty.


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## jack (Jun 27, 2006)

yeah, that too MrBredli!!!!


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## Sdaji (Jun 27, 2006)

Netted and Bearded Dragons will certainly eat them and catching them is illegal, at least in most states. I dare say that using them as feed lizards for dragons is not ethical when they'll happily eat woodies or vegetables. 

I've bred a few happy and healthy generations of two species of garden skinks without UV and I bought mine from someone who had been keeping them for a long time without UV. I'm thoroughly convinced that they don't require it.

Jack: breeding skinks is a lot more time consuming than force feeding pinkies, a heck of a lot more expensive and arguably worse for the snake (unless it was a small elapid which was going to be on a skink diet for its whole life). Which pretty snakes would you like to keep which need skinks? The only ones which need them are some of the small elapids.


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## scam7278 (Jun 28, 2006)

why would any reptile keeper/breeder want to catch a lizard just to feed another bigger lizard ? i have beardies and i wouldnt even dream of doing that to a cute little skink. they may be common but they are still lizards


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## Pike01 (Jun 28, 2006)

*Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*

[/quote]
Why waste food, electricity and time for garden skinks when you have them in your garden anyway??[/quote]
Maybe because they are interesting in their own right.I use to keep them when i was a kid, had about 10 in a 3ft fish tank, they had their own holes they use to peep their heads out, waiting for a bug.Use to watch them for hours, beat watching tv,i would keep them again in a second.


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## lacemonitor92 (Jul 18, 2006)

*RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*

they art hard 2 keep. They shouldnt need a heat light but if u do have one make it up to 30 watts max.
I yousto breed garden skinks and i was succesful. But a mouse broke into their tank and killed them all.
They were also kept wth grass skinks and weasel skinks


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## waruikazi (Jul 18, 2006)

*RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*

Why don't you keep Asian house gekoes? They are completely legal to take from the wild because they are not a nayive species and are in fact a pest, assumablly are easy to breed and would probably make just as good a feeders for elapids etc. (i know my children's used to love them).


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## mblissett (Jul 18, 2006)

*RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*

I wish I could get some Asain House Geckos..... Never seen them in Sydney though


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## jordo (Jul 18, 2006)

*RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*

I doubt its legal to keep AHG in Oz just because a pest it doesn't mean its not an exotic :?


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## lacemonitor92 (Jul 18, 2006)

*RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*

i used 2 catch and keep garden skinks. I kept them with weasel skinks and southern grass skinks too.
All 3 of those species successfully breeded but a mouse got into their tank and killed them all :cry:


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## waruikazi (Jul 18, 2006)

*Re: RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*



jordo said:


> I doubt its legal to keep AHG in Oz just because a pest it doesn't mean its not an exotic :?



I didn't think of it that way... I'm sure you wouldn't get in too much trouble for keeping them. But then again if you were using them as feeders and you have them in your area i'm sure you will have no trouble of catching plenty of them.


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## lacemonitor92 (Jul 18, 2006)

*RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*

i successfully bred these little guys.
I also used 2 breed weasel skinks and southern grass skinks.
Now I breed eastern blueys, blotched blueys, central beardies and cunningham's


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## Sdaji (Jul 18, 2006)

*Re: RE: Re: RE: keeping garden skinks*



waruikazi said:


> jordo said:
> 
> 
> > I doubt its legal to keep AHG in Oz just because a pest it doesn't mean its not an exotic :?
> ...



Holding live specimens of pest species can often bring severe penalties. Things like carp, mosquito fish etc are good examples (fish are taken more seriously by the government, because pest fish are usually economic pests, while things like Flower Pot Snakes and Asian House Geckoes are only environmental pests and thus, the relevant authorities aren't interested). If you were caught with cane toads down here in Victoria, or somewhere such as Broome, you'd be facing an enormous maximum penalty, but if you were caught with a pet cane toad up in Cairns, they'd probably not bother doing anything more than warning you. I understand that you can keep Asian House Geckoes in NSW if you hold the appropriate license and paperwork, which is as amazing as it is wrong (if they were an economic pest rather than just an environmental pest, there is no way at all the government would allow it, but since the only harm they cause is damage to populations of native geckoes, almost exclusively in urban areas, the government couldn't care less).


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