Yes, there seems to be no love for the tinies, almost impossible to find. I did see these, https://www.reptileclassifieds.com.au/ads/dark-bar-sided-skinks/, but it’s a breeding group which I can’t keep on a basic QLD license. I don’t disagree with the licensing conditions, I think breeding creatures that may prey on their own young is not a good beginners project! I also found a couple of smaller skinks but they were pick-up only, and hundreds of k away. Your care notes make them sound very easy, which makes it all the sadder I can’t find any.
Because of the inavailability of the smaller skinks, I’m back to thinking about dwarf tree frogs. To reduce summer day temperatures, will a fan with cross ventilation be enough? I was thinking to have a lid with a screened section in the front, combined with an aquarium fan inset into the lower part of the back glass set to extract, drawing fresh air through the screened section.
An additional idea is to utilise evaporative cooling. If I build unglazed ceramic cylinders and put them upright in a shallow tray of smooth stones and water, they should wick up the moisture, cooling as the moving air passes them. Given how fond the backyard GTFs are of downpipes, I imagine the dwarfs will utilise the cooler interior of the cylinders, moving to one or another of them to find the goldilocks zone of temperature. Will this work for them? Will unglazed bisque-fired ceramic be too rough a texture for them? If so, my less aesthetic option is to sew cylinders of something like Hygrolon, which wouldn’t be as rough.
If you think it might be possible to achieve good conditions, I’m happy to set up and monitor for a couple of seasons. If the temperatures are still too high, I might have to wait until I live in a cooler house.
