monkey tail skink caging

I've read that you should keep monkey tail skinks in an enclosure with 2 sides being screen. Is this true? I have mine in a 30 gallon glass tank with the top being the only screen and I mist it once a day for humidity. Am I doing the right thing or should he be in a screen sided cage instead? I've had him for about 2 years now and he seems healthy, he's just very mean. (Always tries to bite when I put my hand in his cage but from what I hear that's normal with males). Anyone with advice on caging would be appreciated...Thanks

Debbie

Hi Deb-

I don't have a monkey tail skink BUT I have been looking at these guys for a while.
My idea was to use a large parrot cage for housing. While the maintaining the humidity level would be more work ( I was thinking frequent misting and maybe a drip system?), the ventialtion, cleaning and climbing space would be a lot easier to accomidate.

Just an idea...
Mongo

My best friend has a bunch of monkey tails. He keeps them in what I believe is a parrot cage. It has plastic coated metal wire side that allow them to climb safely to shelves placed at different levels. He also has sticks and ropes secured to the sided for more climbing.

THe skinks love climbing up and down the sides. Every once in a while we'd catch one hanging from the top to get to a lower shelf by its tail! Pretty cool animals!

Thanks Missy and Mongo, that's a good idea. I have extra bird cages around so I might give it a try.

Thanks again........Debbie

I kept these guys before there was the difficulties with the CITES status (which won't stay still now) and have a tendency to build many of my own cages...

First and foremost I found that bigger is always better. There are lots of herps which won't utilize additional room, or will utilize it so slowly as to make it somewhat pointless... The Solomon Island skinks I kept were fairly active most of the late afternoon and evening. They may not be the quickest species around but this wasn't the same behavior as an arboreal boid which might move a foot in twelve hours.

Basically the enclosures I put together were big plexiglass boxes. The interior dimensions were 4' x 4' x 4', with a cabinet underneath and a canopy up above. There was a fairly large hinged door on each side, with each door divided in half horizontally if less space was needed when it was opened.

I ran another strip of plexiglass perpendicular to the bottom of the enclosure near the back wall and drilled the bottom of the tank. Above the hole I attached a power filter pre-filter (plastic strainer) facing up, then dropped some hose into a small sump underneath and behind the cabinet. This was attached to a fluval which ran up and to a small spray bar which ran water down the back wall of the enclosure... The wall had been covered in very thin pieces of layered slate. The effect was very nice, but it had a tendency to become algae covered very very quickly (lots of oxygen + UV bulbs = Massive algae growth).

Since the sides were plexi, I drilled through and then used some screws and wingnuts to attach branches. These could be easily removed for cleaning and could be repositioned pretty much however I wanted. Similarly attached were assorted food dishes, by placing these at multiple levels around the enclosure, I got natural forrage feeding behaviors and the animals maintained a decent activity level and muscle tone. Switching the foods placed in any given dish also killed the tendency for animals to remember where the tasty stuff is, thereby skipping the foods which are good for them but not as colorful or flavorful.

The entire thing (except the front of course) was covered externally by wood panneling, which was easily removeable... This covered the doors and sides where the wing-nuts were holding the branches in place and gave the entire thing a more finished look. In order to get inside, either of the panels could be lifted off. This also meant that there was less of an area where the skinks were visually stimulated by the events happening outside the enclosure. The addition of this seemed to prevent the tendency to hide *constantly* even when awake and made the group I was keeping a lot more active.

The area in front of the sump was filled with bookshelves, every seam, seal and corner of the actual enclosure was covered so that it was not visible. I used fairly simple cabinet molding stained to match the remainder of the wood finish (oak in this case).

The canopy above the entire thing was finished to look similar to a mantlepiece and was supported along the edges of the enclosure with a double cross-support running through to carry the weight. The top of the enclosure itself was made of a galvanized, heavy gauge wire in 3/8" squares... The canopy housed flourescent and incandescent lighting, as well as a number of fairly powerful PC fans to assist with air circulation. Humidity wasn't much of an issue due to the waterfall effect down the back of the enclosure but I had placed a small fine misting head on some tubing in the center of the canopy which was connected to the fluval via a set of valves (I could turn the mister on by turning the waterfall off... or leave it on a slow drip... or have them both run at half strength simultaneously).

In retrospect I would have rather used glass on the front panel, as it's easier to clean but the whole thing worked well as it was... I filled the interior with branches coming in from the sides as well as up from the base, used a combination of orchid litter and bed-a-beast as the substrate and covered the small strip of plexi that formed the base of the waterfall with more broken slate chips. Toss in some cork bark and fake plants which could be rotated out for cleaning and it was a nice effect.

All of which was to house a small colony as a display... and is more elaborate than most people would want to get (although the whole thing only cost about $350 to put together, minus a few of the lights and the fluval which I already had avaliable). The basic elements are important though... Enough space to allow forrage feeding, humidity, heat and ventilation... Which kinda is what was originally asked about. The screen sides aren't required provided the animals have proper ventilation and enough to climb on. Heh.

Seamus- That sounds like a VERY nice set-up you had for yours. Do you happen to have any pictures?

Thanks...Debbie

Unfortunately I don't. All this was put together long before I was anywhere even close to active when it came to "internet herping" and it never occured to me that anyone else would care. Locally other herpers could just stop by the house if they wanted to see anything.

I (or my roommates at the time) may have some photographs of other things which are coincidentally in front of or next to a few of the enclosures I put together... I'll have to dig around and make some phone calls.

I've been thinking of doing a bit of custom enclosure design as a sort of second occupation... It would be a great help to have some photos. Even if I can't find any of the tanks I had set up before, eventually I'll put together a few new ones and get some pictures online.

Out of curiosity, since I haven't really looked into *buying* any enclosures in a long time... What's the market looking like for either furniture quality displays and/or rack systems and caging "walls" (a series of enclosures stacked ontop of one another using less total electricity, built in misting systems, etc) with a more finished appearance to them? Is the market there or has it been consumed by injection molded plastic?