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Land Mullet? [Egernia major]

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Hello everyone!
I have a million and a half question to ask about the giant skink called the "land mullet", but before I babble on about that, I need to ask one, all important question.

Do these guys exist AT ALL in the US pet trade?
If not, then any other questions I may have are a waste of time.

I absolutely love the way they look. They're like a sleek, "pocket sized" tegu. Well, pocket sized compared to a tegu anyway.

Front8.jpg


If these guys are not available in the pet trade, what similar species are there available? I would like something with a similar, sleek, typical skink-like appearance. For some reason I'm just not a fan of blue-tongues. I'm also not a huge fan of the Cunningham's skink.

Something between the size of this big beastie and the Fire Skink.
Does anyone have any recommendations?


Thank you very much for your help!
-T.M.
 
They are found in a few private collections here in the states. In addition to almost never being listed for sale to the general public, they are EXTREMELY expensive.
Although not technically a Skink, check out the Haitian Galliwasp. Impressive size, very reasonably priced, and pretty easy keepers. Also, Pink Tongue Skinks are a decent size (although they have a slender build), reasonably priced, easy to reproduce, and an overall pleasure to work with.
 
Luvthemtorts said:
They are found in a few private collections here in the states. In addition to almost never being listed for sale to the general public, they are EXTREMELY expensive.
Although not technically a Skink, check out the Haitian Galliwasp. Impressive size, very reasonably priced, and pretty easy keepers. Also, Pink Tongue Skinks are a decent size (although they have a slender build), reasonably priced, easy to reproduce, and an overall pleasure to work with.
Click to expand...



Oh, so they are in the states?
At least not all hope is completely lost. I was fearful that they were all in Australia.
Extremely slim chances are better than none I suppose. You think a big reptile show would be my best bet?

And I will take a good look into the Haitian Galliwasp. Thank you for the suggestion!
 
I... uh... can't figure out how to edit posts.

The one thing further I wanted to ask for now was: These very few private collections in the United States, are they being actively bred? Or is the US population pretty much doomed to dwindle to non-existence?
 
Thus far, to my knowledge, they have been shown to be relatively difficult to reproduce in captivity (here in the states). You MAY stumble across one at one of the huge reptile shows, but it is quite doubtful at a smaller show. Expect to pay over $2000.00 per animal if you do find them so don't be surprised.
I think you may find the Haitian Galliwasp a pretty neat, and worthwhile project for the reasons listed in my first post, as well as the fact that they are in severe peril within the wild. Producing them in captivity would be quite meaningful.
 
Major Skinks

Another possibility is Egernia Frerei, the Major skink. They are the only species of Egernia found outside Australia. I got three in a trade a while back and they're really quite interesting. Not real flashy, looks like a basic skink, but gets to around 15" total length. Ended up with ten babies in late June. This is a pic of them on the first day -- bad phone pic is all I have. Easier to find than E. major and much easier to afford, so consider them as a possibility.
 

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Oooh, $2,000 you say?
huh... I guess I won't be getting one of those within the next couple of months.

I did see the "Major Skink" on Kingsnake not long ago. At first I ignored them, but I will definitely give them another look.


...actually there are some on Kingsnake right now. $150 for each baby.
That's actually a lot lower than I thought they would be; to the point where I'm almost suspicious of it.

I won't be buying any lizards before December, but it looks like the Major Skink just elevated to the top of my list. Very little different from the Land Mullet except for size and color, though it is still very large by skink standards.

I did look further into the galliwasp. Looked like a great animal, except for 1 extremely small, unimportant detail. It always has a bit of a grimace on its face.
This is just me being nitpicky and being too anthropomorphic, but the galliwasp always looks like its unhappy to me. One of the things I liked about my tegu, and like about the land mullet/major skink is that they all [or most of them] have the same, lazy grin.

That's just me being stupid, but I think I'm going to go for the skink.

Thank you all again!
 
Okay, I'm having a stupid hard time finding care info for Major skink's. Even less info than Land Mullets.
Here's what I got so far about the land mullet:
Big, surprisingly cold-hardy, and loves to eat mushrooms.
I'm not expecting Major Skinks to be similar on the cold temperature thing, but are they also big on the omnivorous diet?

I also found some info on the "King Skink", but those seem restricted to Australia and, even if not, I don't see much reason to search for one of those in preference over a Major skink.
 
There are several other Egernias available in the pet trade. Egernia stokesi, E. striolata, and E. depressa. They seem to be all be somewhat rare, though. Good luck in your decision!
 
Just keep in mind, many Egernia tend to be flighty. Consider if you want a hands on pet or something to set up in a nice naturalistic enclosure.
Why not go for one of the most desirable Skinks currently in the trade? The much beloved Prehensile Tail Skink is big, bold, beautiful, and manageable if handled regularly. The only downside is the price, but considering many Egernia carry a steep price tag, they may be within your budget.
 
I've been following this species for over a decade now. 9 animals had been imported into the states between 1997 till 2001. All were offspring that came in from the Canary Islands. At least 3 of those are dead. I've never been able to track down the 3 that came in 1997. The other 3 are divided between 2 people.There is little doubt only 3 animals are left. None are in zoos. There are none being bred here. The same goes for Europe. Very few exist there except aging animals. Unless a miracle happens with the remaining 3, they will become extinct in the states.

KL
 
You may want to clarify if that is nine legally imported animals (from Jim Pether by chance?) or a total including illegally smuggled animals.
I know of more than what you mentioned within private collections here in the States, however due to questionable import procedures, I doubt you'll find anyone who will blatantly advertise they have them.
 
I do hope you are right. Yes, those 9 were all from Jim Pether. I kept track of 6 of them since those 6 entered the country in 2000 or maybe it was 2001. I always had a strong interest in the species. I've never seen any evidence of others being here, legally or otherwise. But, it's impossible to know everybody and I'm just a small hobbyist so I'm not necessarily in that inner circle of big breeders. Even in Europe, I only located 4 of them and I've been looking for over 10 yrs. 3 of those (I'm not sure if he even has them anymore as it's been a few yrs) are with a guy who won't let them go and a 4th that was offered to me last yr. I turned it down because the animal looked very old as you will see in the pictures I've attached.

KL
 

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K so you wanna get a land mullet. just so you know they really will never warm up to you even when there 2 feet long and bulky. they will still run and hide. so as long as you dont want a lizard that you can interact with your fine. also you said it can handle cold. you do realise here cold is no where near as cold as it gets there.60(16c) is about as cold as it would get around where it lives. but here is a list of aussie skinks to look up as well.rainbow skink,stiated tree, gidgee, bar sided, wa sandswimmer, golden, lemon bared,murays,dessert,night,centilian rock,common snack eye. figure if your search spectrum was bigger it might help. bare in mind there not common pets even here. and are hard to find as
A) no one wants them
B) there to hard to find as they run before you even spot them.
though they are cheeper here. if you do find one good luck and word of advice if you take him out make sure there is no where he can hide, our juvy got behind the cd,s in our cd case. we had to pull them out 1 bye 1. there also jumpers and will jump from your hand even if your standing up.(jumped from my b friend and hes 6 ft 9). have to say you guys are lucky that ou can have ausie lizards and south amerian or whatever really. our laws here make it illigal to own anything but native lizards. oh well we have enough awesomeones. but heres a web site that has pics of most of thoose skinks plus more. shame u dont like blueys their great pets and shinglebacks. have you thought about a monitor??
 
And also that pic of the mullet looks fine thats how they look right before they shed. ours looks like that at the moment and hes less than 6mnths old.
 
This species is not established in the states. While prior comments in this thread suggest that there are more in the USA than what I estimated (3), I am not convinced there are others. If there are others and somebody reads this who keeps the species please contact me. It is important for anyone keeping this species to work together to breed this species before they become extinct in the states.

The main reason I did not obtain that animal I posted photos of was because the backbone was sticking out quite a bit. If it were not for the animal looking somewhat thin I probably would have purchased it.

KL
 
ok well i post a pic of ours but yeah when there young they start out like that . once that guy gets bigger he willo bulk out and be fine ours is strating too. and if i could send you guys some i would but its illegal sorry we have very strict quarantine rules and rules regarding exports atm australia cant export animals or reptiles just like we cant import them for ets. i want a tegu but will never be allowed one. i guess after our past of un native animals messing up our native animals i understand why but it still sux. good luck though but go through that list u might find others u like that are avaliable,
 
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