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Skink Classification

Rioko

Rioko

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I need help classifying some skinks that run wild around my home. They have bronze colored bodies with a bright red head. They are huge! I am considering catching, sexing, and possibly breeding them. Is sexing a skink simular to sexing a leo gecko? What site would be best to buy the right stuff for incubating eggs? Would these skinks be profitable? I have many more questions and would love some help in answering them. Also, cant seem to find a gallery of pics of skins. Any help for that?
 
BroadHeadSkink%20TL.jpg


this is what the skinks we see look like.
 
Most skinks are notoriously hard to sex. The skinks we have here in the southeast are usually larger in the males than with females.

Husbandry for the larger ones like the broad heads and the five-lined species are easy enough. However, to answer your other questions...:

- they are fast and mean, and therefore not very profitable at all. Most people aren't going to pay money for something they could catch in their yard (if they're fast enough!), and one bite from an adult skink is enough to dissuade most from keeping them longterm. They're simply not that pretty (to most) and too aggressive for a hands-on pet.

All that said, if you want to breed some small lizards and make a little money from your efforts, I would focus on geckos. Unless you are just a diehard avid skink enthusiast who wants to set-up a naturalistic display and doesn't mind getting bit, keeping and breeding our local American skinks is simply not worth the hassle IMHO. If it was, it would have been done long before now.

My suggestion is to enjoy these lizards in their natural environment and attempt to capture them only on film! : )
 
I have an infertal female leo. I will have to try to save up to get another leo. do you happen to know anything about the ghost geckos of fl?
 
"Ghost geckos"? The only candidate that comes to mind is the non-native, but established Mediterranean geckos. I'm assuming you're referring to small 1"-3" pinkish, translucent geckos with light brown spots?

Honestly, as far as having a presence in the captive market, they're in the same boat as with the skinks and most other wild lizards running around the Southeast U.S. These are all small, speedy lizards that typically don't tolerate handling. Not well-suited for a child's pet, and they're so common, few people are willing spend money on acquiring one.
 
Rioko said:
I was just thinking of trying to cross breed them
Click to expand...

With what? I don't think it would work with leopard geckos or anything, because those are in a different genus than "true" geckos.

Leopard geckos, fat-tailed geckos, any others with eyelids are Eublepharines.

Mediteranean geckos, house geckos, etc, are in the Hemidactylus genus, I think.

It would be like trying to cross a boa with a python; just wouldn't work.

LOL...sorry to keep bursting your bubble! :shrug01:
 
its ok. might end up trying to breed snakes too, got a lot of milk and rat snakes where i live
 
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