# Major skinks



## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

A couple of months ago I bought 3 Major skinks - Egernia / Bellatorias frerei. They are doing great but I have a few questions for anyone who has kept this species. They are supposedly diurnal but I find mine seem to be more crepuscular - could this be because they are so shy or am I providing too much UVb? They have Arcadia T5 10% but I use the light and shade system and they have plenty of shade.
I have the 3 of them in the same 5' viv and there are no issues with dominance or fighting but I don't know the sexes of them. One of them has a lot of markings - the previous owner thought that was because this was a male. Is this likely to be right or is this because he / she is a different locale? I have examined their cloacal area and I can't see any hemipenal bulges or anything to determine their sex - is it possible to sex them?
Many thanks for any replies.


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Anyone ever kept this species? Please.............


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## Tiliqua (Dec 6, 2008)

Hi Jools,

I keep this species and a few other Egernia species. I find that they are incredibly secretive and crepuscular or even nocturnal in their behaviour. I have a female that lives wild in my reptile rooms. This is not on purpose but she escaped and I cannot catch her. As far as I can tell she is completely nocturnal. You can provide them with UV but I very much doubt that it will benefit them. I use a regular 60W basking bulb over a large flat rock, a deepish substrate of cypress which they can burrow in and a real jumble of cork tubes and half rounds, branches etc so they can move around without being seen. I feed primarily dubia roaches in a ceramic bowl and provide fresh water at all times. I really want to catch the female to make sure she is ok and to condition for breeding but she is really giving me the run around. I have a fair few escaped roaches and so on for her to feed on. She escaped before and I recaught her after several weeks and she was in better condition than when she escaped. This is her second bout of freedom!

I cannot tell you about sexing because until one has babies you cannot be sure. That is a good sign of a female(!). I assume that animals with larger more prominent heads and jowls and creamy white stripey markings on the side of the neck are males. Females have speckles but not stripey markings, if that makes sense. 

Mark.


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Thank you for that brilliant reply Mark! I've reduced the UV down to a 6% now.

Good luck catching your female - although I've often thought (half seriously) about having a free roaming lizard in the rep room to eat escapee feeders.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Hi Jools.

According to 'keeping and breeding Australian lizards' edited by Mike Swan, the best way to sex them is to put a group together and look for fighting. Females are ok together, but males will fight viciously. So maybe you DO have a 1.2 group. This method is used as a test only, and males should not be kept together !

Also males have longer heads, and female heads may be wider. 

They apparently produce 1-7 young around dec-jan (southern hemisphere). Good luck.


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Thank you! 

I cleaned them out yesterday and had all 3 in a huge RUB. I compared their head shapes and couldn't really see any definite differences. There is no sign of fighting with them, so I'm beginning to think I might have 3 girls.

Mark - how do you condition yours for breeding?


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## Tiliqua (Dec 6, 2008)

Dragon Farm said:


> Hi Jools.
> 
> According to 'keeping and breeding Australian lizards' edited by Mike Swan, the best way to sex them is to put a group together and look for fighting. Females are ok together, but males will fight viciously. So maybe you DO have a 1.2 group. This method is used as a test only, and males should not be kept together !
> 
> ...


Mark, Swan's book is excellent and is one of my favourites, however some of the info on sexing Egernia skinks is very difficult to put into practice at best or questionable at worst. I don't know about for frerei but for stokesii the head shape suggestions don't work for me. Also in my experience with other species of Egernia, usually females will fight more viciously than males when kept together. And, ALL unfamiliar animals will fight so that suggestion doesn't ring true. I don't have enough experience with frerei to know for sure. Also, these will be New Guinean animals not Australian which may/may not make a difference. 

Jools this winter I reduce daylength to 6h for a few days and then shut the lights off completely for several weeks, allowing room temps to dip below 15 celsius for part of that time. Perhaps post some pics of your animals?

Mark.


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Thank you Mark. I will get some pics at the weekend.


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## Arcadiajohn (Jan 30, 2011)

HI,

they are in my experience quite avid baskers, but remember they know the level of exposure that they require.

so say they to attain a certain level of D3 in the blood and basking under a reflected 6% lamp would take them, lets say 6 hours to complete that part of the cycle. It would mean that if you used a 12% lamp they could complete the same part of the cycle and have the same level of change to the blood serum in 2-3 hours.

the end result is the same you just get there in two different ways.

having said that we need to make an informed choice about the energy level that we offer and learn from the species. If a species is actively hiding all of the time it "COULD" mean that eth lamp is either too bright or too strong. It could also mean that they are content and digging in or stressed and hiding. That is where the keeper gets an inclination over a period of viewing.

for a Major skink I would personally use a 6% T5 system in a viv that was between 15-30" high. if the viv was 30" or more high I would look at increasing the energy to 12%.

The light and shade method is paramount and I am so pleased to read that you are using it

please post up an image of your system now. I will happily check it over for you

good luck!

john


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Thanks for the reply John. I'm having problems downloading pics from my camera ATM. 

They are in a 4x2x2 viv and I am now using a 3 foot (or there abouts) T5 6% luminaire installed as per the Arcadia instructions - on the roof of the viv just inside the top runner. I have a good deep leafy substrate for them that they can bury themselves in, several cork hides etc. The basking spot is a roofing hip tile that they can either bask on top of or warm themselves underneath. There are artificial plants arranged so that they overhang and give shade from the UV also. I have also added leaf effect stickers on the viv glass so that they don't feel too exposed. I realise that for such a shy species it is going to take them some time to settle down and become confident in their surroundings. This is the reason I initially provided them with the 12% tube - so that they didn't need to "risk" basking for too long.


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## Arcadiajohn (Jan 30, 2011)

it all seems ok to me, I guess every animal is different and one experience cant apply to all in the group.

you seem to have a well balanced and well thought out enclosure

john


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## jools (Apr 4, 2009)

Thank you John - I do try - with different degrees of success :lol2:


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