# Help! Can a leopard gecko live with a blue tail skink?



## thewildhair (Aug 5, 2012)

I have a leopard gecko and recentley acquired a blue tail skink. I am trying to find out if they can live together and whether they will try to eat each other.


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## kelz.1988 (Nov 2, 2011)

No, don't they need completely different set ups? Leo's are nocturnal. I know very little about blue tail skinks but aren't they active during the day, which require 10.0 UVB which is way too high for a Leo. 

Leos can be territorial and therefore are best living alone, some Leo's will tolerate viv mates (but only other Leo's - I would only house females together and even then it's not guarenteed)

I would never house different species together.


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## ajminstrel (Apr 5, 2010)

No, never mix different species of reptile, amphibians etc... 

One reason being, as stated above- Requirement are different
and the second reason, even if they live in the same habitat in the wild no human could recreate a sufficiant size home for both. in the wild they have plenty of space not to bump into each other.
third reason- Geckos are quite small, skinks are relativly big... To put it simply... Nom, Nom, Nom 

Hope this helps


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## UrolithicTitan (Sep 12, 2010)

kelz.1988 said:


> No, don't they need completely different set ups? Leo's are nocturnal. I know very little about blue tail skinks but aren't they active during the day, which require 10.0 UVB which is way too high for a Leo.
> 
> Leos can be territorial and therefore are best living alone, some Leo's will tolerate viv mates (but only other Leo's - I would only house females together and even then it's not guarenteed)
> 
> I would never house different species together.


Just to correct a few things wrong with this post. Yes, Blue tailed skinks due require more humidity and they are diurnal so do require a good quality UV. In addition, Blue tailed skinks are smaller, not small enough that they could be preyed upon, but small enough so that *when* bullying does happen, it will be the Leo bullying the Skink(s) for food, optimum basking spot, hides etc.

However, keeping a Leo under 10% UVB would not be a problem, because in the wild they would be exposed to high levels of UV, and as long as adequate hides are provided, there should be no problems


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## polaris2582 (Jan 19, 2011)

UrolithicTitan said:


> Just to correct a few things wrong with this post. Yes, Blue tailed skinks due require more humidity and they are diurnal so do require a good quality UV. In addition, Blue tailed skinks are smaller, not small enough that they could be preyed upon, but small enough so that *when* bullying does happen, it will be the Leo bullying the Skink(s) for food, optimum basking spot, hides etc.
> 
> However, keeping a Leo under 10% UVB would not be a problem, because in the wild they would be exposed to high levels of UV, and as long as adequate hides are provided, there should be no problems


You're not seriously recommending he mixes the two species?????
I hope this was just to correct the info and not to make it sound like it would be ok to co-habit these.... :2thumb:


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## UrolithicTitan (Sep 12, 2010)

polaris2582 said:


> You're not seriously recommending he mixes the two species?????
> I hope this was just to correct the info and not to make it sound like it would be ok to co-habit these.... :2thumb:


Not at all.

But rather than just posting saying 'No don't do it!' I prefer to support my posts with evidence.


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## Kuja (Dec 14, 2011)

Not the best idea, they have different requirements, food, substrate, humidity. Not to mention one of them would end up dominated by the other.


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## geckograham (Jan 22, 2012)

What is the skink living in at the moment? And why would you "acquire" a lizard when you clearly have very little knowledge about its husbandry requirements?

Some species can cohabit without problems but exhaustive amounts of research and tonnes of experience is required before even attempting it. I've been keeping reptiles for around a decade now and I wouldn't feel confident enough to mix species like that.


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## polaris2582 (Jan 19, 2011)

UrolithicTitan said:


> Not at all.
> 
> But rather than just posting saying 'No don't do it!' I prefer to support my posts with evidence.


That's good, just the way I read it it sounded a bit different.
I'm glad someone is good at posting comprehensive reasons, I'm not very clued up on Monkey tailed skinks to be honest other than the obvious basics of diet, humidity and habitat requirements which are so different from a leo's, which is why I couldn't go more in depth than the obvious stuff... but surely that's enough in this particular case? Especially as someone with a lot more knowledge on this particular species has come along and gone in depth :2thumb:


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## funky1 (Jun 18, 2008)

Put simply, No. Leos prefer to live in solitary at the best of times - at best, tolerating the company of other Leos if it`s unavoidable. Tbh, placing a Leo and Skink together would place an untold amount of stress on both: in wild (if they were ever to come together, which is highly unlikely anyway), they would do their upmost to avoid each other at all costs....the fear factor would be all consuming to them...
Get a couple of smallish vivs, and watch both of them absolutely flourish in their own company - good luck, I`m sure you`ll do the right thing


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## Zakk (Oct 15, 2008)

I've never been the strictest of people with this... but what about quarantine procedures?


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## WesternBlueTongue (Feb 12, 2012)

No. It annoys me that if people bothered to just read a little bit about each species then it would obviously be apparent that co-habiting is not a good idea. Blue tails are very small and leos are significantly larger, as stated there will be dominance which could deteriorate the health of the BTS. Not only that, but the husbandry, I imagine, would be different. Although using a 10% UVB would be ok for a leo, I really believe in making conditions optimal for each animal to thrive in their captive environment so even then, mixing two species would be iffy for me, especially since they arent too much alike.


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## BoscMonster (Jan 20, 2011)

The final opinion is no, it's a dumb idea.


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