Crocodile Skinks

Greg West · 12-03-04, 10:09 AM

Is anyone working with these in Canada? I just saw a picture of one for the first time, and they peaked my attention. Are they available C.B.? Are they available in Canada?

Anyone?

Greg West

timminsreptiles · 12-03-04, 10:49 AM

i have one in my store.......not sure if its cb or not but it comes from a proven breeding stock and its doing very well..

Lucas

Greg West · 12-03-04, 11:12 AM

Sent you a private message.

greg

NiagaraReptiles · 12-04-04, 05:39 AM

I had a friend that was breeding them quite successfully a few years back. His success rate was far greater than what any of the limited literature says. He has them set up in a semi-aquatic set up with good filtration, lots of plants, and lots of hides. This three foot enclosure housed 1.1 for a couple years and produced around a dozen offspring in that time.

Males are very aggressive, and an not be housed together. They are difficult to sex, but if you have good eyesight and/or a magnifying glass you can examine the underside of the longest toe on their back feet. Males have a line of pores along the underside of the toe, females don't.

They are very cool lizards, and cute as hell as babies. The only other person I've heard of breeding them around here was Allen Hunter, but as far as I know he hasn't kept them in years. Babies are supposed to have a high mortality rate......even at a year old. I'm not sure if this was ever figured out.

Hope some of this might have helped you out a bit

JonK

DragnDrop · 12-04-04, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Babies are supposed to have a high mortality rate......even at a year old. I'm not sure if this was ever figured out.

Sounds like the Uroplatus of the Lizard world.
I'd heard of a few people managing to breed them but there was also a lot of talk about how difficult it was to accomplish, sexing them being the easiest of the troubles.

The first time I saw one in person I fell in love with them, but never got any since there's so little info out there. The most info I've ever seen in one place was the article in Reptiles or Reptile Hobbyist magazine, maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I would love for someone with hands-on experience to write a decent book about them so I can jump on the bandwagon too

Manitoban Herps · 12-04-04, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NiagaraReptiles
I had a friend that was breeding them quite successfully a few years back. His success rate was far greater than what any of the limited literature says. He has them set up in a semi-aquatic set up with good filtration, lots of plants, and lots of hides. This three foot enclosure housed 1.1 for a couple years and produced around a dozen offspring in that time.

Males are very aggressive, and an not be housed together. They are difficult to sex, but if you have good eyesight and/or a magnifying glass you can examine the underside of the longest toe on their back feet. Males have a line of pores along the underside of the toe, females don't.

They are very cool lizards, and cute as hell as babies. The only other person I've heard of breeding them around here was Allen Hunter, but as far as I know he hasn't kept them in years. Babies are supposed to have a high mortality rate......even at a year old. I'm not sure if this was ever figured out.

Hope some of this might have helped you out a bit

JonK

I think you may be talking about " crocodile lizards "

clint545 · 12-04-04, 10:11 AM

Are they the ones with the orange around the eyes? A head kinda like a Helmeted Gecko? I've seen one site with those, but they had stopped their breeding project. The care sheet they had for them was rather limited to. Very interesting lizards.
I'm in the same boat as you guys- interested in them, but lack of resources and breeders!!!

Gary D. · 12-04-04, 10:31 AM

I've got a pair coming in next week. I'll keep you up to date on them as I go.

clint545 · 12-04-04, 10:50 AM

just wondering what a pair would go for here in Canada?

Siretsap · 12-04-04, 10:53 AM

if I remember correctly Specialty Exotics had some, and got some eggs. Can't remember if they hatched or not, you can contact her through the pm's.

Gary D. · 12-04-04, 12:35 PM

Imports go for $150 -$200 per animal. With the right connections less.

NiagaraReptiles · 12-05-04, 08:06 AM

Just to clarify, my comments were referring to <i>Tribolonotus gracilis</i>..........I'm pretty sure that's what was being asked about considering <i>Shinisaurus crocodilurus</i> are near impossible to get and command a four digit price tag if/when they are available.

JonK

hudson · 12-05-04, 07:40 PM

I had a W/C male and a female up till about 8 months ago. They go by several different names, crocodile skinks, red eyed crocodile skinks, and more commonly bush skinks. All the ones that I have seen at the reptile shows have been labelled as bush skinks and I personally have never seen any captive bred ones. They are truly awesome little lizards, but not very hardy. They only get to about 6-8 inches long and they are not very active so they don't need a large tank and no heat lamp because they like cooler temps, lots of hides and a large water area ( I found a plastic paint tray worked best because it has a built in ramp and it was easy to clean, no filters). In the wild their main food source is worms, and in captivity I noticed they cleary prefer worms to crickets. They like dampness so their tank needs to be misted daily. Also they are the least aggressive lizard I have ever seen, instead of showing any signs of aggression they "play dead" extremely well. When it comes to breeding, the female will usually only lay one egg (very rarely 2) but from personal experience pay extra attention to your female after laying. Mine finally laid an egg after 1 1/2 years but died 2 days later and to top it off the egg was infertile. I hope some of this info helps you out and if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me and I will try to answer them for you. Also for web searches the latin name Tribolonotus Gracilis will turn up a lot more info.

Kate