# Herp help?



## Sue (Oct 29, 2006)

Found a visitor this morning. I would love help on some questions:

1. What is it?

2. Will it die if I put it outside?

3. What would it eat, in case hypothetically I considered putting it in my terrarium?


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## Heather (Oct 29, 2006)

Sweet! Where did you find it?
I've no idea of any of the answers, but I say, keep her(p), if you can!


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## Sue (Oct 29, 2006)

She showed up in my room, in an empty clay pot, near the plants. Not sure which way she came in.


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## SlipperFan (Oct 29, 2006)

Have no idea, but it is cute.

First thing is an ID. The rest will follow...


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## Rick (Oct 29, 2006)

It's a native skink species. Most likely a blue tailed skink (though the young of a few other skink species also start out striped with blue tails.

It came in from out doors, so it'll do fine going back out doors (unless you put it out when its freezing).

They eat small insects.

There are allot of them around my house too. They especially like living around the railroad ties that suround the base of my greenhouse.


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## Sue (Oct 29, 2006)

Thanks! Just looked up a care sheet. Seemed remarkably well suited for the terrarium, so I put her in there. It took about a minute before she was on the hot spot on a rock directly under one of the halogens.

I'll have to make some time later today to get some mealies or crickets.


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## Heather (Oct 29, 2006)

It's adopt a skink day!


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## nyorchids (Oct 29, 2006)

it could be a 5 lined sking as rick said other babies start with blue tails


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## Mahon (Oct 29, 2006)

I must agree, that is a juvenille 5 lined skink... those are poisonous, and if a dog or cat eats one, they die... I think other wild animals are smart enough not to touch them... pretty cool little guy, they are very colorful! 

-Pat


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## Stoneledge (Oct 29, 2006)

They are cute little critters. I have them all over the stone walls on my property. Males of the species can put on quite a territorial display. Just be careful...never pick one up by the tail! They pull off very easily. They grow back but never to the length of the 'former' tail.

My dogs occassionally bring me a tail as a 'treasure'. Nothing more gross than a squirming blue tail found under a cushion on the sofa  

Pat, I've never seen a reference to the tail of the 5 lined skink as being poisonous  . Can you provide one?

I brought in a couple of tree frogs on my cattleyas when I moved them back inside. I returned them to their territory when I discovered them perched on top of plants, as close to the MH lights as they could get. It was a miracle that they didn't end up as toast


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## Sue (Oct 29, 2006)

They're very agile as well. The skink is now _somewhere_ in my office.


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## likespaphs (Oct 29, 2006)

heehee. my evil plan of populating sue's office with a mysterious skink is working...


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## PHRAG (Oct 29, 2006)

I think if you find him, you should help him outside. We are all eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the Skinkshank Redemption. Keep us updated.


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## Heather (Oct 29, 2006)

likespaphs said:


> heehee. my evil plan of populating sue's office with a mysterious skink is working...



I think if you wanted to populate Sue's office, you'd need to infiltrate at least two skinks.


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## likespaphs (Oct 29, 2006)

oh crap...
i mean, of course i thought of that.


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## Sue (Oct 29, 2006)

No sign yet, but I have two more meetings today, so there's still hope for an amusing incident. I suspect she's made it out into the hallway by now though.


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## Jon in SW Ohio (Oct 29, 2006)

I think you will notice an eerie lack of spiders at the office this winter. When I used to have geckos as a kid(the Houdini of the lizard world) they would always escape and my mom never complained, only joked that I must have lost another because all the spider webs in the corners of the house were gone.

Jon
________
AVANDIA CLASS ACTION


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## L I Jane (Oct 29, 2006)

I posed this to a friend who said try feeding small crickets or wax worms from the pet store.What do I know?I think filet mignon is out!
:rollhappy:


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## NYEric (Oct 30, 2006)

*Herp Help*

I feed my herps [10 Leopard geckos] crickets w/ wax worms as a special treat. It's cool to have the chirping noise around the house in a 20th floor NYC apartment. [Although my neighbors don't seem to appreciate the escapees that make it thru the walls.] If you want to keep it you have to have a tight lid or screen on your tank. And Heather, the females of many species can store the sperm to produce babies later.


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## Heather (Oct 30, 2006)

NYEric said:


> And Heather, the females of many species can store the sperm to produce babies later.



Ah...Brian, as the master of skink sneaking must have known that. Yes, Brian?


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## likespaphs (Oct 30, 2006)

ummm... of course i did?
i mean, yeh, of course i did!


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Oct 30, 2006)

Skinks are definitely not poisonous. Although some lizards have poison glands (beaded lizards, gila monsters, and it is now known that some monitor lizards produce poison) none are poisonous if eaten. In fact, I know of no reptile (an obsolete taxon, but It's the best thing to call them for know...) that is poisonous in itself, if eaten. However, box turtles have been known to be toxic if they have been feeding on poisonous mushrooms. Its the amphibians, particularly toads and newts, that can be toxic....in some cases, very, very toxic (tetrodotoxin- fatal at 4 mcgs!) Take care, Eric ( I have 2 leopard geckoes, too many snakes, including a batch of corn snake eggs that have yet to hatch, 2 Russian tortoises, an overgrown redear slider, and a wife with a PhD in herps....)


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## Mahon (Oct 30, 2006)

...then what causes cats and dogs to die from eating five-lined skinks? 

Did you find him yet? 

-Pat


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## NYEric (Oct 31, 2006)

Pat, have you ever seen an animal die from eating one? I wouldn't count out a poisonous reaction because nature would probably give the blue tail as a warning but... oke:


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## Mahon (Oct 31, 2006)

...I know of an incident where I am sure a cat died from eating the 5-lined skink... it was an ugly sphynx cat, and the owner (a close friend of my family) found it laying strangly and panting among her 2 other cats on her porch. She took it to the Vet, where they determined the cat ate a native skink. I don't know how long it took for the cat to die, but it was the same day. That's where I first heard about them being poisonous. I have also heard from friends who attend this camp in AL, that some of the feral cats chase and eat the skinks, and are later found dead in the middle of camp... when a 5-lined skink is a juvenille, it has the lines, when it grows older, I think they lose their color. Perhaps they develop a poison or toxicity in age or something?

-Pat


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## kentuckiense (Oct 31, 2006)

I've heard that skinks can have a neurological toxin when injested. Whether or not such toxin was evolved as a "poison" for the sake of defense or if it is simply a biproduct compound, I have no idea.


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## NYEric (Oct 31, 2006)

My sugestion is to get a real pet.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Nov 4, 2006)

I stand partially corrected....from what I have read, there have been anecdotal reports of juvenile broad-headed (not 5-lined) skinks poisoning pets...I have yet to encounter any analysis of this suspected neurotoxin, and most importantly, it is not a consistent response. This leads me to suspect that its not the skinks themselves that are poisonous, but the possibility that they have ingested insects that had been poisoned by insecticides, and the skinks were then (possibly slowed down and dying) eaten or chewed by the cats or dogs. Another possibility is that some have fed on some naturally toxic prey, and accumulated the toxin themselves, similar to poison arrow frogs...another possibility, one paper discussed the attraction of some skink species to poisoned baits...Take care, Eric


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## Rick (Nov 4, 2006)

Skinks are real easy to get to drop their tails upon handling (a classic lizard defense). If the animal was poisonous and used the tail as a warning, it would not be adaptive to loose the tail so easily.

I've seen snakes eat skinks without dieing too.

There are allot of lizards that can produce some foul smelling musk (including many skinks), and horned lizards can shoot blood from sinuses in the corners of their eyes. The blood has a particularly offensive smell to dogs, and it is speculated that this is a defense against coyotes and foxes.


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## Sue (Nov 4, 2006)

Rick said:


> . . . and horned lizards can shoot blood from sinuses in the corners of their eyes.



I think this is a new life-goal for me.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Nov 4, 2006)

The blue tail is found mainly on juveniles, and is used to add to the distraction...a twitching blue tail is definitely more visually compelling than a dull brown lizard, at least for the predators that have color vision...Take care, Eric


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## Rick (Nov 5, 2006)

Sue said:


> I think this is a new life-goal for me.



I think this is a noble goal Sue:clap:


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