They sometimes also eat isopods and millipedes. When buying a skink, first check the condition of the skink.Ĭheck for the following signs of a healthy animal :īlue-tailed skinks feed on a wide variety of insects but they also consume other arthropods and even small vertebrates. Wild-caught individuals may also carry parasites. It’s bad for the natural population because it reduces population size. A pet shop may not have animals in top condition.ĭON’T catch skinks in the wild. These options are safer than buying from a pet shop. Reptile conventions and expos also offer excellent opportunities for buying. When you’re buying a blue-tailed skink, look for reputable reptile breeders in your area. The male American blue-tailed skink also has a bigger, wider head than the female. There’s no noticeable difference in the pattern of scales between sexes in this species. In some reptiles there may be gender differences in the scale patterns. The male has a longer and wider head than the female. Pacific blue-tailed skinks show sexual dimorphism. In both species, adult males are similar in size to adult females if you look at the snout to vent length. Smaller individuals only reach five inches. It has a small body relative to its tail, which makes up about 60% of the total length of the body.Īmerican blue-tailed skinks are slightly bigger and can reach up to 8.5 inches in length. The Pacific blue-tailed skink is quite small at about 6 inches in length. This is a common predator avoidance strategy among the Scincidae (skink) and Lacertidae (wall lizard) families. The tail will grow back (though usually smaller and paler) and the skink will live another day. This allows the skink to escape when a predator grabs it by the tail. Skinks can intentionally lose their tails. The bright blue tail makes a safe target for the skink. The reason for the bright blue tail in young skinks is it focuses a predator’s attention on the tail. Why Do These Skinks Have a Bright Blue Tail? One morph has an emerald green tail and the other morph is dark in color. Pacific blue-tailed skinks have more than one color morph. This makes them easy to confuse with other skinks like the Indonesian brown skink. In the Pacific blue-tailed skinks the stripes fade with maturity. These blue-tailed skinks have smooth, overlapping, and glossy scales on the body. In these skinks, the tail changes from a blue color to a grayish brown at sexual maturity. Juvenile American blue-tailed skinks have bright blue tails, while adults are duller. The stripes on the Pacific blue-tailed skink don’t come together in the head region. The American blue-tailed skink has five stripes that come together on the head. The general body color ranges from gray to dark brown or black. The stripes are cream-colored and run along the back of the skink’s body and down the sides, from snout to tail.įor both species, the stripes on the back of adults fade in time. You can recognize a blue-tailed skink by its bright blue tail and light stripes. These skinks can live for up 6 years in the wild.īoth types of skink can live for up to 10 years in captivity. You can also find them in the central states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
They also occur in southern parts of Canada. Īmerican blue-tailed skinks occur in the United States as far west as Missouri and as far south as Florida. The Pacific blue-tailed skink has a lifespan of about 7 years. This species lives on the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Mariana Islands, the Philippines, and New Guinea. Pacific blue-tailed skinks are native to Indonesia and Australia.
They’re similar in appearance and biology. People also call the American blue-tailed skink the five-lined skink.īoth the Pacific blue-tailed skink and the five-lined skink are known as blue-tailed skinks.įive-lined skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus) also have a bright blue tail and light stripes. We’ll discuss the basic biology of these two species and mention if there are differences in what they require as pets. They have similar diets, habitat requirements, humidity, and temperature needs. The Pacific blue-tailed skink and American blue-tailed skink are different species of skink, but overlap in many ways. Blue-Tailed Skink Habitat and Tank Setup.Why Do These Skinks Have a Bright Blue Tail?.Blue-Tailed Skinks vs Five-Lined Skinks.
0 kommentar(er)
