RIP Gutzy ( the eastern water skink )

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kingofnobbys

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Daughter of very venerable and friendly garage resident Alpha Female Bea who lived in my shed all through the 2000s who passed away winter of 2012 who mothered Lucky ,Wriggles, and of Lizzy ( who became a the resident very friendly house skink from about 2005 til about 2015) , or was their aunti , but was definitely Gutzy's mother (as she was heavily pregnant for a while , then suddenly not and there were 4 or 5 baby skinks hanging about near her , she was a very good mother and protected her babies and a juveniles , and Gutzy took over the shed as her territory after Bea disappeared ) .
I watched and interacted with Gutzy and her siblings as they grew until Bea passed away and they mostly dispersed to other places on my property, but Gutzy stayed on in the shed and took over Bea's territory, and I frequently interacted with her ( fed her and spent time with her hanging out and watching me (begging me for food treats).

Saw her last the other night 1August) about 1am when she was up and drinking, not unusual for her.
Never came out to feed or bask yesterday , unusual for her .

Woke to a funky smell in the house and checked the bugs and the lizards.

Discovered Gutzy wasn't in one of her usual hides (more often than not Fluffy & Gutzy share the same "house" or she'll be under a mini-sized Hubbahut , but found her underneath the paper toweling bedding ( discovered a skink sizes lump , felt her but she didn't react when I touched her , thought she might have decided to brumate , so I decided to strip the tub ( to replace bedding and to check her) and discovered she was dead ).

Seems she's died in her sleep . Would have liked to have tamed her enough to handle her like I do Fluffy. At least she spent her last year living a very protected and pampered life . Will miss her antics .

Fluffy has been very clingy this afternoon and has been downsized to the smaller 27L tub that I kept Cheakie in while I F10 her shared big 120L tub and all the furniture ( as is my practice when one of my pets pass away - it's more JIC .

Fluffy seems perfectly fine so I don't think Gutzy died of some desease , I suspect it was natural causes ( likely killed her with kindness ? or she just died of old age , looks like 8 - 12 years for water skinks is their life ration ).
 

CooperDragon

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Sad news =(. I'm glad you took such good care of her and gave her a good life. Lucky skinks to live in your refuge.
 

kingofnobbys

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ComicBookMama":2x0qfa3u said:
So sorry to hear about Gutzy's passing... it's so hard to lose a little friend!

Really missed Gutzy at diner last night, and lunchtime today, she was always up and tasting the air when we had nice smelling human food cooking , very food orientated skink .

My wife moved the toaster this morning to plug in the breadmaker before having her brekky ,and she discovered an all grown up and very cheaky Godzilla the gecko underneath it staring up at her , who promptly dashed under the breadmaking machine , then when lifted that up dashed to behind the air fryer over.
Woke me to ask if I wanted to recapture Godzilla , but I declined , figure since Godzilla is happy enough living in our kitchen and is obviously thriving there , I'm happy enough to let him stay as the resident gecko and to let him keep his freedom.
 

kingofnobbys

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I think Fluffy is missing Gutzy , she's become hyper social with me and my wife , wanting lots of interactive with us , going to have to go on the look out for a juvenile or holdout adult female or male from a local breeder over the next few months.

She's enjoying much more snuggles and interaction.

Eastern water skinks are very social in the wild , and I think she'll benefit from a new tankbuddy but will be OK by herself for a while too ( Lucky and Wriggles were solitary and happy for years ).
 

CooperDragon

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Do you know if any more of their skink clan lives around the house? Perhaps they would recognize a relative.
 

kingofnobbys

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CooperDragon":grqt5d0e said:
Do you know if any more of their skink clan lives around the house? Perhaps they would recognize a relative.
Yes - I do .

I think all the water skinks living on and around my property are likely related , it's just the local adult males who are itinerant and come and go ( territorial ).

My wife has been reporting seeing one juvenile most days hanging about when she does her walk , lives in a rain water drain for a house a few houses away . Must always be warm where it lives as it's been out to sun even on cold winters days , it's alive as it darts back in the hole in the gutter when she gets too close .

The resident water skinks will be waking up and will likely be active soon , usually happens in late August here , just needs a few days of warm sunny without cold windy weather.
 

kingofnobbys

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Nice toasty warm and sunny day today 16 Sept ( maxed out 32 deg C ) and the resident wild skinks are back and hungry.

My wife encountered a couple of babies hanging about under the back steps ( bit scared of her so didn't let her get close enough to take photos before scurrying off and hiding ) .
Our cheaky boy Cheakie the male ( was a juvenile / subadult when he was kept by me in his own 29L rearing tub before he climbed out and disappeared under / behind the cabinets and lounge and then found his way back outside via the video cable hole in the timber floor behind the tv stand ) was true to form and fearless enough allow her to get close enough to get a few good images .

He likes the old pile of cement blocks and happily took some freshly died (of old age) crickets that she left on the back path where he could see them , looking very well fed and in great shape , still has his original issue and very magnificient long wriggly and expressive tail ).
IMG-0800-2.jpg

closeups verify he's Cheakie
IMG-0800.jpg

cheakie-16-sept-2020.png
 
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