Meet our new resident wild "house" skink.

kingofnobbys

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3 December , first warm sunny day for over a month , Cheakie as gone outside , wife tells me she spotted her on the stacked bresser blocks near the bottom of the back steps this afternoon sunbathing .

Her big friend Lizz was inside today and very hungry , polished off 8 med crickets and 8 mealworm lavae .
Junior is still inside and making the most of having tame humans who are happy to give buggy treats, though today he tried to eat the ends of my finger tips when I was handfeeding him some mealworms ( guess he hasn'f quite got the hang of hand feeding yet and fingers that smell wormy are worth trying to eat.

Size difference between Lizz and Junior
Lizz

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Junior

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kingofnobbys

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6 December Jr1 and Jr2 spend the afternoon interacting with my wife and me.

Jr1 = Junior , my little very friendly modem minder who seems to like my company and regards the modem as HER territory.
Jr2 is I suspect based on her size and marking Jr1's sibling and is much more timid and dominated by Jr1.

Jr1 took offence to Jr2 visiting the food station ( a peanut butter jar lid ) which had some mealworms in it and chased Jr2 all the way into the main bedroom where my wife was sitting doing her "woman's maintenance - hair ??" and Jr2 gave my wife a "cheap thrill" when she proceeded to climb onto her foot and up he lower leg... to get away from Jr1.
I think Jr2 regards my wife as her safe place. Hung out with my wife the rest of the afternoon , following her into the study were she was doing quiet knitted craftwork and card designs for Xmas.

Jr2 also earlier climbed up my leg to take a mealworm and had no hesitation in taking mealworms from my fingers ( and tried to eat my finger tips again between a few of the worms.

Seems I might need to give Jr1 and Jr2 food treats out of sight of each other and leave two feeding stations set up to avoid arguments.
 

kingofnobbys

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17 December , Xmas gift wrapping day .... very exciting and interesting day for the skinks and dragons.

They were all really curious about the bright coloured crackling gift wrapping paper while I was wrapping the gifts on the coffee table.
Saw the bluetongues George & Mildred both watching proceedings intently , sometime standing up on there back legs to get a better view. ( They a both old hands at this and know things are afoot and we'll soon have visitors.
The two beardies Cleo and Caesar were both very excited and doing lots of dancing against the see-through sides and doors of their tanks .
Fluffy was quietly watching while standing in the corner of her tub .
Had all five of guest water skinks into everything, checking out the unwrapped gifts and offcuts of gift wrap as they dropped on the floor. And Cheakie was up the front of lounge wanting a closer look , Miss Tail ( her adult very pregnant friend ) was all over the floor checking everything and on lounge too.
Junior and J2 and J3 were also getting in on fun ....

Every so often I toss the wild skinks a cricket or a mealworm , mostly to get them out of goodies.

My wife was even more amused by the skinks' antics than I was .... Our grandson is in for a real treat in a few days when he arrives if the water skinks don't go into hiding or move back outside soon after they hear or see him here .
And we have a nice crop of nearly ripe ( if smallish ) strawberries for him to pick and eat too .... he'll love that .
 
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kingofnobbys

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The wild eastern bluetongue that's been spotted near the big BACK 6m and Hockeystick shaped beds has taken up residence under the house ( under the the kitchen ), and wife caught sight of it this afternoon and tell me it's VERY BIG AND VERY FAT , ie is pregnant . :) .... will be lovely to see a heap of baby bluetongues hanging about in the back and front yards soon .


House skinks have worked out how to get the plastic tub lid off the jar lid "food dish".... found lid pushed off and no bugs left in it when we got up this morning ..... they're cleaver skinks LOL
 
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kingofnobbys

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21 December ..... big treat for 10 year old grandson and huge break throughs with Junior , Ms Tails and Cheakie .

They all took mealworms from his fingers and open upturned hand .... the look and frilled expression on his face was priceless.

screenshot-658.png

Grandson getting a buzz from being able to hand feed Junior ( very friendly wild (house guest) juvenile eastern water skink .... :)
 
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kingofnobbys

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24December.

Grandson has been having a wow of time interacting with wild house skinks ( Cheakie , Ms Tail , Jr , Jr2 and Jr3 , all have been coming in and he's been handfeeding all them , and had the wonderful experience of being able to handsurf Jr and Cheakie a couple of times ).
He's also loved handing and letting Fluffy crawl all over his hands, legs, lap , tummy and patting her , his favourate lizard .

Still a bit hesitant with Cleo and Caesar , but they were OK being on the floor and letting him pat and tickle them.

He loved the bluetongue snuggles , George and Mildred both followed him about and seeked him out and crawled onto his lap.
 

kingofnobbys

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Discovered another less welcome visitor on the lounge tonight ( rescued it , before one of the bearded dragons , or water skinks or bluetongues do and make a meal of it , and we didn't fancy having it roaming about the house overnight while we're asleep and perhap crawling onto us or into bed with us ).

under it
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top of it
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spider staring back at me
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big fangs !
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Long fat ended palops ==> it's a female ( the males are less aggressive and less likely to bite in defence than females are ).

Harmless but , still we'd rather not risk it . Brown Huntsman Spider - Queensland Museum

The spider breeding season is upon us here , and these big spiders go a roaming looking for mates ( and a meal ., and often both at same time ) , and the cyclone off the coast has pushed lots of rain our way which brings them inside sometimes .

Will let it go outside tomorrow in the jumbo bed or maybe on my big Blue Gum.
 

kingofnobbys

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Skink day inside today .... have 4 hungry wild water skinks keeping us company and amusing us today ( Cheakie, Tails, Jr and Jr2 Wriggle2 ( another tail wriggler when excited ).

Jr showed me how cleavour she is , took her all off 5 seconds to get the lid off the food dish and access those yummy mealworms.
Her technique
climbs ontop of lid while pushing it to side
then checks to see if lid is far enough over to side
when satisfied crawls over to area of lid thats cantevering furthest from top of food dish making it tip down
craws off at low end of lid and gets her reward.

This is 4th or 5th time I've seen her do this .... so it's not a fluke .... this is skink smarts at work.

Seen Cheakie and Tails do this too, so they all know how to do this. Of cause , most will wait for me take the lid off for them if I'm present , they know I'm a soft touch too.
 

CooperDragon

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Pretty serious looking spider. I wouldn't want to have those roaming about. Have had the occasional wolf spider in the cellar, but that one looks like a bigger version.
 

hdochow

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Beardie name(s)
Sir Henry of Scales
that's some serious brain power thinking going on there!
 

kingofnobbys

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Junior has the lid removal technique worked out too .... he either learnt how by watching Cheakie or he figured it out himself ....

These water skinks are cleaver little critters.
 

kingofnobbys

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Original Poster
They have all sussed the food dish lid now .

Watched Ms Tails , Junior and Cheakie yesterday when they each visited .

Cheakie had the lid off and was into the worms and bs flies in under 15 seconds , she pushed the lid to one side and then stands on the overbalanced end to make it tip up and slide off , and then goes straight to the other side to get her reward .
 

kingofnobbys

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Baby water skinks showing up all over the place under the house , sunning themselves on the retaining wall , on concrete slab near the garage , around the raised beds and front patio ..... looks like a baby water skink boom this summer . Some are very curious and cheaky.
 

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