New Eastern Water Skink Rescued

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kingofnobbys

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Trust a skink to find a warm spot that's high and can't be sneeked up on, he greeted me this morning spread out on top the wireless modem and only moved off when I got closer than 1 foot , was hoping he was tame enough to let me pick him up , but no.

Ended up on top my wife's fav lounge seat and has been tormenting me and been having a great time exploring the living area floor and the kitchen floor and wants to explore the hallway that leads to the bedrooms , study , laundry and bathroom.
My wife only needs to stand there to discourage his disappearing in that area of the house. He has a one track mind and keeps heading for hall entry .
 

kingofnobbys

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He's a smart one , not going to be easy to recapture in a stress free manner. I don't want to chase him ( terrify him ) and grab him ( very stressful to a lizard who's not keen on being grabbed ).

He's been true to form .
Been out again to watch us prepare and eat lunch , then when no food was offered he went for a wonder and ended up at the floor level window and took the sun there for a while, didn't appreciate my wife getting too chose to ( he only likes her from a distance - from in side a nice safe tub ) , then disappeared back in the kitchen from about 5pm til 7pm when he showed up when diner was being cooked ( spotted him ontop his tube to watch me eat diner ) , then another roam about when no food was forthcoming to him , even tried to get inside the dragons' rearing tube but wouldn't let me pick him up to return him to his tub , ended up disappearing under the TV stand about 8pm. Think he's curled up and is asleep there as a I lost a cricket and it's not been caught / eaten.

Hoping he'll be hungry enough to be attached to the "trap" tomorrow.

Set up his tub next to the modem ( which happens to be the same height ) and will leave it's UVB150 on when I go to bed and the lid ajar enough for him get in if he wants to get some UV. If my wife discovers him in the tub when she gets up all she needs to is slip the lid by a few inches to close it.

Only leaving water out for him for now , if I haven't managed to recover him by the Tuesday night I'll just treat him as resident house skink and start leaving food out for him , perhaps try to get him to take food from my hand.
 

kingofnobbys

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Still loose.

Not seen him today, likely found a nice dark spot and curled up and napping, I do suspect he's likely either under the TV cabinet as Caesar has been obsessing about that area and keeps returning there wanting to go behind it …. likely hearing Cheakie moving about or following his scent trail .

Obviously not hungry enough yet to be coming out to find food or to beg me for some yummies. ( too well fed and pampered in my keeping ).

Grandson here on Thursday so I guess that's the deadline for his being recovered , else he'll likely keep a low profile until after Xmas when the visitors all disappear.

There is a good chance he's also gone exploring up the hallway into the taboo rooms ( bedrooms, study , laundry & bathroom ) and is curled up on one of those rooms , or maybe he's followed the scent trail that belongs to the juvenile who's been coming inside and found the way out and is now under the house or somewhere in my front "garden".

BTW - that pregnant skink is still pregnant or maybe it's another different skink, wife saw it today and says it's very fat but it disappeared before she could get photos or give it some dead crickets or mealworms.
 

kingofnobbys

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Still on the loose and keeping a low profile. Not seen or heard him moving about today yet.

He's either in a nice tight little dark space (under, behind or inside something, perhaps even in one of the bedrooms or laundry or bathroom) and still not hungry enough to start foraging , or he's outside somewhere.
 

kingofnobbys

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Still no sign of Cheakie , most likely he's found one of the cable holes in the floor (two telecomms holes in floor boards, and two holes in floor boards for TV antenna coax cables) , and so the path back outside / under the house . If the resident alpha male is around he'll likely have been "moved on" or be keeping a low profile.

So I've given up on recovering him inside the house now and cleared out his 27L tub , but kept the lighting assembled ( in storage on the new laundry shelf , in case I'm wrong and he shows up again inside the house ).

Noticed that Gutzy has been much more settled since Cheakie escaped was no longing in a tub onop Gutzy & fluffy's shared tank. Think Gutzy was aware he was there ( heard him, smelt him ) and it was unsettling to Gutzy.

Pretty sure Gutzy shed the day before escaping too. Found some old skin in the tub that wasn't there a couple days before he escaped (when I last refreshed his bedding).
Caesar was not so obsessive about the TV cabinet yesterday when he FFT so he knows the skink has left the premises too I think.

Watch this space for updates on him if we see him.
 

kingofnobbys

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Found Cheakie.

He's now living under the house ( inside the old Décor selfwatering plastic pots and planter troughs that are now empty of soil and in storage under NE corner of my house .

Here he is basking on the old concrete slab :
cheakie-near-hws-20dec2019.png

pretty sure this is Cheakie, I've a few good close ups of that side of his chest and neck and the "spots and markings" are the same
compare :
PA230822.jpg

and
PC070961.jpg

a few day's before his escape.

from what I can see when I zoom in electronically and compare.

He let my grandson approach within about 6 inches of him before retreating to cover …. tame behavior , and was very happy to take a heaping helping of mealworm lavae tossed to him one at a time.
So he's fine and hasn't encountered the resident alpha male or he drove the older resident alpha male away and took over his harem , Cheakie has become a very impressive and large adult water skink under my care ).

Was hoping he'd stay inside the house and eventually show up while foraging about on the floor for crumbs and rogue crickets or wild roaches or spiders, or on the top of the lounge to warm up / bask.

Now we know where he is I'll be leaving dead crickets and mealworms and maybe some mixed softened VetaFarm lizard pellets mixed with softened Repcal Juvenile Bearded Dragon pellets out for him and the female ( and her babies ) every few days as well as offering mealworms and crickets to them to make sure they stick around.

I think the outside skinks and geckos will be very thirsty ( unless they've discovered the little puddle created by the aircon condensate drain ( under my front patio ).

So I converted a n old mealworm lavae ( rectangular clear plastic tub ) to a watering spot for them .
Simply used a sharp pointed pair a scissors to make a 1" x 1" hole about 1" up from the bottom to allow the skinks to get in easily , and replaced it's lid ventilated on top.

I've used this system before to feed wild frogs , skinks and geckos , same deal only I placed thawed frozen mealworms and crickets and freshly dead crickets inside it with a little softened lizard and juvenile bearded dragon pellets inside on a bit of easily cleaned hard clear packaging plastic or spare Chinese food round sauce tub lid.
There is the option to capture the lizard inside the tub by placing the hand over the hole in the side and too, I've done this too in the past when I wanted to check an injured lizard without actually grabbing it by hand.

Wife reports the female that was heavily pregnant is keeping company with him and is no longer VERY FAT. She's shyer and prefers to hang out under the Hotwater service slab and under the rim of the outside sump that's under the back tap. Only poked her head out when my grandson was there.

aside : fire desasters and record heat.
gospers-mt-by-nick-moir.png

from
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-monster-a-short-history-of-australia-s-biggest-forest-fire-20191218-p53l4y.html

Only animals that survive this kind of thing are those that can fly away , or take refuge in deep crack and fissures in the ground or in rocky outcrops under boulders or in deep crevasses or inside termite mounds or inside large deep ant nests or in any creeks and ponds that still have deep water.
It likely not the kind of fire even a fast 4 footed animal can outrun especially when driven by gale force winds (like reported yesterday) at the fire fronts.

After the scorcher yesterday ( hit 45 degC a few km inland from here , and in large areas of Sydney creating a perfect scenario for a bush fire storm especially near Cessnock , Gosford , SW Sydney and the Blue Mountains , many homes were burnt down and people burnt while defending homes.
There were reports of walls of fire 60m high ! and the fires created their own wind storm. Emergency services and RVBFB and professional RFF crews gave up trying to safe homes and properties and were focused on rescuing people.

Hit a max of 43 degC here at my place (outside , very glad I replaced the the old gas leaky worn out split aircon a month ago , did a great job at keeping the air inside clean and the inside temperature at 26 degC ( the thermostat setting I use during the day ) .

More of the same effecting large areas of Victoria and SA , and Adelaide heat records tumbled again. Reports of 50 degC in some places.
The heat is forcast to be back here tomorrow , looking like this Xmas will be one of the hottest in living memory.

Monsoon ( wet season ) up north hasn't arrived yet. This makes it 2 months late.
 

CooperDragon

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That does look like him. I think they will appreciate the water trough, that's a good idea. Might be fun to set a webcam on it so you can watch a time lapse and see who visits.

Terrible news about the fires. So sad that they are still burning and getting worse. I hope you guys get a break soon! I was kind of surprised how dry it still was up north. Only one afternoon of rain over the course of a week. Areas clearly set up for flooding were still completely dry.
 

kingofnobbys

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After about 2 weeks living outside , under my house and around the house , Cheakie decided he didn't like it outside where it's hot and scary ( my noise maker ( handyman ) was back for the day to start my new modular aluminium + plywood + acrylic enclosures , Cheakie , like Gutzy is not a fan of loud power tools or "strangers" . My wife saw him keeping company with two very fat (pregnant ladies) this morning (when she hung the washing) and she fed them , and I discovered him on top the lounge this afternoon .

So I placed his 27L tub on the lounge seat with some worms in it and he soon climbed down and dropped into it to feast on the mealworms , was a simple matter of sliding the lid over and then reconnecting his UVB light . No panicking , he simply explored about and went off to sleep in one of his old cardboard tubes.

No panicking from him when I took the lid off to put his water dish back in and fill it with water , nor when I rearranged his hide tubes.
Very calm then I picked him up to examine him for injuries and to identify him from his "spots" and didn't try to run away when I put him in his tank. Almost as tame as Fluffy.

I think he was glad to be back in his nice safe home.
 

CooperDragon

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I guess it just took a little time and some testing the options :lol: I'm glad he has settled in with you.
 

kingofnobbys

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Back in his fav tube hide today. No trying to escape or unsettled lizard behaviours.

Think he quite likes the security , warmth and luxuries of being a pampered / spoilt kept skink.
 

kingofnobbys

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He's back into his old routine and there is certainly nothing wrong with appetite.

Cleared his feeding dish of disabled crickets ( 4 large ) , 8 BSFL and 8 mealworms and duely pooed in his water dish ( also true to form for Cheakie ).

An examination of the bits floating in his water reveal he's been chowing down on roly polys, millipedes, spiders ( brown widows or redbacks judging from bits of legs ) and ants ( sugar ants, black garden ants, brown house ants and green ants ) while outside.
 

kingofnobbys

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Tonight , back to keeping his old schedule
29dec2019-cheakie-having-an-evening-drink-after-a-late-evening.png

This was 10pm, about 2 hours after sunset.

29dec2019-cheakie-10pm-heading-off-to-bed.png

Heading off to bed about 10:30pm after a feed, drink, swim/splash and probably a poo.
 

kingofnobbys

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Original Poster
Son and grandson reported seeing a couple of baby water skinks hanging out under my new cabinet-base ( on my front patio for now for the Cabots Stained Varnish to finish drying ) when they returned from the shops.
Son reckoned they were as big in body length as the crickets I have and weren't little brown skinks.

So one of the pregnant female water skinks has started giving berth probably yesterday or today.

Wife was mugged by skinks when she went out to take in the washing, 3 adults ( all fat , one very fat ) and a very bold juvenile about 1/2 the size of Cheakie who was so keen on the mealworms and crickets ( fresh dead ones from my bulk tubs ) this skink even climbed up the flight of 10 steps at the back when she returned a few minutes later with a tub full of goodies for them , and was begging her for bugs before she started going down the steps.

Here is the very bold little skink, one step down from the back porch and access to the laundry.
PC301035.jpg

PC301036.jpg


Only backed off when she tried to getting closer than a few inches from him.

I suspect this is the little skink who's been coming inside this summer and last summer as he's pretty tame and not scared of my wife , knows us , and knows the deal when "he" sees the little round tub in person's hand.
My wife wants to call this little skink Gizmo.

I have a suspicion the juvenile is closely related to Cheakie and Gutzy ( gutsy may even be it mother and Cheakie a sibling from an earlier clutch of babies ) based on what I can see of the pattern of spots on it's flanks.
Closeup showing flank spots and marks on Gizmo :
30dec2019-gizmo-the-bold-juvenile-skink-1-step-down-from-back-po.png

Note the broad head , I think Gizmo may be a boy.

Now I know there are baby skinks about I'll order in some 1/5th size crickets and some small mealworms with my next bulk order of bugs.
 

CooperDragon

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Handy to have them around if they've been eating poisonous spiders for you. Impressive that they can take out deadly crawlies like that.

Funny image of a gang of skinks waiting on the steps to mug you guys as you come out. Beat ya up and take all of your bugs! :lol:
 
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