The Emerald Tree skink is often considered to be one of the most stunning species of lizard that can be kept by the typical reptile enthusiast.
The most frequent types are a vibrant (emerald) green colour overall with a slightly paler underside.
They have a robust overall appearance, with a long torpedo-shaped body and thick legs; these skinks have bigger legs than other skinks because they are arboreal and are more adapted for climbing trees.
They are around 4.5 to 5 inches long from the tip of their snout to the tip of their vent, with a tail that is approximately 1.5 times body length, and occasionally even longer.
A fully developed adult can be as long as 7-10 inches in total length.
How To Care For Emerald Tree Skinks
Emerald Tree Skinks, as incredible as it may sound, are not only incredibly beautiful to look at, but they are also extremely intelligent and have a high degree of sociability.
Yet, just like with any other kind of reptile, if you want your emerald tree skink to have a long and healthy life, it is crucial to make sure that its fundamental requirements are being met.
If these fundamental requirements are not satisfied, it will result in illness, disease, and even death in some cases. As a result, providing your reptile with the appropriate care is absolutely necessary.
To help you provide the best possible care for your emerald tree skink, we've put together this useful guide.
As with all information available on the internet it is important to cross reference information from multiple sources to insure you are receiving accurate information
Due to the fact that the emerald tree skink is a fully arboreal reptile, it needs a habitat that is both spacious and elevated in order to fulfil both its basic requirements and its natural curiosities.
It is recommended that an enclosure for an Emerald Tree Skink have length, breadth, and height dimensions of at least 45 centimetres by 45 centimetres by 60 centimetres (18 inches by 18 inches by 24 inches),
The minimum for a pairs emerald skinks have length, breadth, and height dimensions of at least 60 centimetres by 45 centimetres by 90 centimetres (24 inches by 18 inches by 36 inches)
The enclosure must be lockable to keep them from escaping; once escaped, emerald tree skinks are extremely difficult to locate again; and just think of all the places they may hide in your home!
The enclosure must be tough, heat-resistant, and simple to clean and maintain.
Being active reptiles, Emerald Tree Skinks will be much happier if they are given a variety of paths to explore, which will fulfil their natural curiosity.
You will need to construct the enclosure using multiple tiers of branches and vines so that the lizard has the opportunity to climb, investigate, and bask. For your skink to climb on the branches, they need to be substantial enough to support its weight.
The enclosure needs to be very densely vegetated, either with real or artificial (non-toxic) plants, moss and shrubs so that the skink has places to hide and areas of shade to retreat to.
Picking plants with folds in their leaves that allow water to collect in them is another way to assist your skink with water so it can stay hydrated.
Because emerald tree skinks spend the most of their time climbing, the floor of the enclosure will need to be covered with a cushiony substrate. This is because the substrate's primary function is to protect the skinks from injury in the event that they should fall.
As a substrate, a mixture of soft coconut fibres and sphagnum moss approximately 10cm deep can be used to retain moisture and sustain humidity. If you are planning on using live plants, you cannot do so using this method.
You also have the option of going with a bio active setup, which, similar to the previous option, is good at retaining moisture and can accommodate the growth of living plants. This, however, will require the enclosure to be far deeper, and as it will also add a significant amount of weight to it, you will need to make sure that it is adequately supported.
Temperature
The Emerald Tree Skink is an ectothermic reptile, which means that in the wild it maintains its body temperature by adjusting its location in order to utilise the surrounding environment's temperature.
In order to maintain and increase its body temperature, an emerald tree skink will engage in a behaviour known as "basking," which is soaking up an external heat source like the sun.
To satisfy its fundamental requirements, it is essential to create an identical environment within their enclosures.
To do this, a heat bulb should be used, with the bulb placed high at the top of the enclosure, directly over a branch that will serve as a basking spot.
It's important to have a temperature gradient within the enclosure, with the warmest temperature towards the top and the coolest temperature near the bottom. In order to accomplish this, a heat clamp with adjustable intensity can be used.
- Basking Area Temperature: 95°F (35°C)
- Lower Enclosure Temperature: 75-85°F (24-29°C)
- Nighttime Temperature: 68-77°F (20-25°C)
When it comes to maintaining the temperature within the enclosure, accuracy is key, so temperature probes are a must-have.
It's recommended to place one probe at the top of the enclosure on the basking spot and the other in a shaded area close to the enclosure's base.
Humidity
Emerald Tree Skinks are native to the humid tropical regions of South and Southeast Asia, where the climates experience both rainy and dry seasons.
Because humidity is such an important role in determining whether or not they will thrive in captivity, it is absolutely essential that we create an environment that is identical to their natural habitat within the enclosure.
Humidity is important not only because it satisfies the natural environmental requirements of the skink, but also because it's how it mostly gets its water; skinks drink the dew that forms in their enclosure.
Since humidity levels fluctuate throughout the day and night, the following is the recommended humidity day and night cycles for each season.
The ideal habitat for emerald tree skinks is one that has a high level of humidity, with a daytime humidity level of about 70% on average and an at night humidity level that can reach up to 100%.
In order to keep the humidity levels inside the enclosures at a correct level, a humidity probe should be installed in the enclosure's centre.
You may maintain a steady humidity level in the habitat by giving it a gentle misting twice a day, once at sunrise and once at dusk. The amount of spray you use will vary based on the relative humidity of the environment outside your enclosure.
Alternatively a misting machine, which can be adjusted to mist at predetermined intervals in order to keep the enclosure at a constant humidity level, can be used to automate this operation.
Maintaining a full water bowl is another way to increase relative humidity.
Note: Incorrect humidity levels can lead to a variety of disorders and diseases, including abnormal shedding, scale rot, skin and respiratory fungal infections, and more.
Lighting
The emerald tree skink is a diurnal reptile, meaning it is most active in the daytime.
By "basking" during the day, skinks are able to soak up the UV radiation from the sun their bodies need to produce the vitamin D necessary for proper protein absorption.
This is a fundamental requirement that must be simulated in the emerald tree skinks enclosure.
It is essential to install a UVB light at the very top of your enclosure, in close proximity to the basking place. Your skink will be able to self-regulate its temperature by moving to a warmer spot closer to the light or to a cooler spot farther away from it, therefore the UVB bulb must be placed in just the right spot.
It is necessary to ascertain the power of the bulb in accordance with the dimensions of the enclosure. The majority of manufacturers offer comprehensive indexes on the spectrum of available bulbs.
The light will need to be on for a total of 13 hours every day during the summer and 11 hours every day during the winter; however, this procedure can be automated with the use of smart timers.
Cleaning
It is vital to provide poor husbandry in order to guarantee that your skink lives a long and healthy life, and cleaning the enclosure is a part of that. The failure to maintain the enclosure in which your skinks live can lead to a variety of diseases and illnesses.
Insects make up the vast majority of an emerald tree skink's diet. In the wild, their diet consisted of invertebrates such as beetles, butterflies, and moths along with bees.
It has also been documented that they will occasionally break into bird nests in order to consume nestlings.
In captivity, they may eat a variety of insects such as crickets, dubia roaches, discoid roaches, red head roaches, grasshoppers, and locusts.
You can supplement their insect diet with a few pieces of fruit every so often.
Feeding
Before offering any feeder insect to your skinks, you should first ensure that it has been gut loaded.
Together with vitamins A and D, calcium is an essential nutrient that must be provided to your skink on a routine basis. A quick internet search will reveal a variety of name-brand reptile supplements to consider.
The process of gut loading guarantees that your skink will receive the greatest amount of nutrition it needs to remain healthy. Inadequate nourishment in your skinks can lead to a variety of disorders and diseases, such as metabolic bone disease (MBD).
The general rule of thumb that is used while feeding lizards is that they must not be given anything that is larger than the distance between their eyes. This is due to the fact that the majority of insects have spurs on their legs, which can cause injury to the reptile's oesophagus if they are too big.
When they are juveniles, skinks should be fed once a day, but when they are adults, they should only be fed every other day.
Provide them with as many different kinds of gut-loaded feed insects as they will eat using a pair of tweezers with a rubber tip. A varied diet will keep your skink healthy and happy
Water
Daily misting will provide your skink with some water, but it's still a good idea to keep a bowl of fresh water in their enclosure.
It is possible for Emerald Tree Skinks to survive on their own, but they much prefer to live in colonies of other tree skinks, where they develop a social order and a hierarchy.
As a general rule, you should never keep fully adult male skinks together since they will fight for the females, which might result in damage or death for one or both of them.
While Emerald tree skinks are sociable creatures that will engage in some level of interaction with their human keepers, they are best treated as exhibit species rather than pets.
This is due to the fact that a threatened skink may voluntarily shed its tail in an effort to escape.
The stress of having its tail dropped does harm to a lizard's health. There is often a noticeable difference between the old and new tails, with the latter typically being shorter, having a different colour, and ending in a more rounded point.
The Emerald Tree Skink is a gorgeous and gregarious species of reptile, and it's emerald green coloration makes it one of the most visually pleasing reptiles.
However, because of their cage requirements, their nutritional requirements, and the fact that they are not easily handled, these lizards are better suited as a display animal and should only be kept by intermediate pet owners.