being new to this forum and keeping reptiles,i have the bug which i share with my roommate pretty bad ,we were looking into getting a soloman island skink but cant find much more than really basic info ,on them or are they that easy to care for,plus finding were to get one the local pet stores cant even order them any thoughts ?. thanks john.
these guys are *very* hard to find. you will not find one in a petstore, i can almost guarantee that. i'd be surprised if the people at petstores have even HEARD of these lizards. they are pretty high on the CITES endangered species list and, thus, can run up to $1000 per animal (although you may be lucky enough to find someone who doesn't realize what they have and/or the animal isn't in the best of health for a couple hundred dollars). they are not extremely difficult to care for, but they need a large cage with many sturdy climbing branches and regular mistings and this can be difficult for many people to make. the cage should be at *least* 3 feet wide by 3 feet long by 4 feet high. and the climbing branches are an absolute MUST. they eat basically the same things as green iguanas (about 75% collard greens, turnip grees, dandelion greens, and kale and about 25% fruits and veggies [banana, berries, papaya, mango, and apple are best]). good luck finding one! they make great pets if you have the time and money. oh and if you're looking for info on them *only* under solomon island skink, you won't find much. they also are referred to as 'solomon island prehensile-tailed skinks', 'prehensile-tailed skinks', 'monkey-tailed skinks', and 'monkey skinks'. also try looking up info on them using their scientific name, corucia zebrata - you'll get info from more intellegent people that way.
thanks so much for the post,i didnt realize how much they would cost,the last time i found one for sale it was for $200 but that was nearly 10y/o but im still interested in getting one but the hight of the pen will be a problem,so unless i can build one suited for the animal i think i should reconsider buying one at this time .
Before they banned exportation of the skinks from the solomon islands, they were selling for about $300. Now that all you can get are captive bred for the most part, their priced sky-rocketed. We see them at our reptile show here in ohio, but they aren't priced and I'm afraid to ask! We'd love to have a mate for ours, but that looks pretty much impossible right now.
building a pen really is your best option, in my opinion, and it can actually be less expensive than purshasing a cage. the hardest part is finding limbs to put in the cage for climbing. they are fantastic animals and i hope you're able to find a healthy one at a decent price.
