Pets

I have two Solomon Islands Skinks, one Hermann Tortoise and one Russian Tortoise. My husband also has a collection of Blue Tongue Skinks. These are all reptiles. I would like to share my experience with the two Solomon Islands Skinks, also known as Monkey Tail Skinks, which I think are very fascinating and worthy to write about.

One is male, named Oscar because he looks like the Oscar the Grouch, a character from Sesame Street. Oscar’s age is uncertain, but probably between 4-5 years old. The other one is a female named Kiwi, the idea of the name was from her appearance as she has black dots all over her green and brown colour body. She is about one year old and still quite small. The average life expectancy is probably 15-20 years.

The origin of the Monkey Tail Skink is Solomon Islands and they are restricted and protected by the Washington Convention which is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Although it is not easy to acquire them, we were very lucky to have found them within Canada.

The Monkey Tail Skinks are herbivores and nocturnal, so they usually get active around 7pm to midnight. We feed them various vegetables and fruits. Each of them lives in an enclosure of their own room that my husband designed and built for them which is filled with branches and wood chips and is temperature controlled to provide the habitat that would be comfortable for them. Both enclosures are rather large as the Monkey Tail Skinks are arboreal animals, so they like to climb. One is 4x6.5x1.5ft, the other one is 3x6.5x1.5ft.

As for their physicality, they have very strong legs, sharp nails and prehensile tails to grip when they climb. I cannot handle them with bare skin or I get cuts all over my hands, arms and my neck.

In addition, one of the unique traits about the Monkey Tail Skink is that their gestation is about six to eight months, and often have a single baby which is born live, not an egg. They also like to be in a group which is also very rare for reptiles.

I have never been an animal lover and never wanted any pets before, but I love my Monkey Tail Skinks and the Tortoises now. They are very quiet, clean and not as needy as dogs or cats.

We are waiting for Kiwi to grow more mature, so that we can mate her with Oscar, and then they can form a family of their own kind. Now, they think my husband and I are their mates as we give them a lot of attention, so they don’t feel alone. It is very unusual for reptiles to need companionship like Oscar and Kiwi.

If you would like to know more about them, here is a link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Islands_skink