Sandfish Skink for sale

Introduction

Sandfish Skink for sale are nocturnal lizards found in the sandy deserts of northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Sandfish have bodies that are designed to swim in sand, as the name suggests. They like to stay buried in loose dune sand, but will occasionally emerge to hunt or bask.

Their sturdy body with short legs distinguishes them as skinks, but they also have a short tail, a big wedge-shaped snout with a countersunk lower jaw, feather-like toes, and tiny black eyes. They are normally 6-8" (15-20cm) long and have a lifespan of 6-10 years.

Sandfish skinks, like many other lizards, are insectivores, which means they mostly eat insects like beetles.

Sandfish skinks are extremely hardy and easy to care for.

Sandfish Types

Scincus scincus, Scincus hemprichii, and Scincus mitranus are the three known species of sandfish. In the pet trade, S. scincus and S. mitranus are more frequent than S. hemprichii. Almost all sandfish in the American pet trade are caught in the wild.

Scincus scincus (Common Sandfish) This is the most common sandfish seen in pet stores. It is also known as the Egyptian or Iranian sandfish. They range from the west coast of North Africa all the way through the Sahara desert and into the Arabian peninsula. They are distinguished by noticeable gray or tan and gold bands on their backs, as well as a pale belly.

S. scincus has three recognised subspecies:

Conirostris sp.
S. cucullatus and S. meccensis

Enclosure: Size

Size of the enclosure
Sandfish are fossorial, meaning they spend the most of their lives underground. This means that as pets, they will thrive in a horizontal box with plenty of floor area.

How big is it?
The minimal size for one sandfish skink is 30"x12"x12" (20 gallon).

This provides enough room to provide an acceptable thermal gradient from warm to cool. Your sandfish will get quite unwell if it cannot control its body temperature due to a lack of a good thermal gradient. (For further information about temperatures, see the following page.)

However, when it comes to housing reptiles, more is usually better, and if you offer them the space, they will undoubtedly use it! Personally, I like a 36"x18"x18" (40 gallon) enclosure.

What kind of enclosure is it?

Sandfish Skink for sale are rather straightforward to keep, so locating a proper cage for them is simple. It will be a decent "home" for a sandfish as long as it can hold at least 4" of sand without overflowing and allows for a heated basking area without turning the rest of the enclosure into an oven.

We prefer glass enclosures for sandfish because they provide sufficient ventilation, appropriate thermal gradients, and are readily available.

"Long" 20 gallon aquarium with screen cover
Exo Terra Outback Terrarium, 40 gallon "breeder" terrarium with screen cover, 24" x 18" x 12"
38′′ x 18′′ x 18′′ Exo Terra Glass Terrarium

Sandfish Skink for sale Lighting, Temps & Humidity

Sandfish Skink for sale are diurnal, which means they are most active during the day, and they require visible light and UVB rays to survive. Of course, natural, unfiltered sunlight is impossible to obtain indoors unless you have a strategically positioned hole in your roof. Fortunately, it is possible to reproduce it by placing a good quality fluorescent tube UVB light above the lid, around 1/2 to 2/3 of the length of the enclosure. That would be an 18-24" lamp for a 20 gallon container, for example.

If you don't have a Solarmeter, here's a good starting point for each bulb type. When basking, the following distances are appropriate between the lamp and the sandfish's back:

8-12′′ / 20-30cm Arcadia T5 SO ShadeDweller 7% UVB kit
T5 HO Forest 6% — 14-20′′ / 35-50cm
T5 HO Reptisun 5.0 — 14-20′′ / 35-50cm
The aforementioned estimates are based on bulbs fitted in Arcadia ProT5 or Vivarium Electronics fixtures and assume a 35% mesh block. See the Facebook group Reptile Lighting > Guides > Guide 1: Using T5-HO bulbs above a Mesh Screen for more information on altering basking distance based on mesh obstruction.

Sandfish Skink for sale -Substrate

interactions with Sandfish Skink for sale  in their natural environment. It is exceedingly soft, diggable, and fine. The most expensive substrate on this list, Jurassic Sands, costs about $16 for every 10 pounds, but it's also the best.

Animal Medicine Reptisand: Reptisand is an uncolored, additive-free low-dust sand substrate. Because it is made of finely ground quartz, it is free of silica and resembles the sand in a sandfish's natural habitat in several ways. Typically, a bag weighing 10 pounds costs $15.

Fine GlassBlast: Made from recycled bottle glass, GlassBlast is a specific kind of sandblasting media. Because of its closed crystalline structure, it is safer than regular blasting sand, and the "Fine" grade is incredibly soft, preventing wounds. Additionally, it respects the environment! You

Sandfish Skink for sale- Nutrition & Food for Sandfish

Being insectivores, sandfish skinks rely on a diet of insects for good health and nutrition. Their bodies have evolved in a special way that allows them to track the movement of insects up to 6 inches (15 cm) away!

How much food must sandfish skinks consume?
Given that this varies depending on the kind of bug, the sandfish's age, and the size of the bug in question, it can be challenging to determine exactly how many bugs to feed a sandfish each day.

Hatchlings (less than 3" long): twice daily
Children (3-5" length) — once per day
(at least 5" long) adults — every other day once
Offer as many bugs as it takes take the sandfish five minutes to consume them all. It's acceptable to leave some loose, though.

What foods eat sandfish skinks?

Sandfish Skink for sale require living insects rather than dead ones because they use vibrations in the sand rather than their sense of smell to detect meals.

Crickets
little grasshoppers or locusts
Bugaboo roaches
Diademed roaches
A red-running roach
larvae of black soldier flies
Mealworms
Superworms (miniature)
Treats for darkling beetles

Hornworms (miniature)
Silkworms
Waxworms
Butterworms

Sandfish Skink for sale --Health

Your sandfish may have stopped feeding. Are you concerned that you may be handling a sick sandfish? Welcome to the list of the most prevalent health issues affecting sandfish skinks on ReptiFiles.

Because a sick or weak reptile is a prey for predators in the wild, they have honed their ability to appear healthy. In a captive environment, this implies that the reptile is already gravely ill by the time we humans become aware of a problem. Therefore, we must exercise particular caution to spot any changes that might point to illness:

Observe your weight, eating patterns, behavior, shedding, and other factors every week.
If at all feasible, weigh your sandfish once a month. Significant weight loss (more than 10%) is an indication of disease.
Create a reptile first aid kit so you won't be caught without it.