American Five Lined Skink for Sale

The American Five Lined Skink (Eumeces fasciatus) is one of the most common lizards in the eastern U.S. and one of the five species of lizards in Canada. Young Five-lined Skinks are dark brown to black with five distinctive white to yellowish stripes running along the body and a bright blue tail. The blue color fades to light blue with age, and the stripes also may slowly disappear. The dark brown color fades, too, and older individuals are often uniformly brownish.

Other common names include Blue-tailed Skink (for juveniles) and Red-headed Skink (for adults).

None of these vernacular names is unique to this species, however, and it is technically more appropriate to call it the "American Five-lined Skink" to distinguish it from the African skink Trachylepis quinquetaeniata (otherwise known as Five-lined Mabuya), or "Eastern Red-headed Skink" to distinguish it from its western relative Plestiodon skiltonianus (otherwise known as Western Skink). The Blue-tailed Skink proper is Cryptoblepharus egeriae from Christmas Island, but in North America the juveniles of any Eumeces or Plestiodon species may be called this.

Size of a Five Lined Skink

It is a small to medium sized skink growing to about 4.9 inches to 8.5 inches total length.

Feeding a Five Lined Skink 

For feeding, skinks should be offered live insects. Crickets, mealworms and waxworms. Dust crickets and other insects with a calcium/D3 supplement to make sure the skinks get enough calcium. Offer adult skinks 2-5 insects every other day, while juveniles should be fed daily. Each insect offered to a particular skink should be no more than half the size of the animal's head. Skinks can also be fed canned cat food and chopped fruit as part of a varied diet. Water should be offered in shallow non-metal bowl.

Caging Requirements for Your Five Lined Skink

Housing/Habitat: Five Lined Skinks can be maintained in captivity with minimal care. A 20 imperial gallons (91 L) aquarium with a screen lid makes a suitable enclosure for a pair; a larger enclosure will be needed for more than two animals. Never house adult males together as they are very territorial. Place a 1 inch layer of pea gravel on the bottom of the enclosure and cover it with about 3 inches of topsoil or organic potting soil (be sure to avoid potting soils that contain perlite, vermiculite, foam rubber and fertilizers) mixed with leaf mold and/or coconut bark chips. Give the skinks places to hide using unglazed terra cotta, flat stone or sections of bark.

Temperature: Five-Lined Skinks like a temperature gradient of 75 °F to 80 °F on the cool end of their enclosure, 90 °F on the warm end.

Lighting: Full spectrum fluorescent UV bulbs and a basking light are required.

Humidity: Humidity in the skink enclosure should be between 55% and 75%. Mist the enclosure lightly once a day and make sure that the substrate under the shelters remains moist. The rest of the substrate should be allowed to dry out.

Sexing

We do our best to sex your animals correctly. However, we do not guarantee sexing.

Shipping Information

$39.99 for for any number of animals to anywere in the United States only.

Health Certificate: The following states may require a $20 Health Certificate to ship animals. GA, VA, WA, WV, MT, OH, UT. We will notify you if this affects your order.

All Live Animals are shipped Priority Overnight Delivery to your door from Fedex or UPS. Orders received are generally processed and shipped the day after they are received. Full details regarding our Shipping Methods can be found here.

Expected Delivery Dates

We only ship on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

If your order was placed on...	Your package will be delivered on...
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday	Wednesday morning Thursday morning Tuesday morning Tuesday morning Tuesday morning Tuesday morning Tuesday morning

NOTE: We reserve the right to delay shipments as needed. You will receive email notification if your order has been delayed and what the new expected delivery date will be.

Animal Photos

Please note that the photos on our website are a representative of that species and the actual animal you receive may differ from the photo.

Payment

We accept VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and Paypal. All orders must be paid in full before the order will be shipped.