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Today Chaz answers Masters of Non-Xistence's question

I have already commented but I do have a question for you. My northern pine snake has suddenly become being fussy when eatting. As you know, usually pines will eat anything at any time. But for the last 2 months he has only had 1 maybe 2 meals. His tank had been cleaned.....his levels are the same as they always have been, 28c on the warm end.....24 on the low, 45% humidity, fresh water everyday, night temp dropped to 20c on a night. He always had a warm hide and a cool area to hide in. His prey size hasnt changed, medium rats. He is approx 2 years old. He is crapping regular (such as it is with the lack of food he is ingesting) and is still urinating. Any ideas or suggestions? Maybe something to do with the change in season? His last 2 meals he half arsed a strike....missed and became disinterested. I leave the rat overnight in the centre of the tank and he will take it but only get as far as swallowing the rats head then giving up......? Im confused......

S’N’A INTRODUCING SERIES
EPISODE 25 – FIRE SKINKS (LEPIDOTHYRIS FERNANDI)

You may also find them labelled elsewhere as Lygosoma Fernandi or Riopa Fernandi.
When first described was listed in Tiliqua (The Blue Tongue Skink family)
Lepidothyris has 3 ‘currently’ recognised species.
Lepidothyris fernandi (Burton 1836)
Lepidothyris hinkeli (Bohme, Pauwels and Schmitz 2009)
Lepidothyris striatus (Hallowell 1854)
Lepidothyris first described by Edward Cope in 1892)
whilst no longer listed in Lygosoma itself Lepidothyris belongs to the Lygosominae sub-family of Skinks.
The Name Fernando is in reference to Fernando Po, an Island off the coast of Cameroon. Fernando Po has since been renamed to Bioko.
Fire Skinks hail from Tropical West Africa and Occur from Cameroon through to Guinea including Togo, Benin, Ghana and Cote D’Ivore.
Fire Skinks are Diurnal and therefore require UVB by modern husbandry standards. 10-12% UVB source with the option to retreat from the light. For many years maintained with UVB but with 2018 knowledge we cant really argue a case for that any more.
Active Temperature Range 36-36 celcius at basking spot, an ambient temp of around 30 and a cool end of 25-26. At night the basking temps can reduce to 25-27 celcius with a cool end of 20-22.
Heat sources would therefore be coloured spot, ceramic or Deep Heat Projector coupled to a day, night thermostat.
Fire Skinks will actively bask and rummage around their tank but they enjoy burrowing greatly. A deep substrate in a mix of coir, orchid bark, sand and moss will help to make a humidity storing substrate that is loose enough to dig through. A smattering of leaf litter on the surface to will also give rummaging and hiding opportunities.
Natural diet is insectivorous although in captivity noted to take a range of items including crickets, locusts, cock roaches, pachnoda grubs, calci-worms, meal worms, wax worms, super worms, pinky mice, cat food (low fat wet varieties) and garden snails. The latter items after the insects should be offered sparingly but are most useful with fresh imports for re-gaining condition.
Fire Skinks are egg layers, producing 4-8 eggs. Incubation takes 45-55 days at 28-29 celcius. This is not a species I have bred.
We need more people to be working with them. We cannot rely on wild caught specimens indefinitely and breeding projects are sporadic and unreliable generally. Demand certainly outstrips what they can supply captive bred many times over.
As with all Skinks sexing can be a major headache, females have a smaller build and shorted snout. As they gain weight and condition can become jowelly in the throat. Similar in that regard to Berber Skinks (Novoeumeces schneideri) and Day Geckos (Phelsuma) although I am not clear if it is calcium or fat that the Skinks are storing. Males are generally larger in every dimension. But with younger animals or single animals, the task varies from hard to impossible.

People get sniffy about the term ‘beginner’ snake. They seem to think there is some throw away connotation to it. This is certainly not what we intend or what we mean when we use the term ‘Beginner’. We mean family friendly, hardy, personable and generally awesome!!
Snakes can live in excess of two decades and we would love to think that snakes are bought with a forever home in mind.
We have chosen from over 70 species / Sub-species of snake to bring you the top ten. These are judged on qualities that make a snake a beginner snake. Charles and Paul’s chief quality of choice is hardiness. The rest can fall into place with time, but hardiness is key.
Temperament and territoriality are chief concerns amongst beginners coming into the shop. They are not the same. Some snakes are more defensive of their space than others. Once out and about in a keepers hands this usually diminishes. Territoriality is behaviour and demeanour within the enclosure. Temperament is judging those factors outside of the enclosure.
Adult Size. There is a goldilocks size of snake for the beginner. Not too small, not too big but just right. Too small and they may want specialist prey to get them started feeding. too big and they may intimidate the novice. Usually anything between 75-140(ish) cm in length depending on build gets the perfect 10.
Appetite. Many novices are mammal keepers earlier in life. They are tuned to feeding daily. A chief source of stress for the keeper is feeding. If animals later in life (particularly males) have issues with fasting and breeding season blues this will be reflected in the scores.
We hope this is of use to new or inexperienced keepers. We hope it inspires you to look at some of the awesome options you have available. Diversity is the spice of life and only by promoting it can we safeguard it.
What are your thoughts? Some thing missing, what would you have chosen and why?
Comment below.
Give us a like, a share and a comment. Thanks guys.
Chaz and Paul.