Shingleback Skink — Fact Sheet

Tiliqua rugosa · Shingleback Skink

Full care guide and sources

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

Plan the adult enclosure before purchase. The minimum adult setup used here is 150 x 75 x 60 cm, with about 1.125 m² of floor area. These skinks are slow but bulky, and cramped enclosures make thermoregulation, turning, shedding, and weight control harder.

🪨 Substrate and furnishings

Use 8-12 cm of firm, dry, reptile-safe substrate that permits traction and limited digging. A soil/sand/clay style mix, dry cypress-based blend, or other structured arid substrate can work if it does not become dusty; use paper during quarantine or medical monitoring.

Provide broad hides, flat stones or rough cork for shed assistance, and a basking surface wide enough to warm the body evenly. Avoid cedar, pine, scented bedding, slick floors, and tall décor that encourages falls.

💡 Lighting

Use bright visible light and species-appropriate UVB. Measure lamp output when possible, because reflector, mesh, distance, and lamp age change real exposure, and provide shaded retreats for self-regulation.

Plan lighting around Ferguson Zone 2 and a 10-12 hour photoperiod. During any planned seasonal cooling, shorten light and feeding gradually only for healthy, established adults.

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 34-38 °C
• Daytime air: 24-30 °C
• Cool zone: 20-24 °C
• Night: 16-22 °C

💧 Humidity and water

Target humidity is 30-50%, with temporary shed support around 45-60%. Provide humidity as cycles and retreats rather than making the entire enclosure constantly wet; keep bowls, hides, and substrate clean.

Provide a shallow, heavy water bowl. Drinking water should be available, but soaking tubs and wet substrate should not replace a dry, well-ventilated setup.

🪳 Feeding

Feed for steady body condition rather than maximum appetite. Most adults should be fed every 3-7 days depending on season, body condition, and activity; juveniles can be fed more often in smaller portions.

Use a slower omnivorous rotation: leafy greens, safe vegetables, snails or insects where appropriate, small amounts of egg or lean protein, occasional fruit, and quality prepared diets as part of the mix. Shinglebacks gain weight easily, so weigh adults and reduce rich protein or fruit before obesity becomes established.

Use calcium and a reptile multivitamin according to UVB access, diet quality, age, reproductive status, and product directions. Live food can be useful enrichment, but it is not a requirement for a stable adult diet.

🩺 Health — warning signs

Quarantine new animals, record weight, and watch for appetite loss, abnormal posture, retained shed, skin lesions, mouth injury, respiratory signs, swelling, diarrhea, and sustained hiding. Husbandry correction is often as important as medication.

Most chronic problems trace back to enclosure size, incorrect heat, weak UVB, obesity, poor substrate hygiene, rough handling, or repeated stress. Do not brumate juveniles, thin animals, sick animals, or new arrivals; seasonal cooling is only for stable adults with measured temperatures.