Enclosure: Decor Options

Good decorations make a reptile’s terrarium look cool, but they’re also important for exercise, mental stimulation, and keeping your skink healthy. In zoos, enclosure decor and “toys” are called enrichment items. If you’re not clear on how enrichment is beneficial to lizards, please watch/listen to my YouTube video, How to Provide Enrichment for Lizards.

Hides

Skinks like to hide. It’s part of their burrower nature. So you’ll need one cool dry and one warm humid hide to help them feel secure, which sounds more complicated than it is. Just put a hidey-hole on the cool side, then another one on the warm side, with some sphagnum moss inside to make it humid. Half logs or large cork rounds make excellent hides.

Climbing Objects

Large branches, logs, cork bark, and rocks are excellent for this purpose. Some say that that blueys aren’t good climbers, but I have a Merauke who begs to differ. If you collect these items from outside, give them a good scrub and soak in a disinfectant compatible with porous surfaces, such as Clean Break or F10SC. NEVER bake rocks, as they may explode! However, pieces of wood may be safely baked at 225-250°F/110/120°C for 2-3 hours.

Plants

If you’re using topsoil or bioactive substrate, live plants make an excellent addition to your terrarium. Wheat grass, sedge grass, carex grass, carrot, pothos, and snake plant are good for starters. For more ideas of nontoxic, reptile-safe plants, I recommend referencing The Tortoise Table.

Refer to Bioactive Reptile and Amphibian Setups USA for further information on suitable plants for your enclosure. Keep in mind that the plants you use need to be able to take a beating; skinks love to trample plants!

Alternatively, you can use artificial plants. Custom Reptile Habitats has a great selection of durable, realistic-looking artificial plants that are safe for using in reptile terrariums.

Background

PetBackdrops.com offers a lovely selection of backgrounds for all kinds of reptile enclosures. Aside from helping your setup look nice, a good background can help your skink feel more secure, especially if the terrarium’s made of glass. For best results, three sides of the enclosure should be covered.