I have two males; one I have had for over a year that I affectionately call "Mr. Diggins" and a newer one I got a month ago that I call "Not Diggins".
Since there is such little known about this species, I'll describe my experiences in hopes that it may help someone else care for theirs. Ideally, I'd love to see some of these produced in captivity.
With Mr. Diggins, I have tried keeping him on pure playsand and a mix of playsand and soil. So far, it seems he has done best on pure playsand that is several inches deep. I have offered a little over half a foot deep of playsand, but I have never found him near the bottom of the sand, mostly within the top few inches. I'd say the minimum size enclosure should have the floor space of a 20 gallon tank or larger. I've kept them using both tanks and tubs, and both seem to be fine options. I provide a small water bowl for each skink. They seem to be exclusively nocturnal; I have never seen them active during the day at all unless I wake them up. For heating, I've used heat tape, lights, and ceramic heat emitter, and they all work fine. I personally like the heat tape best since they can burrow down to change the temperature they are exposed to. I keep the surface temperature created by the hot spot at around 95. Humidity is kept low. For feeding, I have tried crickets, dubia, superworms, and beetles. They have eaten them all, but beetles are an extreme favourite. My older skink has always been a bit of a terrible eater whereas my newer skink is a terrific eater. The IUCN redlist suggests that they may eat vegetation, so I have offered strawberries, green beans, and bell pepper to the skink that eats well. He took several pieces of strawberry but not the vegetables. I occasionally dust the food with calcium with D3. This species seems to have a very docile temperament with some individuals being more skittish but still tolerant of human interaction. From my experience, one of mine is unwilling to bite, and my newer one is reluctant to bite but will do so if stressed enough.
One thing to note with this species is that many do not acclimate to captivity well. I and others have dealt with acclimating imports, and it is very frustrating to try and get them to survive. For this reason, I would recommend purchasing a long-term captive if possible. Even then, I have heard that even healthy captives will sometimes start deteriorating for unknown reasons and end up dying. All of this species is wild caught as far as I and others are aware. Captive born/captive hatched individuals seem to be unheard of, and imports seem to only consist of adults. I have not heard of breeding behaviour seen in captivity which is rather discouraging.
I'd like to hear from anyone else who keeps these skinks and your experiences with them.
