Potty Training Tips

[Janella]

Hey guys I have a question for you all. Is there a way to potty train your skinks? I know some of you say you can. Noodles (Merauke, confirmed 11m old male) never had a issue when he was young. I could let him out for hours and never had a problem. Now however, since I have gotten Mintaka (unsexed, little over a year old Northern), almost every time he is out, he goes. I have tried waiting till after I know he has went in his enclosure, but he will still go when out. I never have both skinks out at the same time either. However, they do run loose with supervision in the house in the same areas. Now Mintaka is starting to do it also. When they go I immediately clean it up. So is it possible I have two males marking their territory? Thoughts? Ideas? Help! Thanks guys

[Susann]

Here are links to a few of the threads that come up when you type in "potty training" into the search function:

teaching skink to poo in a certain place
has anybody pottytrained there skink
Potty Training

[Janella]

Thanks for the articles Susann. I originally looked under housebreaking, but not potty training...no wonder I couldn't find anything! The good news is they never poo outside of their enclosures, just pee. So hopefully I can nip this in the butt soon. Today was a success!

Janella

[alichamp]

What do you mean wee? Is it smelly?

[Janella]

All I meant alichamp is that they both just urinate outside of their enclosure. They never poo outside of it. So I am trying to teach them to not urinate outside of their enclosure. The last two days have been successful.

[alichamp]

I think it's different if we are talking about them weeing outside their enclosure rather than pooing. Weeing can often be a stress response so have a think about when and how long they are out for as well as what they actually do while out to consider whether you can make changes to minimise stress.