Exo-Terra Terrarium - Skink Climbing the Styrofoam

[YouSureSkink]

I have this terrarium:


I caught my skink climbing the styrofoam rock background. He seemed to climb it really easy and made it about half way up before I grabbed him off. I'm worried that he could fall and get injured or develop a spinal deformity as I read here:

http://www.bluetongueskinks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22315

Any tips? I'm thinking about taking it out since it sits against a wall and shouldn't make it feel any more exposed. I also have a piece of wood that I can put in there for him to climb instead, but I'm not sure how much that would help.

[SmaugTheBluey]

Hmm what is the height of the enclosure that could make my answer a little bit more accurate but for now I think if you were to have a gradual incline of loose bedding up to the wall it might me able to dilute just having a 90°angle change so it shouldn't bend him to far and having the loose bedding should act as a pillow to break his fall ... actually you could probably put a pillow to soften the fall; I'll conduct my experiment and tell you how it goes, Good luck my friend!

[Richard.C]

20140625_004304-1.jpg

I have a group of juvie kingskinks that do that in one of those cages,they seem to prefer sitting up on wall under light more than the branch i added for them,not only do they run around all over the wall but they are ignoring my hiding options and getting behind the wall through the 2 notched out bits at ground level,i tried piling the substrate high against the wall but the lil buggers know the holes are there now and just dig those 2 areas away to get in behind wall,so i just leave them to it now,they still come out alot,but i swear 80 percent of the time is spent on that wall,on inside or out,lol

[YouSureSkink]

@SmaugTheBluey - it's an 18" high terrarium (36x18x18)

@Richard.C - Haha, I catch mine doing that with those holes as well. He's too big to get behind them but he still tries.

That's a good idea for angling it out to add a little slope to it. I may give that a try. As Smaug said, I'd probably be a lot better off with softer substrate. Right now I just have the paper towels, so it's not very soft. I'm going to be putting in the aspen pretty soon.

Thanks guys for the great tips!