Territoriality
Male Schneiders are very territorial. Never put two males into the same terrarium, or one day you could find seriously injured or even dead skinks! With one male you can accommodate as many females as there is room for in the enclosure - at least theoretically. The females can fight with each other's and with the male too. My advice is to place one pair per terrarium. Finding compatible pair is usually hard enough and finding compatible trio is usually pushing your luck, although it is possible. My friend had one male and two females in the same nicely sized terrarium. Surprisingly the other female bit away others front leg and tail tip. So these kinds of things are known to happen even after the skinks have been getting along great for some time. I also advice you to get the biggest terrarium you can when housing multiple skinks together. Space is important. My 4*2*2 feet terrarium proved to be too small for one of my pairs. For a pair 4*2*2 feet isn't even big, it is adequate.
Determining your skinks sex is very difficult. Males are usually bigger, but there are naturally very big females and small males. Some people say that dark ones are female and some say they are male. There might be both (note that Schneider's change their color from almost black to light grey very fast when getting warmer), but males are usually brighter in color and their orange/yellow line, running in their side from lip to tail is usually more obvious whereas it might be really faint or absent in females. Again, this is not sure way to tell the sex. The best way to sex your skink is to look at its body. Males have big jaws and broad head and their tail base is thicker than females. Females' bodies are more round as males are more angularly shaped. Only sure way to tell your skink's sex, is when they breed.
Because it is so hard to tell which sex your skink is, don't count on that two lizards get along. If you're thinking about buying two skinks, then you should be ready to house them separately if they don't get along. If skinks have gotten along fine before, it doesn't mean, that they will do so in the future. During breeding time or sudden stress from moving, they can get into serious fights. If you notice severe signs of aggression, separate your lizards. Don't confuse this with mating, where the male usually bites the female on the neck. Although I have seen females bite males from neck. Keep only same sized lizards together, and make sure they both get their share of food and basking sites.
Shedding
Schneider's behaviour changes a bit before shedding. It is an exhausting process for your skink, and it takes a lot of energy. That is why a week or so before shedding you can notice that your skink gets more passive and it's metabolism slows down. Because of this, you skink might not be as greedy as usually and it might not defecate as frequently as usual. Most of my Schneiders skip defecation almost for a week before shedding and on the day they'll shed, they produce a huge amount of feces. Your skink might also hide and rest a lot more than usual. This is more obvious in other specimens as others act like nothing is happening prior to shedding.
Sneezing
Schneiders sneeze once in a while. Usually while digging and it's perfectly normal. If your Schneider sneezes too frequently, make sure your substrate isn't too dusty and that you have right temps and humidity in its terrarium.
Written by Aino Tuomola 2000-2002