common garden skink

Question
Hi Tracey,
my daughter has collected herself what is a common brown garden skink down here in Australia,cold temperate area. What do we feed them and do we provide a habitat mimicking that of our garden,  how often should we change or clean it, do we need to provide a little dish of water? it's winter now so do they need sun when it's sunny? Inside or outside? So far we have kept a tiny saucer of water and provided tiny baby crickets but is hard to tell if they are eating them.
(my daughter)Love to hear from you on this subject,
Regards Melissa.

Answer
Hello Melissa,

How are things in the land down under?  
They are so cute & so small.  They do need some gravel, mulch & some loose soil for substrate.  You don't want standing water but just a nice water bowl for him.  
The basking really doesn't need to be higher than 90 & the humidity can be around 40% or so, roughly.  
The small crickets & or small calciworms, or roaches are fine for him.  
I recommend a UVB light so he can absorb his calcium & vitamins better.  In Australia you should be able to find the Arcadia D3 12% tube bulb pretty easily.  What sized tank are you keeping him in?  
You can clean the tank out weekly, unless it gets really bad before then.  

Send some pictures if you can, or the skink.

Tracie