[Phelsuma04]

A buddy of mine recently received 1.2 P. mad. grandis at a reptile show (an adult male and two sub-adult females. He is having trouble with feeding.

He had the male set up in an exo terra that I believe was an 18 cube and the two females were together in a 12x12x18. I told him to separate the females because they may be stressing one another out. Of the three only the smaller female is eating (odd if it is cagemate stress usually the larger one outcompetes the smaller). He thinks the larger female (which isn't eating) is having shedding problems.

The male not very active and he says it doesn't run away when he goes in the cage. He also says it licks baby food which he dabs on its nape.

I told him to leave them alone as best he can and keep a baby food/honey mix in the enclosures at all time. I also mentioned he should keep them separate and feed one insect every 2 days. Any other advice?

I've never worked with grandis so I am at a loss.

[Gecko_Danny]

I think that you should follow that advice and separate the females.

[dedula]

Hello, he should separate the females. One of the females will be always dominant. This female will be aggressive to the other one. Phelsumas are very territorial. It's good to keep only one male and one female.

[Phelsuma04]

So separation is a must. Any ideas on getting them to eat. Anybody have any tricks. I recently had a problem myself when I purchased a 2 week old baby klemmeri but I just kept trying the usual heavy misting, small enclosure, 1-2 day old crickets for one hour per day and baby food at all times. Now that klemmeri eats from my hand! I've never dealt with grandis though and I understand they can be a bit more finicky.

[dedula]

I have the same experience with grandis. I can feed them from my hand. Female has more courage. She takes the crickets from my hands and she licks baby food from my hand also. I started to tried feeding from tweezers. She started to eat from tweezers very fast. Than I tried feeding from hand. She started to eat from my hand very fast. It all takes one and half month. She sometimes jump on my hand. Male isn't coureaged enough. He eats from my hand, but he has never jumped on my hand.

[Phelsuma04]

That's really cool! My klemmeri aren't that bold but they will come up to me. I love how curious they are!

[chadosborne]

12x12x18 is really to small for a pair.

[frogsnbugs]

You need to go with an 18x18x24 minimum tank size. They others are way too small. Also need lots of places to be able to hide, big strong leafed plants like Snake Plants ( don't know there proper names) The backing on the tanks are useless. They LOOK pretty, but I took all mine out. All they do is let all the crickets hide behind them. I also heard that the crickets will eat that backing, then the Geckos eat the crickets? Can't be good!

[Sgvreptiles]

If you raise the temp(Hot spot around 87+) It should boost there appatite as long as there basking. Throw some crickets in there and they will eat!