[jpmarcel]

I took a couple pics of one of my wild caught male p guimbeaui and my captive bred male.
The spots on the wild caught almost look fake they're so bright.

Has anybody come up with a true method of keeping that wild caught look!?

Jason

[Knobtailman]

Hello, those guys are awesome looking guimbeaui. Try taking them outside for a little bit each day or week or if you can't, put a UVB/UVA bulb for lighting. Also try gutloading insects with some carotene such as carrots or squash.

[Ingo]

Just use metal halide lighting of 70 w and up at a colour temp between 4000 and 5500K and you will see a difference, or better, will see vanish the differences. Take care to use modern versions with ceramic and not quartz globes for best effect.
Works faster if you take care for good vitamine, especially vitamine A supplementation.

Ingo

[jpmarcel]

Originally Posted by Ingo

Just use metal halide lighting of 70 w and up at a colour temp between 4000 and 5500K and you will see a difference, or better, will see vanish the differences. Take care to use modern versions with ceramic and not quartz globes for best effect.
Works faster if you take care for good vitamine, especially vitamine A supplementation.

Ingo

Can you suggest a certain brand name or website for the metal halide lighting?

Thanks,
Jason

[heiser]

Hi Jason,

Where/who were you able to get wc males? I know a few peole who would like some.

John

[PhelsumaUK]

Originally Posted by heiser

Hi Jason,

Where/who were you able to get wc males? I now a few peole who would like some.

John

There's no quota from Mauritius...so unless they're coming from Hawaii (assuming that they're still there and its legal to collect??) there shouldn't be any WC of this species available. The only Phelsuma legally available as WC are ...from Madagascar...P quadriocellata, lineata, madagascariensis and laticauda (inc sub species...the adjustment for change of classification of grandis etc didn't appear on this years quotas..)...and from Tanzania P.dubai. Anything else requires special permission for purpose of recognised captive breeding project/scientific research and wouldn't be available to purchase.

[heiser]

Originally Posted by PhelsumaUK

There's no quota from Mauritius...so unless they're coming from Hawaii (assuming that they're still there and its legal to collect??) there shouldn't be any WC of this species available.

Yes, this is why I asked. Hawaii is also closed as people were playing Johnny-gecko-seed and planting phelsuma in parks to collect them later and shipping them to the mainland as no CITES is needed between states. Hawaii closed the export of all reptiles to keep people from spreading them for profit (the same people also played Johnny-chameleon-seed with Jackson's). But, you can occasionally get a few from Zoos and I was hoping maybe a group came in (or Hawaii re-opened...fat chance) or a new feral population was found (e.g., Florida). The Hawaiins were always huge, colorful and male heavy. I used to be able to buy them all day long for about $90/$75 males/females in singles at shows and $30-$40 in multiples, but that was many years ago....

Regards,
John

[Ingo]

Originally Posted by jpmarcel

Can you suggest a certain brand name or website for the metal halide lighting?

Thanks,
Jason

Hi,

I am located in Germany, thus I do not know, if that helps.
However, I do prefer HCI NDL from Osram or CDM-T 942 from Philips.
For Phelsuma cages up to 25 g, a 35 W version is sufficient. Up to 100g, 70 W still does and for larger tanks I do use 150 0r 250 W versions.
In any case, you have to combine these bulbs with fluorescent tubings (T5 HO is best) to provide enough light also outside the Spot illuminated by the metal halide.
With the bright sun UV commercialized in Europe by Lucky reptile, we even have a metal halide in hand which provides significant UVB output.

Hope that helps

Ingo

[MagnusF]

Hi all,
Just wanted to comment on Ingos post.
Some Phelsuma species, among them P.guimbeaui, P.cepediana and P.laticauda ssp. do not develop the same colours in captivity as wild specimens. A lot of reserch have been putten into this with no direct answer. There are definitely moore factors involved then just lightning, even if this of course is very importante.
Then we come to boosting animales with vitamins, and mainly vit. A and vit. D3, and for that matter those two combined. Both are fatsolable vitamins those are highly toxic when overdosed (wich is very easy to do). It is very risky buisness to recomend lots of vit. A for Phelsumas !!!
Phelsumas do not respond well to high doses of vit.A
Regards
Magnus

[Ingo]

Magnus is right,

maybe I made it too short.
Anyhow, when recommending high doses of vitamine A. I of course imply that there is an awareness for the therapeutic window of this vitamine in Phelsuma. Of course "high" here is a relative recommendation to what is present in your standard Phelsuma food sources.
Please correct me, if I am wrong, but to my experience and knowledge, a dose of 100 iu/(week*kg) supplementary vitamine A is safe for Phelsuma, even if given on a regular basis.
With respect to D3, for Phelsuma I am convinced that there is no need to dose more than 50 iu/(week*kg) but threefold this dosis still is safe.
With respect to bright lights, to my experience, especially green and blue scale colouring has a high chance of responding well to almost natural light intensities (including UVA but not necessarily UVB parts of the spectrum).
I hope this more precisely expresses my opinion on the topic in question.
And again, Magnus is absolutely right stressing the risk in overdosing lipophilic vitamines. The same is true for referring to observation, that in some Phelsuma (eg cepediana), even with bright lights and balanced supplementation, captive specimens still loose color. But even in these cases, my impression is that colours at least benefit to some extend from these measures. Meaning they do not reach or fully maintain "wild habitat" colouration, but come closer to that than without such arrangements

BR

Ingo