[inguma]

Hello,

Anyone know what is the life expectancy of males U.sikorae sikorae ?..thanks in advance!

[Salzy]

The Uroplatus book by Svatek and Van Duin says 4 years, but I'm sure they live longer than that if you have really good husbandry and are careful with them.

We have a female that we got 3 years ago and she was an adult then already...who knows how old she was before she even came to the country.

[inguma]

..thank you very much for your quick response Salzy ,.. then at what age males can be sexually mature ?


cheers;
Iz

[pakinjak]

They mature at roughly a year. I'm with Kyle on the age, they will probably live a lot longer in the hobby if properly cared for, and I've talked with a couple of other more experienced keepers who have a similar view.

[Salzy]

I agree with Kevin on the maturity part also...roughly 1 year is pretty typical.

[inguma]

Thank you very much to both !!

...this age is general for all Uroplatus sp.?....and what is the life expectancy of females ?


cheers;
Iz

[pakinjak]

I think this is true is general and we haven't mentioned it thus far, but husbandry (at least here in the states) is still such that it might be hard to tell when you've lost a Uroplatus due to old age. They can have so many problems, and sometimes die of who knows what. I would love to hear first hand experience from some of the old-timers around here what the longest they've kept one is.

Now to the female question- You're gonna have a harder time keeping them alive than the males, there's just such a huge demand on them from the laying experience. I'd be surprised if they live more than a season or two in the wild. Who knows in the trade, but all things being equal I'd think it would be less than the males.

[uroplatus99]

Originally Posted by pakinjak

I think this is true is general and we haven't mentioned it thus far, but husbandry (at least here in the states) is still such that it might be hard to tell when you've lost a Uroplatus due to old age. They can have so many problems, and sometimes die of who knows what. I would love to hear first hand experience from some of the old-timers around here what the longest they've kept one is.

Now to the female question- You're gonna have a harder time keeping them alive than the males, there's just such a huge demand on them from the laying experience. I'd be surprised if they live more than a season or two in the wild. Who knows in the trade, but all things being equal I'd think it would be less than the males.

I have kept henkeli in the past (WC) for almost 6 years. I gave them away, and do not know how much longer they lived past that point.

As for the females... I have often wondered how much stress we put on them in captivity. Some of the things I have pondered in the past where:

How often do they encounter a male for mating? Because we house or keep them close by in our husbandry, how does this play with females laying eggs as frequent as they do? I know that most of my WC animals (the only exception is my female guentheri) took more than 2 years to acclimate and start producing good eggs. I know that the biggest part of this is climate change being in opposite seasons of Madagascar, but a lot of stress can be forced upon these animals if not in their natural habitat.

How much stress do they receive from our personal day to day interactions with them? Dogs barking, human traffic around the enclosures… all this has to add up as well. (This is something I feel that assist in CB Uroplatus being hardier, simply because they don’t feel threatened by their surroundings)

How often do they feed and get the nutrient for egg production in the wild? Sometimes mother nature assist in this, and I would like to think that in their natural setting, if food isn’t abundant, then they just don’t lay as frequent.

The large percent of us keepers don’t really know for sure (just out of documentation and what first hand information we can get out of folks) how the climate in Madagascar really affects Uroplatus. I would think that they were designed for it, and live life best in an area optimal for their existence.

Just my opinion, not really facts here.

[D.B.Johnson]

I have had a male ebanaui that started to decline around six years of age. I presently have a phantasticus male who is starting to show the same symptoms of the ebanui one. He is past six years old. I think that for the small species they can be considered pretty old at six. I think I remember reading someone on this forum who said they had a phant that was eight years old. I can't remember who that was off the top of my head. I personally believe that would be an exceptionally long lived one.

[gollum]

I have a male sikorae imported in EU in 2004 like subadult. He is still live and breeding at the moment.