Just showing off our new Giant Leaf Tailed Geckos :)

[jadrig]

yeah, lateralis and crickets get the best feeding response...other than moths... It is a shame, especially since 5,000 dubias do not smell nearly as bad as 5 crickets...
Lateralis might be too small for fims though.

Hey Silas...are those the ones that I gave you...mine are all starting to drop oothecas :biggrin: now.

Pakinjak, you are probably right about the dubias coming out at night...I have baited loose lobster roaches into feed bowls by placing carrots or baby food in the enclosure. Fruit will definitely coax the roaches out to where they can be nabbed up, but I dont like roaches running around in enclosures. I was looking for eggs in my P.klemmeri cage and found a dubia that was larger than them with a couple of big lobster roaches.

 

[uroplatus99]

Hey Silas...are those the ones that I gave you...mine are all starting to drop oothecas :biggrin: now.

A few of them are yes. I ended up getteing a deal on some a while back, mixed sizes, added yours to them. I got 1000s of nymphs now, and hundreds of oothecas. I am about to set up a second colony now. These guys, once they get going... wow! I will soon never have to buy crickets again!! some of the females I have, granted may be small for fims, are still larger and fatter than any cricket i have ever fed to a uroplatus...

http://photo.silasswaim.com/albums/Geckos/roach_001.jpg

 

[jadrig]

yeah, those roaches are A LOT more prolific than the lobsters...and if you keep the adults fed, they will keep producing. I separate the oothecas and put them in a different container about every 2-3 weeks. After you have babies hatching out...it is too late to sort them;-). Also, make sure you put a couple hundred babies aside to breed for next year. The adults will all die around the same time...kinda like salmon, but not really. They are pretty hardy...and dont smell...too bad.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Synn and Venice ~

Just checking in. How goes it with your Uroplatus fimbriatus?

 

[SynnAndVenice]

Hey Elizabeth
The female looks great as always. Today she actually took a cricket right off the tongs for me which was very cool to see!
The male fluctuates. Yesterday we noticed his tail was curling again. We hadn't been force feeding him crickets bc his legs and torso looked nice and beefy so we gave him pediolyte last night and today pediolyte in the morning, two crickets just now, and will give a little more pediolyte before we go to bed. I bet he'll look better in the morning.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Thanks for your update. Are you then sometimes giving your male straight pediolyte via a syringe?

Hoping that in time the male will be thriving just like your female. They are fortunate WCs to have you guys as their new parents!! :biggrin:

 

[Madagascar Uroplatus]

SynnAndVenice -

I just wanted to say thank you for this thread! I just acquired a 2 year old male giant leaf-tailed gecko yesterday. I am not sure if he is wild caught or captive bred...the pet store got him when he was about a year old, and they've had him for almost a year. I have studied the species but I am still learning, like you are, so this thread is very helpful!

I pray your male continues to thrive, please keep us posted! I am curious being a newbie myself!

 

[aucturas]

I bred Fimbriatus for two years. my cages were the 260 gallon reptariums, 29"x29"x72" and they loved the space, i would put one Draceana going all the way to the top, several large diameter bamboo canes and large ammounts of bendy vines and some fake silk plants. coco husk as substrate and even uvb light reptisun 2.0 I had great success but had to stop for health reasons. Im just now starting to get back into it. oh, and if you can find it Leaf-tailed geckos, the genus uroplatus is the most amazing book about these animals, it was the only info i used to breed mine

 

[SynnAndVenice]

Hey guys. The male is doing great. We handfeed him via syringe pediolyte and a couple crickets once or twice a week, but he seems to be doing much better now. I actually caught him drinking out of his water dish yesterday, yay! His tail looks broad and great and his frill has even been out most of the time the last week or two.
Just added some live plants, some foxtail fern and a cute type of moss patched on the bottom. Looks really great and should help with some humidity.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Hey guys. The male is doing great. We handfeed him via syringe pediolyte and a couple crickets once or twice a week, but he seems to be doing much better now. I actually caught him drinking out of his water dish yesterday, yay! His tail looks broad and great and his frill has even been out most of the time the last week or two.
Just added some live plants, some foxtail fern and a cute type of moss patched on the bottom. Looks really great and should help with some humidity.

Hello Synn & Venice ~

Many thanks for your update :yahoo:! I have been wondering just how your male was faring. Your post takes some worries out of my mind.

 

[SynnAndVenice]

He seems to be a fighter. If we stop hand feeding/watering him, his tail gets crinkled again after a few days... Which is definitely starting to get to be a pain, but he's worth it lol. Gotta do it again tonight actually. The girl looks fabulous as always. Added some live plants to the viv, looks super pretty.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Uroplatus fimbriatus pros please comment.......

He seems to be a fighter. If we stop hand feeding/watering him, his tail gets crinkled again after a few days... Which is definitely starting to get to be a pain, but he's worth it lol. Gotta do it again tonight actually. The girl looks fabulous as always. Added some live plants to the viv, looks super pretty.

Glad that he is a fighter! I wonder whether something else is going on? Did you ever have his fecal rechecked?

Do you see him licking droplets off the sides of their tank? Have you seen him eat by himself?

What is your tank's humidity range?

Hope some experienced folks will comment!!!

 

[Graham_s]

Did we see any photos of your new vivarium? I don't remember and it isn't easy for me to trawl back through the entire thread now. If you haven't, then if you could post some photos then that may help.
What temperatures are you using at the moment?

I second rechecking the fecal sample as well.


If it works to hand feed and water him, then keep it up. They are certainly worth the effort.

 

[geckomeister]

I'm glad your male is still doing ok, but hand-feeding and watering shouldn't be necessary long term. Re-checking fecals can't hurt.

I noticed several posts about Uroplatus not being fond of dubia roaches. I find this odd as I have 11 adult fimbriatus in my collection, both cb and wc, and all eat dubia roaches regularly. Same goes for U. henkeli and U. lineatus, except that I give them somewhat smaller roaches. I used to hand-fed sometimes, but now I use a thin, flexible feeding dish set on top of a thick layer of moss to reduce snout damage when the geckos strike. I tried lateralis and had too many escape and found them too fast for some of the smaller Uros.

I alternate between crickets, dubia and superworms. The crickets and dubia always go over well, superworms are taken most times, but now and then one fimb or another won't be in the mood for them. Also, just because a Uroplatus doesn't respond to a particular type of feeder doesn't mean that it won't a month or a year later. I think that feeding more variety than crickets has been a factor in repeated breeding success. This species has to eat a good bit to be able to produce such large, hard-shelled eggs.

Neil

 

[pakinjak]

Neil, not trying to hijack the thread, but since you brought up dubias...

I've heard some rumors and rumblings that suggest the exoskeletons of dubias might impact Uroplatus. The species in particular were henkeli and fimbriatus. And yet, I have a Fimbriatus male whose favorite feeder is a full grown male dubia. What if any feeder size parameters do you use for your animals?

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

My lineatus LOVED dubia roaches. They would gobble them up like there was no tomorrow. What I found interesting was that they showed a major preference for the male dubia. I can only assume that it had something to do with the wings. Perhaps they reminded them of a similar native roach/insect.

 

[jadrig]

yeah, the male dubia have longer legs and run faster. My henkels would be uninterested in the dubia if they were not being feisty roaches. I use a white food dish so that there is a good contrast. My pietschmanni and phantasticus always pick the food bowl clean with the dubias...They like to stalk their pray.
It is always safer/healthier to give geckos 'smaller' sized items as opposed to the biggest roach they will eat. If the gecko gets ill or is dehydrated, they will not be able to pass the larger parts of big prey items.
I have a pair of sub adult henkeli that will only eat the dubia from dish if they are real hungry. The lateralis ALWAYS get a reaction out of fussy Uroplatus...but I only bowl feed/hand feed. I dont let any feeders run loose.
But...I would not have half of the animals that I do if I did not have my precious dubia colony.
I, personally, dont treat my Uroplatus for parasites that they may or may not have. I would imagine that the larger WC geckos have a heavier parasite load due to their diet in the wild. It would be more important to get him eating on his own.
I find it odd that he is getting the nutrition through assisted feeding, but does not have the will to hunt on his own...

Is he regurgitating the food at all?
Also, what do his feces look like...is it solid and well formed?

 

[oli]

I realize that the fimbriatus don't need it as humid as say phantasticus, but sometimes dehydration is not caused from lack of fluids that the animal drank, but lack of moisture in the atmosphere. It's just strange that just the male is affected. He may just be really stressed out by constant attention. Perhaps it would benefit if you covered the enclosure with a sheet so that they couldn't see you just for the time that it takes for him to acclimate. If the male is eating and drinking on his own, that is a great sign =) It really sounds like you are dedicated to the cause which is very admirable.

 

[jadrig]

well, most times...the tail is not shriveling from dehydration, but lack of nutrition. The tail stores some fat, but it is mostly all MUSCLE. I have noticed several hydrated animals fade/start to die. their tail starts to shrivel without having anything to do with dehydration. If the animal is eating and not quite hydrated enough...the tail will be more firm. The trick is to make sure that that he is not regurgitating the food when you assist feed him and passing solid feces.

 

[SynnAndVenice]

I'm thinking you are right that the tail is now showing signs of fat isntead of dehydration. We've been misting well every morning and evening before/after work and they've both been drinking almost every time right away. But the males tail seemed a bit thin this morning so we just hand fed him two dubia roaches and some pediolyte, bet he'll be looking tip top by the morning.

THe problem with the roaches is that they burrow... So I don't want to free range feed them in their enclosure anything besides the crickets. So I forcefed the female a couple roaches too since I want her to have variety...

Oh yeah, I witnessed the male hunt and eat one cricket several days ago though I think he'll be fine. We are hand feeding him pediolyte and crickets/roaches less and less. I think he'll be fine. This is the first time I've had to hand feed him in almost two weeks!!