Uroplatus?

[NigelMoses]

I was looking at a site recently for a region in Madagascar I can't remember what area but I did find it interesting from the sun up, sun down information that it was a rather constant high of 13 hours of daylight and the lowest it dropped was a few minutes below 11 hours of day light even during the dry cool season. Temperatures were rather constant as well. I know all areas are different but I found it interesting that it did not drop much below 11 hours of daylight.

 

[j_izzle8930]

I hadnt considered moving them every semester or lights on all night.

So,
Just be sure to request a room mate that is obsessed with reptiles and you can turn your dorm into a reptile room. Administration would probably frown on this so dont tell them. Make sure to have all the room lights on timers and turn your mini fridge full of booze into an incubator. Late night studying will have to be down in friends dorms so that you wont disturb their light cycles. Try to find a college with a herptology dept so that you can get in good with the teacher and ask them to take care of your secret reptile room during breaks.

 

[Phantasy]

Or just wait until after school.

Cheers,
-Matt

 

[miguel camacho!]

Though this doesn't really get you into the actual locale of the geckos, it will give you an idea of how little change from month to month there is in their natural habitat.

The averaging across months has the potential to greatly reduce the resolution (i.e. dampened highs and lows). Even though we're dealing with animals that are from fairly stable yearly climates, don't let it lull you into a false sense of security that keeping the animals in constant conditions is the way to go. I'll always maintain the opinion that long-term successful breeding and growth of leaftail geckos is dependent on maintenance of cycles to mimic "home" in Madagascar. Although, I'm sure there are probably successful breeders out there who would probably disagree.

I put together some data last year to illustrate the seasonal changes in climate for four distinct areas of Madagascar.

Climate*Graphs*-*Madagascar


Cheers!

Luis

What year did the data for the graphs come from? Average monthly temp is of course something of interest, but daily max/min temperatures are also of interest for giving us better understanding of the possible thermal limits of these guys. Of course, that still neglects the details of the microclimate. But the overall fairly cool temps just reinforce my opinion that people should have air conditioners during the summertime if they're keeping some of the Uroplatus species. People wonder why their spring/summer imports are so difficult to acclimate. It's because an animal who is set physiologically to go into the cold season is now being exposed to hot temperatures in otherwise suboptimal conditions, sometimes potentially above peaks in temperatures the animal would have seen if it were back home in Madagascar.

And I've never heard of sunshine hours before. I looked it up and it was basically described as the monthly average number of hours of bright sunshine. I'm really left confused when looking at the graphs of sunshine hours because it doesn't follow the logic of daylight I've always known. Some of those yearly levels have a bimodal appearance. Thenagain, it appears as though there may be some error in the data used to create the graphs. Not pointing the finger at you, Luis, more that the resource for the data might have had issues here and there (such as the downward spike in the avg monthly temp graph).

I hope people recognize from those graphs, at least, that our seasons we experience here in North America are opposite from Madagascar. So keep the AC blasting in the summertime, but heat never has to get too hot in the wintertime. Otherwise, you could try to "relax" the reproductive stress (along with any other phsyiological/biorhythmic stress) on your animals for about a year as you transition them to the Northern Hemisphere way of life once the animals have been sufficiently acclimated. Could this be the reason why so many people have a year of frustration when they first get involved with species of Uroplatus?

 

[crestedtimm]

All I have to say is that I like to keep my animals outside here in Florida. do a little research on what our conditions have been here in Bushnell Florida for the last six months, or even the last week and you will be an idea of what these geckos can and do tolerate very well.

It is very rewarding to go outside on an exceptionally warm day and see the coloration that my henkeli, fimbriatus, sikorae sikorae, and pietchmanni are showing. On the same note, when was the last time most of you had a chance to see what your animals look like at 50 degrees (F) or lower? After a lengthy summer thunderstorm? In the middle of summer when it is in excess of 90 (F) in the sun but through strategic placing of full mesh cages and spraying, the animals fare just fine.

Im fortunate to live in the far south, and I cant quite dial in conditions like those of you with climate controlled rooms, misting sytems and helix controlled racks, but I get a certain type of satisfaction from letting nature do most of the work.

Try and utilize what ever facets of the natural approach that you can take from my advise, using the sun for a few hours per week may make a big difference, having small screen cages that may be used to expose animals to rainstorms, and perhaps even putting breeders outside and allowing them to get colder than what our over-standardized husbandry literature has yet acknowledged.

 

[luevelvet]

Some of the data is from the Uroplatus book and some of it is from wunderground.com archives. I downloaded data for each month in 2009 and simply created the charts from it. I tried to choose four distinct locations, including one with a higher altitude.

Now with all of that said, if someone can provide more accurate data, I would be happy to chart it up, but it was the best I could find at the time.

Luis

 

[Brand0n]

wow im def glad im waiting! i have been gone for a bit but i went to a pet store that has EVERY uroplatus species in there AND 2 random turtle that just wander around the floors lolz... good prices for LTC uroplatus too! they had fully grown henkeli and spearpoints! was sooooo hard not to get either of them or the sikorae lolz and when i said somthing like "uroplatus fimbriatus" (they had a few) i just got blank stare like WTF??!? took me a bit to remember the common names... im glad i didnt in the end because i wouldnt want to risk anything!

 

[pakinjak]

wow im def glad im waiting! i have been gone for a bit but i went to a pet store that has EVERY uroplatus species in there AND 2 random turtle that just wander around the floors lolz... good prices for LTC uroplatus too! they had fully grown henkeli and spearpoints! was sooooo hard not to get either of them or the sikorae lolz and when i said somthing like "uroplatus fimbriatus" (they had a few) i just got blank stare like WTF??!? took me a bit to remember the common names... im glad i didnt in the end because i wouldnt want to risk anything!

Feel free to tell me where this pet store is, and I hope we live in the same state... or area... or region.

 

[uroplatus99]

Feel free to tell me where this pet store is, and I hope we live in the same state... or area... or region.

I was kind of thinking the samething. :idea:

 

[j_izzle8930]

Once in a blue moon I carry uroplatus in my store....then I buy them and take them home. Im surprised the people at that store dont do the same. Also surprised that they didnt know what you were asking about. I would try to find out who runs their reptile department and talk to them. Maybe they are even on this forum

 

[Brand0n]

its in tigard oregon! the owner is quite nice and knowledgeable! they have 2 huge turtles that roam the floors and some crocs... also a good size komodo like thing! i believe its the reptile house that i went to!

 

[Brand0n]

Once in a blue moon I carry uroplatus in my store....then I buy them and take them home. Im surprised the people at that store dont do the same. Also surprised that they didnt know what you were asking about. I would try to find out who runs their reptile department and talk to them. Maybe they are even on this forum

the owner knows but i think the employees each have a "specialty" the girl there knew everything about the leachies and cresties but the guy knew all the stuff for the big stuff and snakes but the exotics... i had to go to the owner!