Just showing off our new Giant Leaf Tailed Geckos :)

[geckomeister]

Hi,

If one is doing well and the other is in hard shape, then parasites or disease may be involved. Treating correctly for protozoans or worms can make a huge difference and save your gecko's life. Get a fecal done by your vet ASAP! I can help with experience treating parasites if anything turns up. With wc Uroplatus it would be odd if there aren't parasites of some sort.

Neil

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Hi Elizabeth
Yes the male is getting unflavored pediolite every day and he does drink some. But he still looks worse every day, poor guy

Yes I've got two hydrometers in there. It gets up to about 80% right after misting but goes down to about 40 or 50% I between mistings

Synn ~

Is that close to the recommended range for U fimbs? Potted plants with help keep the humidity up for longer if you need more as would a several inch layer of hy droton clay culture balls.

What are folks recommending for nutrition?

I know that for leos off food Hill's Science Diet, a/d formulation, available in the States from vets is recommended mixed in a slurry. But Uros are way different

 

[SynnAndVenice]

speaking of parasites...

Am going to go to the vet tomorrow to pick up a collection tube to get a feces sample for them to send away. But noticed the males vent looked dirty. Wiped it gently with a moist rag and then tried pulling what I thought was a little chunk of dried feces off and ended up pulling these two things out from him... What the heck??? Posted this on the diseases board too but might as well post here too. What is this?

 

[jadrig]

Sperm plugs...soemtimes they eat them off or leave them on the glass of the tank. Dehydration will curl the tail, but it is most likely a result of losing fat/muscle mass.

If you are going to force/assist feed him...do it every 2 or 3 days...give him time to rest and digest...not too much stress. They dont need to eat every day or even every other day...H20 is more important than food.
These animals, when initially healthy, can go atleast 2 months without eating(before dieing of course)...However, they cannot go nearly as long without H20.

oh... and for the WC Uroplatus not knowing what to do with a H20 bowl...
This freshly WC U.henkels seemed to enjoy the water from it. Also, if these geckos did not know how to locate still water, they would have died out millions of years ago.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Just an FYI, I personally would not recommended Hills Science Diet A/D formula in slurry for any gecko species. If you're going to bother to make a slurry, make it out of something that would be in their natural diet (insects, etc), not dog/cat food.

 

[Zsoulless]

Normally I would totally agree with Riverside Reptiles. But This is a proven old fashioned Vet trick.. It works.. Insects Have hard little shells and just dont work well in a slurry or we would use them instead.. No "if"s, "and"s, or "but"s about it..

heres a link to an Emaciation (Starvation) Protocol

 

[pumilio123]

Hello Synn and Vanice,

during to my experience on the Chameleon Forums, I often come to similar threads, people start to keep a more or less problematic species, often offered as too cheap WCs. Now comes the difference to 90% of the other persons who purchased animals without knowing very much about them: You realized that you did something wrong. And you dont start to insult people who told you the truth in, let's say it diplomatic a very direct way.
That's really great and I hope your new geckos will do fine in the future

Best regards
Benny

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Normally I would totally agree with Riverside Reptiles. But This is a proven old fashioned Vet trick.. It works.. Insects Have hard little shells and just dont work well in a slurry or we would use them instead.. No "if"s, "and"s, or "but"s about it..

heres a link to an Emaciation (Starvation) Protocol

I've worked in veterinary medicine for most of my adult life and have seen this "trick" used many times...mostly by veterinarians that didn't know much of anything about herp medicine and used this as it's a standard for sick pocket pets and other exotic/wild animals and so they figured it would work well for geckos as well. Geckos however are not mammals and should not be treated as such. Insects such as tropical roaches (especially the larger types) have a very low chitin to "meat" ratio and make for a fine slurry. I'm not saying that AD can't be used, but it has a ton of processed crap in it and I personally wouldn't feed it to any of my geckos...especially not a sick one. I'm not a big fan of Science Diet in general though. Also, keep in mind that Melissa wrote that 11 years ago! That's a HUGE amount of time when it comes to the development of current reptile medicine. We have come a long way since then.

 

[Zsoulless]

I cant say I totally Agree..

Also, keep in mind that Melissa wrote that 11 years ago! That's a HUGE amount of time when it comes to the development of current reptile medicine. We have come a long way since then.

But I cant fight you there.. Infact I must admit almost all of my Knowledge is Dated. I havent actively worked with Herps in almost 7 years. Just the advances in lighting alone has kept my nose in reading material..

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

I cant fight you there.. Infact I must admit almost all of my Knowledge is Dated. I havent actively worked with any Herps in almost 7years. Just the advances in lighting alone has kept my nose in reading material..

No need to "fight" anyone over anything anyway. We're all here to share experience. And there's often more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[Zsoulless]

No need to "fight" anyone over anything anyway. We're all here to share experience. And there's often more than one way to skin a cat.

:roll: The word "fight" was simple used to convey my ability to "Share" any information contrary to the allegation that said information May be "outdated"... ;-)

 

[jadrig]

When I make a slurry, i put a bunch of fruit flies in a bag, freeze them, then mix them in to babyfood/mrp/h20. Fruit flies go right through the eye dropper, plus give them 'insect protein'. I have 'killed' baby Phelsuma after feeding them heavily gutloaded roaches. I did not intend on feeding this group of roaches, so I was giving then crushed up 'trout chow'. I fed a few roaches and two perfectly healthy baby Phelsuma died. Could not be anything else besides the gutload.
When i did not have fruit flies available, i would cut up baby roaches so they would be easily lapped up with out being discared by a fussy gecko.

 

[SynnAndVenice]

Picked up a test tube to send a fecal sample into the lab with... We will see how that goes.

 

[SynnAndVenice]

Another update:

Got a fecal done. Results? NO PARASITES. I was seriously expecting a LIST of things this guy is infested with. We were left scratching our heads. HOWEVER, Last night when we took him out to give some pediolite to, his tail seemed much more flat. We figured it was just because it was against the tree branch maybe. But we just got home from work and his tail IS almost perfectly flat! His eyes also look less sunken in, the wounds on his spine seem much more healed, and he seems heavier and more plump over all! Maybe there is hope yet!

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Another update:

Got a fecal done. Results? NO PARASITES. I was seriously expecting a LIST of things this guy is infested with. We were left scratching our heads. HOWEVER, Last night when we took him out to give some pediolite to, his tail seemed much more flat. We figured it was just because it was against the tree branch maybe. But we just got home from work and his tail IS almost perfectly flat! His eyes also look less sunken in, the wounds on his spine seem much more healed, and he seems heavier and more plump over all! Maybe there is hope yet!

Good work! Sounds like perhaps this male U fimbriatus is turning around for the better. Really hope that his progress continues .

In a post Neil M. has recommended 3 separate fecals at 2 week intervals to check for parasites. What did your vet say?

Are you still giving them free range in a humid shower once in awhile?

 

[SynnAndVenice]

Hey Elizabeth I adore you for always being quick to reply and seeming genuinely interested in the well being of my sweet Uroplatus...

The male looks better every day. His frill is even out sometimes. His tail is pretty much always perfect. His eyes seem barely sunken in compared to our thriving female. Everything seems great. I also found out that the guy that supplies our reptiles at the pet store I work at actually breeds dubia roaches and I'm going to start getting a dozen from him every week for these guys, so that they are eating about half roaches and half crickets. Does half a dozen roaches/half a dozen crickets a week sound okay for these guys?

Will try to post a picture soon.

As for the fecals I will definitely do a follow up soon on both of them, since the vet that is located right next to my pet store is actually willing to send them in and give me the results for THEIR price, thats only $10 a test!!!

 

[jadrig]

I have a couple thousand dubias...they are good, but the Uroplatus dont usually find them as interesting as I wish. sometimes they will take them from a food dish, but they will usually take them from forceps. If you throw them in the enclosure, the dubia will hide/burrow. If you can get them to eat the roaches from your forceps, you are good.

 

[pakinjak]

I've heard that about dubia, and generally I would say it's true. However, it's been my experience to see no dubia during the day, but when I check at night they come out and crawl around. I'm just starting to do some nightvision videoing, so I'll be able to say more certainly soon. But I will agree that the dubs just don't get the feeding response of nasty ole' crickets, and that's a shame. I've never had any luck feeding from tongs, and I've tried pinkys with mine, no reponse either.

SynnandVenice- good to hear your male is turning around. Good job!

 

[Mallick]

Glad to hear everything is ok with them. Most of the cases wouldn't make it. You got a feisty little lizard there!

 

[uroplatus99]

The Rusty Reds (blatta lateralis) seem to work great with the Uroplatus I keep. From the baby U. sp. nov. aff. ebenaui, to U. pietschmanni, guentheri and phantasticus, all eat from forceps. When I was trying to pump a bit of calcium into my female WC guentheri, I would select excess large male lateralis because they would flutter a bit from time to time, causing a nice feeding frenzy. I try to feed all WCs I get with forceps so that I know they are eating, and I can control the amount ate.