Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I have 9 eggs from my female Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis.
The first one hatched about a month ago, the second one a bit
over a week. The next one is due in 1-2 weeks.

I keep the babies in a small critter keeper on paper towels with
a hide place. I mist twice a day. The temperature is about 85 during the day and 75-80 during the night. There is no
fluorescent light right now. I have tried feeding pinhead
crickets, gecko poweder, and baby food (peach, apple, tropical).

The first baby, as far as I know, never ate.
When I put some baby food on a toothpick and smeared it on his
lips, he would lick it off. I did this several times a day,
but it's stressful. He died a couple of days ago,
quite evidently from starvation as in every other aspect he
was acting in a healthy way.

The second baby is not eating the crickets either, and as
far as I can tell, also only takes the food that I have started
to offer on a toothpick. He is more enthusiastic, but hand-feeding is stressful.

I raised a batch of babies a few years ago under almost
identical conditions and they did fine.

I keep the critter keepers in a large snake cage (visually
separate from the snake!), could the smell stress them out?
(However, I have done this with the last batch since it makes
heating consistent and easy and it worked fine.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Aleks

Hi,

You say that you have provided a hide but have you provided plants and bamboo...etc? They may feel vulnerable as the tank is not suitable for their requirements as arboreal species. do you provide vitamins in the fruit that you are offering them? if you are not providing UV lighting then you should be providing D3 supplements in the fruit mix in addition to calcium and multivitamins. How long after hatching did you wait before feeding them live food? My hatchlings wont eat live food from between 3-5 days after hatching. Perhaps you gave them the live food too soon and they are now 'scared' of it. What is the humidity in the tanks? the hatchlings need a higher humidity than the adults, providing live plants would help with raise the humidity.

Just a few points to think about!
regards
Julie
-----
1.0.0 Madagascan day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis madagascariensis)
1.3.4 Giant Day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis)
1.1.0 Leopard gecko (Normal and high yellow)
0.0.1 White spot gecko (Tarentola annularis)
0.0.1 Crested gecko (Rachodactylus ciliatus)

Hi Julie,

thank you for your reply. It'd been a while since I posted my question. I got several more babies, and they are all eating and growing now. Yes, they get calcium and vitamins with their fruit.
I fed them live food right after hatching, and that looks like
it was a mistake. They did seem scared of their food.
I waited several days with the other ones, and that
worked a lot better. The humidity should be sufficient. I mist
twice a day and their containers are inside a larger terrarium
that always has moist substrate. I've added more fluorescent lighting and upped the ambient temperature a bit, and they clearly loved that.
They don't have bamboo available right now--I use
pieces of paper towel roll--nor natural plants--not practical for
their individual setups--but am in the process of adding plants
to the large terrarium. (My breeding pair is in a planted,
tall terrarium with lots of bamboo, etc.)

Thank you for your reply!
I think for next year, I'll prepare a planted terrarium and
subdivide it for however many babies I'll get.

Kami