Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My first baby phantasticus hatched Sunday 22 (after 94 days) and it has yet to begin feeding. It shed Sunday (all is out of the way), the temp is 74-76 F, and good humidity, there is a potho, dead leaves and plenty of twigs to dangle from. I have it in a 2.5 gallon Kritter Keeper so it actually has a chance at the crickets. I have been trying to feed it 1/8 to 1/4 inch crickets, but it looks like it could eat 1/2 inch cricket. I stay out of the way of my paraniod geckos so I am definitely not handling it just checking on it a few times a day. Anyone who has succesfully raised a baby phant please respond with what I am doing right or wrong. I have four more eggs incubating now, but I want them all to thrive. I wish I could post a pic, but my camera was stolen a month ago.
Ashton

How do you know he isn't eating? If he was able to go through his first shed on his own, chances are it is a healthy hatchling and will begin to feed on its own. Just keep the temps cool, the humidity high, and don't mess around with hatchling. I know it is hard, but it is best to just leave them alone. Not to mention, it only hatced out 3 days ago, just give him a little more time.

Steve

yea, mine took a couple days to get adjusted and start eating. what i did is i got a fruit fly culture, and kept them together in a small critter keeper. you'll have to have a fine kind of screen to keep the flies in the cage, but you can even try some sort of thin cloth. i didnt worry about the lighting they received. what i did was let them get side-light from another one of the surrounding tanks. once large enough, i move them up to dusted crickets. get the smallest ones you can find because these babies are tiny. you could even try pinhead crickets to start with, but the flies did me well and it was easy to culture them. i kept moistened moss on the floor of the cage, and provided some sticks for climbing. i kept it really simple so it was easy to observe them without having to dig thru. keep em moist and very importantly keep them cool (i kept mine at the high 60's) because heat stresses the tiny babies very easily.

good luck!

I have not touched it since I moved its enclosure, I don't handle any of my geckos unless for cleaning reasons. I don't sit in front of the enclosure staring for 5 minutes either, so I really don't think I am freaking it out. I think it may have eaten Wednesday night though (much fatter today, no crix remain). Also, its tail has an unusual shape, it roughly resembles an upside down heart shape (with the point of the heart being the base of the tail) with the tip of the tail coming out of the heart's "cleavage." Any ideas what may have caused this?
Thanks,
Ashton

...

Weird. I started my U. Phantasticus hatchling on fruit flies as well, it took them readily on the 2nd or 3rd day. I'm going to try to refrain from repeating what others have said but I must say that it is imperative you keep the temperature low and the humidity high. CB Phantasticus do not appear to be as skitish as the adults so if you have a red light, or a really dim desk lamp etc. you can observe them without really disturbing them . . . assuming you aren't dancing around in front of the terrariums . . .

sorry i cant help with the tail i would have to have seen it to even remotley guess, and event then i probably am not much help. I agree with everything everyone else has said. keep temps low, humidity high, and feed small food.one thing i did diferent was that i us uv bubls on my all may cages, babies included. my babies (now juvi size) seeem to be brighter and are growing quite rapidly on the fortified crickets, assorted small outside bugs and uv lighting. i also think that that is why my female keeps laying eggs like she has. this is just my personal opinion but it works for me and i am not going to change it anytime soon.

i have seen 'bug traps' in pet stores, along with guides for building them in reptile & amphibian identification literature. if you had a good spot, away from use of any pesticides and fertilizers, to plant this light-operated insect catcher, you could possibly overcome the difficulty of finding small enough prey for the hatchlings, should pinhead crickets and fruit flies be unavailable at local pet stores. just like any porch light, the insects are attracted to light at night, and the contraption draws them into the light, where they fall into some sort of catching apparatus. one way i found to make the fruit flies less mobile (or completely immobile) was to put them in the cold for a few minutes. they would drop to the bottom of the bag, and therefore wouldnt all fly off as soon as i tried to put them in the cage. granted you dont want to freeze them too long and kill them. the cold will just kind of stun small insects for a short period of time, and you might find this a method to make searching through any wild caught prey for suitable insects a little bit easier. otherwise, youll soon find out how easy it is for flying insects to become more of a nuisance than a food source. once again, good luck!

Thanks to everyone for their input. Friday night I actually witnessed it feed a few seconds after I dropped the crickets in. I breed a few smaller geckos than phants so I really never go without 2 or 3 sizes of tiny crickets. Ive gotten the temp down to 70-72 so that may have helped. Thanks again for the advice. I will post pics as soon as I can afford another camera.
Ashton