Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all, I got my trio of Fimbritus today and MAN these things are huge, the wife called me at work and said your going to s!!! your pants, LOL and they look like a crocodile.
Anyway, One of them is slightly dehidrated ( curled tail ) what is the best way to get them hydrated ?
Also How long do you leave lights on ?
I will take picks soon, Just got them today.
Thanks,
Jim Scharphorn

Jim,

Put a large plant in the shower, like a 4 foot tall ficus or a tall snake plant and put the geckos on it. Shower them in tepid water for about an hour (more if you like). Turn the shower off and let them sit in the shower for another twenty minutes, then place them back in their cage.

Thats what I do with my fimbriatus and it seems to work well.

Also pedialyte through an eye dropper on the snout works.

Cheers
Jason

P.S. I nearly shat my pants when I received one I call "big pappa." That bugger is atleast 12.5 inches in length.

Showers are the way to go! You should be able to get them rehydrated after one or two showers.

As for your light question...I have my sikorae under a reptisun 5.0 for twelve hours a day during winter and ealry spring and switch to 14 hours a day in the summer and early fall. I usually just switch with daylight savings time. That way it's on a schedule every year.
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ryan
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Uroplatus sikorae

"You should be able to get them rehydrated after one or two showers. "

I realize this says SHOULD. However, I think this is a misleading statement. Severely dehydrated animals (with fully curled tails) can take weeks to completely re-hydrate. It may only take a few showers to flatten the tail, but you have to continue to watch them, as this is usually a temporary thing and they will revert to a dehydrated state again very quickly.

It is a good practice to shower at least 2x a week (daily if visibly dehydrated) for the quarantine period (at least 60 days), and once a week after that for maintenance purposes. Fimbriatus are pretty famous for looking fine one day, and the next looking like they've had nothing to drink in a week.

Good luck.
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I have just noticed a dramatic difference in animals after only one or two showers. This was very surprising to me. Regular showering them for maintenance is important. I guess I'll write more detailed responses from now on. I recently obtained a pair of lineatus and they experience the same quick dehydration you describe the fimbriatus having. One day they look great, the next day they look severely dehydrated. Showering every other day seems to work quite well for the lineatus. Showering also stimulates feeding responses.

Hey Leah, do you shower your uroplatus in the dark or do you leave the lights on?
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ryan
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Uroplatus sikorae

Ryan,

I believe lineatus have more demanding water requirements than the other species, although thats been a point of debate. It just seems like they need a good shower much more often than anything else.

Sometimes I shower them with the lights on, sometimes off. I have been playing around with both, and it doesnt seem to matter, they go thru the same progressive behaviors no matter the lighting situation. I am sure if you had a difference of very bright light vs. total darkness there would be a difference, but the light levels in our bathroom are quite muted, never being totally dark or very bright.

-L
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Visit us at www.wildeyereptiles.com

i would definately agree with the statement about lineatus needing more water than other uroplatus ( but remember, i've only delt with lineatus, sikorae, and phantasticus) i just wanted to point out that my lineds seem to dehydrate 10X's faster then my sikorae. i've been showering them atleast every other day and one certain male that seems to not be doing so well just about everyday. he's just started putting on some weight ( he was down to 28G!, other male without a tail is at 34, and the female is at 46.3) anyways, they're all doing pretty good now and the one is starting to put on some weight but i just wanted to emphasize the need for showering lineatus.

I have 5.2 lineatus and 3.1 fimbriatus, between the two species, they are identical in my opinion as far as dehydration. My female lineatus tend to go up and down daily while my fimbriatus tend to take two days to hit the fan as far as dehydration. I do weird experiments like no spraying for a day so I can figure out the far ends of the spectrum. I can say from those, both fimbs and lineds do not handle it well in comparison to my ebans, phants or mossies. So they get daily showerings for a minimum of an hour each. To me its easier to keep track of the time when I block out that hour for each species, time I can use to do cage work all the other groups of animals. my male lineds actually do much better as far as dehydration goes. I think it may be because I spent more time with them when I received the, back when I only had 2 Uroplatus cages. Now I've got 15, and its tough.

Also, I'm in a desert like setting (15-30% humidity on a regular basis). My animals fall down harder because of that.

Jason

i think that's what leah was hinting towards a few weeks ago when someone asked about fimbs. i'm looking into getting a pair in the next copule of months so it's nice to know what to look forward too.

I definately agree, the lineata demand much more water than my sikorae. Thanks again for expaining the shower technique in the first place. I don't think I would have been able to acclimate the lineata as well or as fast without it.

As for the light question, I was just wondering because my bathroom is either dark or sunshine. I usually shower with the light off, because it brings out their nightime colors, and the nighttime colors are so much better than the day, for lineata anyway.
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ryan
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Uroplatus sikorae

Maybe its not that the lineatus need MORE water (and fimbriatus to a lesser extent) but that they dehydrate faster..

I dont really know how one would distinguish one from the other for certain, however.
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seems to me that if one gecko dehydrates at a faster rate than another it would need MORE water...
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ryan
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Uroplatus sikorae

like others said, use a shower. i use a 58qt. tub with the top cut out and fiberglass screen caulked in the middle. i also have a few holes drilled along the bottom for the water to drain out. then i just toss a bunch of fake vines in there to give them something to hang onto. works like a charm.

and i decided to give mine one today. my newer female really doesnt like being handled, shes been the only one to gape at me yet. the male is also a lil jumpy, but the big patterned female is seriously like a frog when i try to move her around, she jumps like crazy. laurel, the female that ive had since september i think is the only one that will sit calmly on my hand while i try to move her around. now they're all dried off and asleep again.