Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone, new to the forum. About my leaftails, I have two beautfil Giants (fimbriatus) and am looking to pair them up with a couple of females and start breeding (hopefully). I've had them for a year and they're doing great. I have a couple questions I was hoping someone could address:

The manager of a very reputable reptile store told me snails are great for leaftails due to the calcium in their shells. He said that you'll notice an increase in color intensity and contrast after feeding snails. I was wondering if a lot of you have been feeding snails, and if so, where do you get them? I'm pretty busy and would prefer to buy them if possible, rather than scouting around the local ivy. Also, should I be worried about the parasites they carry. My leaftails are wild caught, so they probably have internal parasites anyway, right? Also, do I need to be concerned that the snails may have eaten something that would be toxic to my geckos?

thanks for any advice,

Derek

well, ive been trying out the good old snails for a few months now, and while at first i thought nothing was happening with them, i came to several occasions when i actually viewed some of my females eating, or at least trying to eat them. so far ive seen phantasticus take em, along with pietschmanni and henkeli. i dont have any in with my sikorae right now, but i wouldnt be surprised to see that female take one either. i've seen them go after a few large ones, which they actually couldnt take down. they would basically grab a hold of em, shake em up and try to crush the shell, but when that didnt work they just maybe bit a piece of the head off, which many of the snails will simply regenerate. the phantasticus is the only one ive seen actually take one down. i had the larger snails in with the others mainly as potential breeders.

yea, i know they can carry parasites, but as you suspect parasites are pretty much the norm in untreated WC's. it could be a risky maneuver, i get mine mostly from deep in the woods far from where they'd come into contact with pesticides. some parasites are also host-specific, so this might narrow them down a bit. so i cant guarantee your gecko will not get parasites from this, but i would say mine have taken to them pretty well lately.

Thanks. I wanted to ask you about the cork barks. I've seen pictures and they are amazing. Were they just recently discovered/classified? Also, what is a competetive price for a pair. I saw some listed at $400 per pair somewhere. Also, how big do they get and are they hard to manage like, say, the satanics? If I had some $$ to burn, I'd have to get a pair.

well, seeing as the way things are going right now, $400 is the top price that i would pay for a pair, although a year ago i got a pair at the local reptile show for a dirt cheap $100. they're very easy to keep, in my experience...great eaters and all, just they havent been as prolific breeders as my other leaftails have turned out to be. i cant really say leaftails are prolific, but ive seemed to have had a considerable amount of good luck with them. i've had a trio for about a year now. 2 pairs of infertile eggs (that ive noticed) and 1 pair of fertiles that i got to too late so i would say if you can hunt a pair down for less than $400, that would be a good price, although with the CITES quota and all, people have been selling them at HUGE prices. its probably gonna take you a good while to find a better price than $400 though.

Wild caught animals do have parasites, no one will argue that, but the deal with snails is they carry flukes, a parasite unlikely to be infesting Uroplatus - therefore you risk infecting them with a new and exciting parasite.

This doesnt guarantee anything, simply a precaution, and since they have been known to eat snails in the wild, they could very well already carry flukes...

You guys need to try pill bugs.. there isnt much more entertaining than watching the little ones go after them.
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