Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well it turns out my female corkbark leaf tail has come down with metabolic bone disease or MBD in which a reptile is calciums deficient and bones become weak. I just wanted to post this as a warning to other uroplatus keepers. Metabolic bone disease is a slow process but it can go unnoticed for a long time. I did not notice it in my female till two days ago. I dusted every meal with calcium and vitamins as well as provided ultra-violet light. Even though I followed the rules to prevent this disease it still occured because of the breeding and the calcium needed for eggs. She has had 6 eggs just this season and is working on her 2 more. If you guys have breeding females make sure you cram them full of calcium. Through my research I also learned that crickets have an extremely high phosphorus content so your calcium supplement should not contain any phosphorus other wise it will minimalize calcium absorbtion. Anyway I have an approintment with a reptile vet tomorrow I hope they can fix this. She is my pride and joy and I would hate to lose her. It just figures that some corkbarks would come up for sale at the one time I can't get them. Anyway wish me luck. I sure learned a lesson the hard way.
-Matt

thats some horrible news, matt! and it was so good that you actually got her to breed and produce offspring. can you let us know what signs you picked up on? my phantasticus are my only reliable breeders so far, and i try to keep a real good eye on them, make sure they're active and all. how were her calcium sacs? i thought they were big? i guess all the calcium she was getting went to egg production? man, that's sad news, but hopefully you caught it early enough. i wish you and your gecko the best of luck, good thing you noticed this!!!

yeah, ive had a few cases of calcium deficiency with baby day geckos and baby chameleons, but its usually easy to pick up on the signs and bring the lizard back around. one of my adult female standings that i had in a cage by herself came down w/ metabolic bone disease. my brother introduced the male to her while she wasnt nutritionaly ready to breed. i was away in school at the time. he recorded it[courtship] for an independent study for one of his classes. She produced five good eggs, but within a couple days of the last egg she layed, her bones turned to jelly. she started to get muscle tremors and wasnt able to climb. her jaw folded under her and she died within a couple days after that. hard shelled eggs really deplete these females calcium supply. From what ive seen, the corkbarks have really thick shelled eggs compared to other geckos too. i hope she comes around though for ya

Hey Matt,
Jeez, that really sucks! It may turn out that after a few clutches, we may have to separate the pairs for a while and give the girls a break. Good luck with her.

Something to think about - just because CA is provided, doesnt mean its in a form that is useable to the animals. Providing calcium alone, even in the presence of UVB doesnt assure the exposure is high enough to synthesize is, afterall, you dont see a lot of basking, and my Pietschmanni in particular hate being in any kind of visible light. It is important to get a dust that contains Vitamin D3 so the body can process. Another option, although not as effective is making sure the calcium content in the gutload (through natural foods, not dusts)is high. THis is only useable to your lizard if they eat it while the cricket is still full from having consumed it.

Crickets do have a very backwards (remember the 2:1 CA ratio)calcium to phosphorus level, and the foods used to gutload them need to try as much as possible to reverse this ratio. We use our own gutload (which is currently pending nutritional analysis)in conjunction with Rep-cal pure ultrafine calcium powder with Vit D3, have been for years now and have never had an incidence of MBD, undercalcified eggs, etc.

-L
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good info. i was just going to mention that i've dealt with MBD 4 times. one time wasn't one of my animals and it was actually in a crested gecko at the petstore. it was only maybe 2-3 months old and had the " shakes", same for a bearded dragon that i had about 10 years ago ( that lived for 9 years after the mbd was noticed) third case was the veiled chameleon that i have now and is the first that was actually my fault due to poor husbandry on my part. it had muscle tremors and the whole works. it took about 3 weeks to get it back to close to normal. now the only thing wrong with it is it can only shoot it's tongue like 4 inches ( as opposed to 10-15) the last one is my frilled dragon. i purchased it from a petstore after getting it for a great deal because it had been there for 6 months. it doesn't have full use of it's back legs ( they are just a little weak) and it's " hip" bone just above the tail sticks out all the time despite the fact that it has had a near perfect diet for the past year and it always full.
my moral, all 4 animals that i've had or seen with it have recovered very well. i've switched to mercury vapor bulbs for the chameleon and the frilled dragon.
good luck with your corkbark!

lizards as well, especially during egg laying season. I breed collareds and some girls go on to lay four clutches, one every 2 - 4 weeks.

Some girls can lay up to 7 - 10 eggs maybe more. It takes a heck of a lot out of them. I make sure not to let the same females become gravid each year. Let them rest.

Also if I notice one of my girls has small muscle tremors, or twitchy toes, I give a few drops of liquid calcium syrup a couple times a day for about a week or so, then cut it back to every other day and them once a week, until a noticable difference is seen.

I find it very important with all females, of any species to feed well and condition them well before breeding season, NOT just during, also after.

Like Leah said too, Its very important to feed OUR feeders REALLY well....

People have to remember, our lizards are only as healthy as what our bugs eat.

I provide fresh food for my bugs each day, a large plate-ful so that they always eat, I can use them anytime. I know they have eaten as the plated is always empty.

Hope your girl improves quick Matt, Let us know how she does!
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PHEve/ Eve

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