Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok im currently feeding my female who is about 4.25 inches long 1/4 crickets...different care sheets say different sizes. Most say 1/4, some also say 1/2 would be good too...one even said 3/4s....ok 3/4s is a little drastic but does anybody else feed 1/2s to theirs?

if your so stubborn on a cage size why bother asking about an appropriate meal size. funny huh?

depending on where you are in the country, ask for 3 week old crickets. Age is a better gauge for sizes because 3 week old crickets are typically too small or too large for an adult to eat.

im not stubborn on tank size ill probly be gettin a 20 extra tall sometime next week

LMAO...seriously thooogh...feeders should be on most insectavores no longer then the width of the head of
said herp. it's an old, probably out dated rule but
works. i've seen herps gaged to death from too large
a food item, tails eaten at, stress herps climbing up
as the larger crix became hungry...horrow stories from
houston too! but you should start looking at housing first,
then as the breeder what they feed and do the same. i know
you're excited but slow down or you might miss something.

you need to concern your self with:

what type of food? cricket, roach, pill bugs, field plankton
what type of gut load? dog food, cricket chow, bird food, fish food...
what type of ability you have to house the feeders in a clean container! one cricket my leopard gecko friend had checked out has 6 total rods for bacteria. all it takes is a feeder filled with the wrong type and you'll be nursing sicks herps until the moon looks red!
naturalistic vivariums

i am excited ill admit that...but im not stressin breeding...im just gettin a 1.1 pair cuz i came across a female while in the process of getting a male. I always make sure my feeder bins are cleaned...clean them 3 times a week...and have lobster roaches breeding to take over the crickets...thats if the uro's will eat the roaches if not ill keep a small container small crix for them. Tomm i plan to buy an exoterra cage as recommended by Neil Meister in an email, gettin the 18X18X18 version...housing 2

Ill probly be breeding cresteds before i really try satanics...and i dont have any cresteds at the moment if that gives u an idea of the time period im predicting.

i'm trying many types of roaches, lobsters and blabuis (sp).
email me offline, and i'll try to get you his address. he's got tons of roaches and is great to work with.

Just to let you know right off the bat I have never kept Uroplatus phantasticus, my post is solely based on my experiences with Uroplatus pietschmanni. I would say that 1/4 in. crickets are way too small. I fed my U. pietschmanni 1/4 in. crickets when they first hatched and they were only 2 inches long then. My Uroplatus pietschmanni are now about the same size as your Phantasticus and I feed them 3/4 in. crickets and sometimes larger. You would be surprised how much they can fit into that mouth of theirs.
-Matt
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www.madagascarherp.com

I have been feeding my adult phantasticus 1/4" crickets for the last year. However, I buy them in boxes of a thousand and by the time the Phants and ebenuai finish them off, some of them are easily 1/2s. Also, on occasion when I ran out of 1/4s I have fed them 3/4. They don't seem to have had a problem with them. I usually save the 3/4 for the larger species though like the pietchmannu, fimbriatus, sikorae and henkeli.

Tanya