Hey guys. Got this pair of Giant Leaftails in from LLL on April 15th. When they arrived they were calm, walking around and tasting their new environment, drinking water misted on them and both caught crickets on their own and ate. But the male seems to be starting to deteriorate.

I had read they didn't need UVB, but decided it couldn't hurt and they've had it on during day light hours starting three days ago, its a ReptiGlo 5.0 tropical UVB light. There is a 75 watt night glow heat light on one side of the cage 24/7 for heating. They are currently in a 20 gallon tank (a 24"long x 18"deep x 36"tall is on the way but could be several weeks until its here because it got back ordered, very untimely...) and the humidity we've been trying to keep as close to 75% as possible but it definitely dips down in between our two to three times daily mistings... The males eyes looked a bit sunken in afew days a go which is what first made me look closer. He seems to be a bit weaker than when he arrived, and doesn't seem to eat on his own. If we hold him with his arms down, he opens his mouth in a display and we're able to drop some crickets and wax worms (which he doesn't seem to like as much?) into his mouth as well as some water. Today he doesnt seem to be even trying to drink the water misted on him. But at least he still swallows what we put in his mouth.

The female seems to be doing a lot better but I can't help but worry for her too. Her tail was a bit curled today, and his has been too the last several days. When he first came in it was held perfectly flat. What does this mean? Dehydration?

I work at a pet store, and we've started getting in a new kind of cricket called "super" crickets. They are larger, softer shelled, and higher protein. Since they seem to not care much for the wax worms, this should be great I think. I also heard they do best on roaches but no one in the area uses them, and I think these new kind of crickets will be practically the same as them, which is good news.

Any other tips? I just snapped a couple new pictures of them. How do they look to you as far as weight, tails, etc? Their spines seem to show a bit, as if the flesh over the vertebrae were rubbed a bit in shipping. I really want them to make it, not just because they were my big birthday present, but because they are one of the coolest and most tame sweet reptiles I've ever gotten to see in person. I absolutely adore them... Thank you for your time.

Madisynn

Male first:



Now the female:

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