Let’s talk about how to spoil our Satanic Leaf-tailed Geckos. They will be living in the enclosure we make for them for ten+ years and so we want our little branch demon to have all the luxuries we can give them!
Transcript (more or less):
Branch Demon Podcast
Episode 4: Spoiling your Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko
Misty Mountain Phants | branchdemon.com
There are some things in this world that make you stop and get lost in wonder. It’s those sunsets that take your breath away, when the cat who hates everyone chooses your lap to curl up in, or that first sip of coffee on a cold morning that tastes exactly right.
Well, I had a moment like that a few weeks ago when Yvette brought in one of her egg hatching containers and showed me a newly hatched phant. I was immediately mesmerized by this tiny dragon taking its first breaths and getting right to the business of working through its first shed.
Yvette Strand, my wife, is the heart and soul of Misty Mountain Phants, which breeds Uroplatus phantasticus, the Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko. How I got so lucky to have my wife decide that Satanic Leaf-tailed Geckos were her passion in mid-life I’ll never know. But this means I am able to experience these moments on a regular basis.
But this one wasn’t like all the others. Yvette and I have been working on developing an outreach that highlighted enriched care for Satanic Leaf-tailed Geckos. And I needed the one phant I could call my own. Not a foster care situation – I often help with unexpected baby overflow and such. No, this one would be mine. I have been slowly working on the large enclosure and waiting for the one that would live there.
Yvette walked into the den and presented this little night fury, already doing away with the first shed that all phantasticus must work through to greet the world with a new skin. She was amazing. And Yvette said, this is your girl. And, all the thoughts and action items and day-to-day challenges disappeared.
This was my girl.
My princess.
And I am going to soil her rotten.
Intro:
My name is Bill Strand. You are listening to the Branch Demon Podcast where I take you along on this adventure with me and Yvette as we explore the husbandry of the Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko, the Uroplatus phantasticus, or, as we like to call them…Phants.
The Baby Night Fury:
My little girl won’t be going into the 2x2x4’ enclosure I have been working on just yet. She’ll go through the standard baby raising care that all of the phants hatched here at Misty Mountain Phants go through. Although I could easily take her as a baby and raise her up myself, we decided that we wanted to have this one go through the exact stages that any phant going to any of you would and I would follow the progress with this podcast – give you an inside look at a phant breeding facility! So, I am going to have to be patient.
Sigh.
Being patient is overrated.
In the meantime, I can share with you how I am going to set up this cage.
But, first, I want to answer a question some of you might have – a first shed on hatch day? Is that normal?
Yes! Every phant, and, actually, most Uroplatus, have a layer of skin that is optimal for the environment inside the egg. They have an embryonic skin. As soon as they hatch, they get to work shedding off this embryonic skin for their new, fresh terrestrial skin. This is normal and every phant goes through it. It is also, actually, a dangerous time. If your husbandry conditions they hatch into are not proper, they will have a hard time getting that shed off and this could be a health issue. And, if you help them you run the risk of losing that beautiful tail in their first couple days of life. So, this is an example of how we want to keep experienced breeders in our community, and, how just mating and incubating are not enough to successfully reproduce this species. But if the conditions are correct and the baby is strong, this first shed is dealt with quickly. Sometimes you don’t realize what happened because they eat the shed! Evidence disappears!
So, anyway, my delicate little princess is eating her shed now. Such a sweetie!
While she is doing what phants do and is raised up, I want to talk about caging. I have been doing a lot of talking about giving our phants enriched care and going beyond the minimums. But, what exactly does that mean? I am afraid there are no definitive answers. Our phants can’t communicate directly and we can only infer what they need by watching their behavior and making educated guesses. For my personal study I combine observing the behavior of a multitude of captive hatched phants in the Misty Mountain Phants breeding facility and sitting in the rainforests of Madagascar watching what they do in the wild. Well, more accurately, studying where they are, what the conditions are, and what the elements are that compromise the home they have evolved to expect. And, all of this goes into figuring out what is best husbandry for them.
Laying out the direction
Now, I want to be clear. I don’t have all the answers. Like many of you, I am clawing my way forward with ideas, guesses, and extrapolations. And this is why it is so important to have community to share ideas with. We are all trying to figure these guys out. And, while we do this, we have to constantly audit ourselves to make sure we are trying to figure out what is best for them rather than working to justify what most fits our human desires for keeping them or limitations in how we can keep them. And, if we do have to compromise a condition, we have to be honest with ourselves and those who look to us to be an example.
And, this is part of my plainly laying out the difference between the breeder husbandry mindset and the keeper husbandry mindset. If you remember last episode I talked about how the breeder mindset was more about production and efficiency and the keeper mindset was more about enrichment. How do we reconcile these two approaches? Production is necessary for community growth…enrichment is necessary for understanding and executing the best husbandry possible. Everyone will have their own take. In the case of Yvette and I, we are coming at it where, for the next year or two, she will handle the breeding production and I will be presenting and developing the enrichment husbandry. I will be shifting our care guide to more and more embrace enrichment over minimums. And, our goal is to transition over to a small batch breeding facility that combines breeding and enrichment within those two years. Over that time, I’ll share why it is easier said than done as well as share the behind-the-scenes transition. We are a very new community and I have a vision that we can get to the enriched breeding stage of our community quicker than other reptile communities have simply because we know where we are going. And, if there is one thing I know about community forward progress is that it does not happen by talking about it. It happens when someone goes out on a limb, plants a flag in the ground, and becomes an example of what it looks like in the real world. And, if I am the one with these visions of where we can go, then it is only right that I provide the example of what I am talking about. So, that is the reason for this podcast and the reason why I am taking you along this two year journey. This is happening in real time so I can’t say how this will turn out or whether my timeline will be hit. We are going to embark on this fool’s crusade together!
And, to be clear, I am not the only one with these aspirations, visions, and ideas. I just happen to be one with these aspirations, visions, and ideas that also happens to live in a breeding facility and have the ability to produce a podcast. So I will absolutely be bringing on and help highlight others in the community that are working to be examples themselves of enriched husbandry. This is not a star player effort. This needs to be a community effort for it to work. We need examples of what it looks like, but we also need the community to say that is what I want. So, we are all in this together and, yeah, I am glad you are listening and, maybe, have decided to come along for the ride.
Cage Approach:
There are two approaches that will be enormously helpful in demonstrating what phant care can look like. The husbandry focused enclosure and the inspirational enclosure.
The husbandry enclosure is one that covers all the aspects of proper phant husbandry in a way that is easy for beginners to reproduce. This is one if you follow the guide you will be able to do it yourself – and it will look like what you want!
The inspirational enclosure is the one that you look at and you get lost in the beauty of it. It makes you want to be a better keeper. Yes, it covers all the husbandry aspects of keeping a phant, but it also speaks to beauty. But, to do it, even with a video guide, takes skill and what you end up with is often not what you saw, unless you have that skill in enclosure building!
Both of these approaches are critical to our growth as a community. For our community to be solid we need a reproducible design that any one joining our community can replicate and have solid enriched husbandry. We also need something that we aspire to for personal growth.
And, so, I am going to provide both of those here over the coming months. And, this is where there will be video and .pdf supplements to the podcast. The audio podcast is a unique medium where you can relax and we can talk about concepts. These episodes are for listening while you drive to work, exercise, or do chores. Podcasts go along with you in your life so there is time to develop concepts. Video tends to be very needy as far as wanting both your ears and eyes and doesn’t let you do anything else! So, in this podcast we will talk about the concepts, I will paint audio pictures, and then, when you get back from your dog walk, you can take a look at the videos on the Misty Mountain Phants YouTube channel or the guide on Misty Mountain phants dot com website. This way, you get the best of all worlds!
The first one I want to go over is the simple and reproducible husbandry enclosure. You will be able to reproduce this with the most basic of skills. This is where we start. And we will slowly develop the skills necessary to bring in that elaborate orchid and moss filled paradise. All in good time…but, we will get there!
Now, you may ask, what is the difference in husbandry quality between what I am terming the “husbandry” enclosure and the elaborate breath taking, set-up? And, here is where we acknowledge that there are two major elements when constructing an enclosure. There are the husbandry conditions that give the phant what they require to thrive and be healthy and then there are the elements that serve our reason for doing this in the first place – to have a slice of nature and a source of wonder in our home. These do not have to be conflicting motivations and, if we do it right, there will be a one to one overlap. But there can be a set-up that provides everything your gecko needs to thrive, be healthy, and be enriched that does not have rare mini orchids sprouting from the walls. The simple, reproducible husbandry enclosure I am taking about is the collection of all that is important to the gecko. The elaborate inspirational enclosure builds on what is important to the gecko and adds on a supercharged helping of what is attractive to us humans. It doesn’t mean the inspirational build is better for the gecko. It means it is more attractive to our human brain. But, let’s not diminish the value of making what we get from this more significant. The more we love what we do the more we will end up doing it.
So, examples…a husbandry set-up would be one that has all the environmental gradients, microclimates, branches and live plants. An inspirational set-up would add waterfalls, mossy knolls, rare orchids, and other things that bring peace to us. By inspirational, I mean the kind of stuff you see on the SerpaDesign Youtube channel. The kind of stuff that inspires me to be better and learn more. Tanner from SerpaDesign has that covered and I have work to do to be that awesome. I am working on it and will share that personal journey with you. Today, though, I want to share with you the design I am going to use for my new phant girl. This is a design you will be able to do for yourself because I have refined it specifically to be able to be reproduced. You will be able to give your phant a large, enriched environment giving her (or him) everything she needs using this design. And, it looks pretty good too
I am going to paint the picture with words because this is a podcast. Keep driving or doing chores or just relaxing. You can see the visuals on the show notes on Misty Mountain phants dot com and the build video on the Misty Mountain Phants YouTube channel when you are done listening here.
The Cage:
I’m using a Dragon Strand Black Tall Hybrid Cage System. That’s about 2 feet wide, 2 feet deep, and almost 4 feet tall. That’s 16 cubic feet of space.
I’m putting one phant in it.
The height is great and allows me to create microclimates and levels for my phant to explore. Although this is a vertically orientated enclosure, Don’t discount the value of cage width. I see phants go up and down in the wild, but I also catch them going horizontally. Luckily these are small geckos and so 24” is a pretty good width, but don’t hesitate to go wider if you have the space!
I’ve installed six main branches. Not just one or two – six. They range from thumb-width to wrist-width in diameter. Some are straight, some are curved. Some are smooth-barked, others have texture. And, they go all over the place. I want to make sure my phant has options for sleeping and branches that allow her to explore.
I’ve arranged these branches to create three distinct vertical highways from the bottom of the cage to the top. Three completely different routes. Each one has different branch diameters, different angles, different levels of cover.
She can take the route through dense plant cover. She can take the route with more exposed perches. She can take the route that’s mostly diagonal climbing with frequent rest points.
Choice is a cornerstone of enrichment.
The Plants – Living Architecture:
I’ve installed plants at different levels.
Canopy level: Trailing Black Pagoda Lipstick Plant creating a green ceiling. Filtering light. Providing cover from above. Thick leaves that’ll hold water droplets when the mister runs.
Mid-level: A Fabian Aralia growing up from the cage floor to fill out the middle area.
Ground level: A bed of leaves. Ground cover creating a soft, moisture-retaining base layer.
Why all these plants? Three reasons.
First, humidity. Live plants transpire. They help maintain that moist air phants need.
Second, drinking surfaces. Those broad leaves hold water droplets after misting. That’s how phants drink in the wild – licking moisture off vegetation.
Third, security. Plants create visual barriers. Hiding spots. Places to disappear into even though you’re just inches away. That’s psychological security.
The Details:
I’ve got the Dragon Strand Hybrid cage sitting on top of a Crosscutt’s 2×2 Bioactive stand that gives me the ability to have a full leaf litter substrate at the bottom with a 4 3/4″ soil layer. This gives me the opportunity to go bioactive with springtails and isopods. And it drains into a bucket so I can mist and fog as much as I want without worrying about flooding the cage.
I’ve installed an automatic misting system with two nozzles positioned to hit different areas. Morning mist at 7 AM. Evening mist at 11 PM. The nozzles are placed to spray the leaves.
I’ve added a fogger on a timer. It runs from 1 AM to 5 AM, creating that night fog she might experience in Madagascar.
I’ve installed lights on a timer. 7 AM to 7 PM. Phants are nocturnal so this is for the plant health and to create a day/night cycle.
This setup is optimized for one individual’s quality of life. For enrichment. For giving one gecko what she needs to live 10+ healthy years haunting these branches.
So let me bring this full circle.
What I’ve shown you today is more than just a cage setup. It’s a way of thinking. It’s understanding that you’re freed from breeding constraints. You can build something beautiful. You can optimize for one individual’s quality of life.
You don’t need to copy what breeders do. You can go further.
That cage I just described? That’s not the only way to do it. That’s MY version of enriched keeping that I created so anyone could give their phant the full benefit of . You might have different plants, different branches, different equipment. And that’s perfect. Because you’re creating YOUR slice of Madagascar for YOUR phant.
The key is the mindset. Understanding that you have the freedom to create something more than the minimum. That enrichment isn’t just decoration – it’s giving your gecko choices, agency, a more interesting life.
In this episode I talked at a high level about the cage elements to give meaning behind why I did what I did.
I’m Bill Strand. This is the Branch Demon Podcast. And there is more and more to discover in the Night Forest.
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Phants available at mistymountainphants.com