About Us

This “About Me” page is being written by Yvette’s husband. I am in a unique position to write this as I have watched her grow in her love for reptiles and find her passion in Uroplatus phantasticus. And so, by the power invested in me by having admin access to her website, I bring to you the behind-the-scene story of Yvette and her phantastic geckos.

Yvette’s introduction to reptiles came through helping me with the reptiles I kept.  She took to them right away, though more in a maternal way than a reptile hobbyist way. There were mostly chameleons, but geckos and frogs were well represented. Uroplatus phantasticus was just one of many species of geckos to be in residence with us. Yvette was always deeply involved with care and feeding, but they were always “my” reptiles. That was until one evening she surprised me by informing me she wanted Uroplatus phantasticus of her own. We had been breeding them for a number of years at this point but only casually. It was more of a side thing where, upon finding a new baby in the large well planted vivarium they lived in, I would feign exasperation at Yvette bringing home a new gecko without telling me. Which was witty, at the time, because she would never do something like that. (Fun times at the Strand household!) Well, that is a thing of the long past. She now goes to reptile shows without me if my schedule does not permit my attendance and I am a guest in her reptile friend circle. Arm candy. That is all I am. Oh, how the tide has turned. I had no idea how to take this new, more personal, interest other than to say I would support her in whatever she wanted to do! And thus Misty Mountain Phants was born.

Here is Yvette ready to go out herping in the Santa Cruz mountains in Northern California.

Of course, Yvette’s photography of her phants is beautiful!

Here we are enjoying the reptile show life at the Reptile Supershow in Anaheim, CA January 2020.

Our visit to the reptile show in San Francisco. When it comes to reptile shows we tend to get around!

This is Yvette’s first wild snake caught while herping the Santa Cruz mountains in California. This is a ring-necked snake.

If you want to get on Yvette’s good side then saying a kind word about shiba inus won’t hurt your case one bit. Her two shibas are the loves of her life! No, I am not worried, her heart is big enough for me and a whole cacophony of phants too!

A rare meeting of the Uroplatus minds! From left to right: Dre Morales, Lawrence Erickson, Yvette Strand, (arm candy husband, Bill Strand), and Jason Varian.

One thing you will notice about Yvette and her website and that is a deep focus on the vivarium environment. Most of the time, when we are interested in a reptile, we get a caresheet and create a cage for the reptile. Yvette spent her formative reptile years thinking about the vivarium environment. Our phants were in relatively large vivariums and she cared for the entire vivarium – not the geckos. You can see this approach in her cage build example. The idea is that if you create a vibrant, living environment that the geckos will take care of themselves. Of course, this must be done with regard to proper temperature and humidity so you will see a caresheet provided on this website! Although Yvette makes strategic use of plastic plants and smaller cages as is necessary, she is constantly searching for appropriately sized live plants, oak branches, and leaf litter leaves. The more natural the better.

I must say that listening to her taking care of her phants is hilarious. She knows each and every one and I often get a run down as to who is getting along with whom and who needs to be moved in “with a man she will respect”. There is a complete community and soap opera going on in there. But I know each one gets individual attention every night. So, yes, the babies she has produced are as healthy as they are because the mothers have been given the best care since they were babies like their mothers were before them.

Yvette can often be found searching for branches and leaves from the parks and plants from the garden centers.

Yvette’s phants each have their own naturalistic cage to call home.

Whenever I help Yvette with her geckos or just look over her shoulder I always bring the camera. There are such great scenes in every cage she cares for!

I am lucky to be her husband. It has been a blast being surrounded by these little gargoyles and it has been a joy watching her experiment with what the best husbandry is for these little guys. We joke about the chameleons vs geckos rivalry, but she loves chameleons as much as I love geckos. I am excited to see the results of her experiments of the effect of different levels of UVB and dietary vitamin D3 have on health. And how various levels of dietary vitamin A to the mother affects the health of the baby when it hatches. There is so little known about the nutritional needs of reptiles and information is especially scarce on the more rare species. So it is exciting being part of the process of figuring some things out. Even if it is just looking over her shoulder as she gently assists a shed or helping carry an armload of fruitfly cultures from the kitchen. I enjoy my support position very much and am just waiting to see what is next. Many of my cages have disappeared into her gecko room and I have been given notice that Smaug, my New Caledonia Giant Gecko (Rhacodactylus leachianus), belongs there too.  So, yes, things will always be interesting!

Branch collecting expeditions are considered some of the best dates in this household!

Life is just plain fun with the phant girl!

My Smaug is being claimed by my gecko loving Yvette!

Can she really do that? Where’s the rule book?!?!

The Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko, Uroplatus phantasticus, is Yvette’s specialty and her single focus. When purchasing a phant from her you will get a most incredible creature to bring into your home. From Misty Mountain Phants you will get captive hatched gecko in the prime of health that has been individually cared for from day 1. If you are interested in a Uroplatus phantasticus then you may email Yvette at mistymountainphants@gmail.com