Today we’re going to look at how to select a cage for our satanic leaf-tailed geckos. 

Branch Demon Podcast

Episode 5: Selecting a Cage For Your Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko

Misty Mountain Phants | branchdemon.com

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INTRO 

The first thing we need to figure out when deciding to get a phant is what we’re going to keep it in. And that is where we first realize just how many options are out there.

So today we’re going to look at what is important when it comes to cage selection for our satanic leaf-tailed geckos.

My name is Bill Strand. You are listening to the Branch Demon Podcast, dedicated to the husbandry of Uroplatus phantasticus.

The major aspects of a cage to consider are size, shape, and type. We’ll work through each one. And even if you’re just going to get whatever cage your breeder recommends, there’s real value in understanding why that cage works — so let’s dig in.

CAGE SIZE

When I started in reptiles many decades ago – in the previous century, no less – the pet stores, which were my only source of information, had me thinking about cage size as a certain proportion of body size of the reptile. Although we have come a long ways from that in certain areas, we still have this sense of tying a minimum cage size to the size of the body of the reptile. And, that is not going to change easily because body size is a measurement which actually has a number. But the real way we should think about cage size is what amount of space do we need to create the environment that the reptile, in our case, a Satanic Leaf-tailed gecko, would thrive. We certainly start with body size, but we quickly expand our analysis to include their level of activity and the radius of effect of the equipment we use.

What do we know about the habits of the Uroplatus phantasticus? I can share what I have caught them doing in the wilds of Madagascar, but, if you already have one or more you can just watch yourself. They wake up, take in the world around them and then start to explore. At Misty Mountain Phants we find them climbing the walls, crawling along the branches and waiting for where they know the food magically appears. We have to have some way of gauging how much space they need. Of course, one could say they need a Madagascar size enclosure and I wouldn’t be able to argue against that. We need to acknowledge that keeping them in a relatively small space is a compromise on ideal husbandry. Thus, if we do make the decision to keep them in an enclosure we take on the responsibility to make sure the parameters within that enclosure are as ideal as we can get them. We restrict their movement with our cage size and reduce their feeder diversity, but protect them from predators, pathogens, parasites, hunger, thirst, and competition. So, have we, at least, balanced the scales? Can we tease out evidence that we have weighted the scales in their favor? That is our goal as Phant keepers. We reduce the stresses and compromises as much as possible. We amplify the benefits.

So, although 100% true, me saying to get as big of an enclosure as you can isn’t that useful. The purpose of this podcast is to give actionable steps and me showing you a single phant in a 4x2x4’ tall paradise bemoaning that I couldn’t give more is performative. I would certainly do a phant in a 4x2x4 when my Parson’s chameleons graduate to a larger enclosure, but the most useful thing we can do with our time here is figure out a way that we can all use to gauge how big is big enough for a single phant to lead an enriched life. How are we going to figure that out with a sliver of a lizard that has few ways to communicate. Well, we work with what we have. We phant keepers have special opportunity in that our geckos can crawl on the walls. Most lizards don’t do this! One measurement I use is how much time they spend on the walls of the enclosure. If the enclosure size is not big enough the they will feel the need to use the cage walls as part of their daily activity. And, it makes perfect sense that the more space they have the less they will feel the need to be on the walls. So, we can do our own test. And, you can decide your own opinion as to what level of only-branch use is appropriate. We have our two poles. Madagascar = no wall use and a 12x12x12 cube has a lot of wall use. Now, let’s be clear that using the walls as a perching surface does not mean they are in poor husbandry. We are not trying to eliminate wall use. There is nothing wrong with them using all surfaces available to them. We are just looking at what behaviors are available to us and interpreting what we can from them. And, in my personal case – which no one else in the world has to use themselves – I started watching how much time they spent on the walls. And the things that reduce wall climbing are enclosure size and perching or hiding spot availability. Essentially, perching spots are branches and plants. Kind of a simple formula. The more space for perching, climbing, and jumping, the less time they spend on the walls. I find you get a drastic reduction of wall time when you go from 12x12x18 to 2’ x 18” x 3’ tall. And then even less wall time, but not as dramatic of a change when pushed up to 2x2x4. So, this is how I figured out what my balance between enrichment and the realistic constraints of captivity would be. Now, obviously, the results of my approach are highly influenced by the amount and placement of foliage and branches throughout the enclosure. The more places for my phant to perch in the enclosure the less they will be looking elsewhere for a change of pace.

You are welcome to take my thoughts and apply them to your situation. You are welcome to expand on these thoughts and, please, if you do, share your thoughts with me. You are welcome to come up with your own method of deciding the best enclosure size for a phant and I would love to hear alternatives. I would love for there to be more brains on the issue of deciding what enrichment means for a phant. It is important for us because that is our goal. But it is no where near clear how to do it. So, it will be a community process as we all put our heads together. My wall time test is my ante. It gets us to the table. But the real question is: who’s going to raise me?

CAGE SIZE, CONTINUED: THE MICROCLIMATE ARGUMENT

Another consideration is what it takes to create the necessary microclimates. The more options for environmental conditions we provide to our phants the more they can move about to find the right temperature, humidity, and exposure. If the only place they can feel safe and hidden is too dry then they now have to choose between physical comfort and emotional security. We want them to have areas they can feel secure with different temperatures and humidities. So, you can imagine that, instead of thinking about providing temperature and humidity gradients across the entire cage, we think about providing temperature and humidity gradients in the open and a range of those parameters in the cover of foliage. The more we provide their ideal temperature and humidity range the less cage space we waste for being too hot or too dry. Our brain puzzle right now, though, is figuring out how much cage space we need to provide the range of environmental conditions they need. When you have a 12x12x12” enclosure you have mostly one environment that changes with time rather than location within the cage. A soil floor can add dimensions to the conditions, but not a whole lot. So, the entire longevity and health of your phant rests on how well you know that ideal husbandry point. The further away you get from ideal husbandry the more stress accumulates just by living. The smaller the enclosure the more responsibility you take on to make it perfect. The larger the enclosure the more choices you can give your phant to make those decisions itself. Obviously, that is a better solution because, not only does what they need to feel comfortable at any given time change, but the communication between us and them is very limited.

And, I suspect you may be saying that all this makes sense, but how does it map out to an action item in the real world? Well, since a phant’s needs for temperature and humidity will change with day/night/seasons/health/etc…we can’t know what they will need at any given time. This is why giving yourself space to create their environment is so valuable. It is precisely because we don’t know what they need that we give them options.

Now, a quick note on the relationship of equipment and microclimates. We have been talking about cage size, and that is the topic of this episode, but the creation of microclimates depends on the strength of your equipment. In a small glass enclosure, heat from just a white light can build up to dangerous levels. You have much less danger with that using the same light in a larger enclosure. But our UVB lights have a limited range of effectiveness. If you rely on UVB light for your D3 synthesis you will find a smaller percentage of your cage has your target UV Index as your enclosure gets larger and larger. We have to know our equipment. Just because we have a large cage doesn’t mean we automatically have a wide variety of microclimates. We have to build out those microclimates and use our equipment strategically. The point is, you need the space to world build.

Right now, in our community, small cages are common for keeping phants — not just a single phant, but often pairs or trios. Part of the reason for this is that phants show relatively low intra-species aggression, so people have gotten away with it. Part of it is that when we look at phants during the day, they appear to be doing absolutely nothing. Which is true — they’re sleeping. They’re nocturnal. That stillness we observe doesn’t tell us anything useful about how much space they actually need.

Watch them at night, and you get a completely different picture. These are active geckos. They move, they hunt, they jump. And if we’re going to keep them happy for ten years or more, we should give them a cage that lets them do all of that. So, allow yourself to reconsider small cages.

Here at Misty Mountain Phants, we’ve used the standard smaller sizes and they have worked. But we’ve also seen a real, noticeable difference in behavior and activity when you move a phant up to something like 2 feet wide by 18 inches deep by 3 feet tall. The animal simply uses the space differently. More movement, more varied perching choices, more natural behavior at night.

My latest phant is going into a 2×2×4 — that’s 2 feet wide, 2 feet deep, and 4 feet tall. That gives her plenty of space to explore and be active throughout her waking hours.

So if it were up to me, I’d put the minimum phant cage at 2 feet wide by 18 inches deep by 3 feet tall, and go larger if you can. I’ve seen enough of a difference in activity and behavior to say with confidence that this is a meaningful step up in quality of life for your gecko.

CAGE SHAPE

Now, cage shape. The main distinction I’ll focus on is vertically oriented versus horizontally oriented.

The natural assumption is that a vertically oriented cage must be better because phants are arboreal — they live up in the trees. And that’s not wrong. Height allows a lot of gradients – especially when our lights are up on top of the cage. But phants don’t just travel vertically. They move horizontally too. They jump. They cover ground across branches, not just up and down. The horizontal dimension is just as important as the vertical one.

This thought is very important for the Uroplatus species keepers that keep sikorae, Henkel, samieti, fimbriatus, lineatus and any of the other vertical trunk sleeping Uroplatus. Those guys are bounding all over the place when they are awake. If you have an enclosure that only has vertical branches you have built a sleeping cage, not an awake cage. They need horizontal space to move about during the night. But someone else will have to champion that cause. My responsibility is the Phants!

CAGE TYPE: GLASS 

Now let’s talk about cage type. The most commonly used cage for phantasticus right now is glass.

The reason is straightforward: glass is excellent at holding humidity. And humidity is one of the most critical parameters we need to maintain for phants. They need it high so anything that helps you hold that moisture in is working in your favor.

On the other hand, glass also holds in heat, which is worth keeping in mind because phantasticus actually want it on the cooler side. So be thoughtful about your lighting choices with a glass cage — you don’t want to create an unintentional heat trap.

One critical thing any phant cage needs is airflow. Stagnant air — even at high humidity — is not healthy. Fortunately, most modern glass terrariums have addressed this. The commonly used Exo Terra and Zoo Med glass terrariums both feature ventilation ports that take advantage of the chimney effect: cooler air enters near the bottom, warms slightly, and rises out through the top. That passive airflow makes glass work. An aquarium, which is designed to be water – and air – tight doesn’t work as well because there is no accommodation for air flow.  When you’re evaluating any glass cage, make sure those vents are present. They are, usually, right below the front doors.

The limitation with glass becomes apparent when you want to go bigger. Glass gets heavy fast, and it’s fragile. Manufacturers resist making very large glass terrariums because they’re difficult and expensive to ship without breaking, and the weight becomes genuinely problematic at larger footprints. This is why, as phantasticus keepers start thinking about more enriched setups — larger spaces, more complex interiors — the conversation tends to shift toward PVC.

CAGE TYPE: PVC

PVC cages are the answer to the size problem.

PVC panels are lighter weight and can be shipped flat, which makes it practical to build large cages without the weight and fragility concerns of glass. This is how I’m able to use a 2×2×4 for my phant — it’s a PVC cage. And if you want to go even bigger, 4×2×4, 6×2×4 — these sizes become completely manageable in PVC. It becomes progressively harder do that in glass.

PVC holds humidity well. It does retain heat, so you’ll still need to be mindful of your lighting. PVC cages typically come with more ventilation than glass terrariums — usually screen panels or vents that let more air through. For a phant, this can initially seem like a problem, but it’s easy to manage: block off part of the screen until you dial in the humidity level you need. Every design will have its own characteristics.

The biggest practical advantage of PVC,  other than size, for phants, though, is drainage.

Adding drainage to a glass cage is a real challenge. You either need to drill the bottom — and drilling glass is not something most of us want to tackle — or you need to build a drainage layer inside the cage and then figure out how to periodically remove that water without disturbing the whole setup. It works, but it’s a workaround.

PVC cages can be built with an active drain port from the start. When your cage drains properly, you can mist and fog as much as your phant needs without worrying about saturating the substrate. The soil layer stays healthy, the plants stay healthy, and you’re not fighting a waterlogged bottom. For anyone planning a bioactive setup this is significant.

DRAGON STRAND AND PRACTICAL SETUP CONSIDERATIONS

I do want to mention that I personally have the advantage of owning the Dragon Strand caging company. I designed the Dragon Strand cages for arboreal lizards — specifically chameleons — but phantasticus come from the same corner of the world as many chameleons, they’re arboreal, and they have virtually identical housing requirements. So the design carries over perfectly.

One thing I’m particularly proud of in that system is the Dragon Ledges — branch mounting anchors built into the sides of the cage. They let you lash branches and plants at any height along the cage wall, which lets you create a floating garden style interior.

The cages also have built-in ports for foggers and misters, and a drainage tray is included. For setting up an enriched phant cage specifically, these features eliminate a lot of the problem-solving you’d otherwise have to do.

That said, you can absolutely make any good-quality cage work. Whatever you choose, just make sure you’ve thought through the answers to these questions before you buy:

• How are you getting plants and branches mounted at height, not just sitting on the floor?
• Where does the water go? All that misting and fogging has to go somewhere. What’s your drainage plan?
• How is the mister or fogger getting into the cage? Not all misters ship with universal mounting hardware. If you’re using a glass cage, look for misters with suction cup mounts. If you’re using PVC or a screen top, you’ll need mounting wedges. Find this out before the equipment arrives.

SCREEN CAGES

I’ve mostly glossed over screen cages, and there’s a reason for that.

For most phant keepers, most of the time, screen cages won’t work. Phants need humidity levels that are simply higher than a typical home environment. The moisture just escapes too quickly. Unless you’re in a usually cool, humid climate or you’re caging inside a environmentally controlled greenhouse or grow tent, a screen cage, this isn’t where most of us should be looking. But, it is important that you know why because if you, for example, have a greenhouse or a grow tent that is keeping the entire room in the perfect phant conditions a screen cage is not only acceptable but the exact right decision! In fact, creating a room size environment is much easier than constantly maintaining a cage size environment. But, as I said, this is not an option for most of us.

OUTDOOR KEEPING: AN INTERESTING ASIDE

Which brings me to something I want to briefly acknowledge without necessarily recommending: outdoor keeping.

I’m not going to advise this for most keepers, and definitely not for beginners. But it’s worth knowing it’s been done, because we may learn something interesting from it over time.

I kept a phantasticus outdoors in Southern California for at least two years. I know what you’re thinking — Southern California, hot and dry, that sounds like the worst possible environment for a cool-humidity species. But it is possible, and the trick is in how you build and set up the enclosure.

That phant went into a fairly large outdoor screen cage — heavily planted, with a soil floor that acted as a humidity sink, and a dedicated sprinkling system. The combination of deep shade, dense foliage, and moist soil creates a temperature drop. When it’s genuinely hot outside, a heavily shaded, moist interior can be meaningfully cooler than ambient temperature. It’s not magic, it’s just physics.

The downside was that the cage was so heavily planted I had a hard time actually finding the animal during routine checks. I know she was thriving — I found her two years into the experiment — but constant monitoring was very difficult.

This was possible in Southern California with the right setup. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest or another genuinely cool, humid region, the case for outdoor keeping gets even more straightforward. And for those of you with years of experience who want to try something different — it’s an interesting direction worth exploring.

But for the purposes of this series, we’re focused on indoor keeping. That’s where almost all of us will be.

SINGLE HOUSING: SETUP FOR NEXT EPISODE

One last thing before we close out. Throughout this episode, I’ve been presenting caging in terms of a single phant.

Phants have low intra-species aggression and so breeding projects have taken advantage of this to be able to keep pairs and trios together. This is done for space rather than because it is good for the phants.

Though, you ask, if breeders have been able to keep phants alive, living together, for ten years can it be that bad to keep them together? The answer to that comes down to whether you want your husbandry to be focused on what is best for the phant or what they can tolerate. And, because I am presenting a view that goes against the current normal husbandry I bear the burden of explaining myself. While I can present anything I want as what I have decided, as a podcaster that focuses on education, it is appropriate that I present my reasoning so that you can look at the logic and decide for yourself. Thus, the entire next episode will be dedicated to why we should be keeping phants individually. I don’t mean to bring up an important topic and then push it off, but it does require that I lay out the thinking behind it. So, consider this conversation to be continued next week.

If you are interested in exploring larger cage sizes you can find larger cages designed specifically for arboreal reptiles at dragonstrand.com. These are cages I have designed with unique features to meet our needs.

My name is Bill Strand. This is the Branch Demon Podcast. Take care of yourselves — and I’ll see you next time in the Night Forest.

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