Nutrition

Let’s talk about powering that little dynamo!

Uroplatus phantasticus is an insectivore. This means that they live off of eating invertebrates. This is mainly because that is the bulk of what will fit in their mouths! At Misty Mountain Phants we provide them with a great variety including crickets, roaches, grubs, worms, flies, and isopods. Though they have made it quite clear to us that they prefer crickets and only occasionally will they express interest in our other offerings.

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We make it a point to feed insects that are as long as the width of the phant’s head from eye to eye. Larger insects have a chance of giving the gecko problems whether in swallowing or actual fighting back. So we err on the side of smaller rather than larger. The staple food for the adults is the two week old cricket and our phants seem to be happy to live off of these. We feed five to ten every other night to adults and every night to gravid females.

We use the Arcadia EarthPro-A supplement on our crickets for each feeding. This provides ample calcium. Our vitamin D3 comes solely from UVB. Every phant cage has ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 T8 UVB and 6500K bulbs above them in a dual bulb fixture and set up so they provide UVI 1 at the top of the cage. Thus Misty Mountain Phants is a 100% UVB operation. This means we do not give dietary D3 in our supplementation. U. phantasticus is a species that requires much calcium. If you do not have UVB lighting then you must provide vitamin D3 in your supplementation. As we have elected to go the natural route of providing UVB we have not established a recommended supplement with D3 or a dosage. We have used Repashy Calcium Plus LoD once a week in addition to the calcium dusting every feeding with success.

Discussions with other breeders shows that there is a wide range of UVB/supplemental D3 combinations that work. We do know that other breeders use both higher UVI and dietary D3 with great success. So we believe there is much “headroom” in what we are doing.

The crickets are also cared for and gutloaded. We receive them and ensure they eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and premixed feeder diets such as “Cricket Crack”. The fruits, vegetables, and grains follow the seasons. When it is in season the crickets get it! This strategy is used because we just do not know what is required by U. phantasticus. By constant rotation we ensure our geckos get as wide of a variety of nutrients as we can offer.

Of course, there is always the question as to whether our diet, supplementation, UVB, or gutloading is sufficient. And we constantly evaluate our success for areas of improvement. The two biggest signs of health are 1) Fully calcified eggs and 2) healthy babies.

Calcium. One of the more challenging parameters to establish is the amount of UVB or dietary D3 to give a reptile. As the wild provides a wide range of values from UVI 0 at night to beyond UVI 10 in the afternoon U. phantasticus has a wide range of values to choose from. They are undergrowth species and nocturnal so it is assumed that they would want low UVI value. But we do not know how they utilize the sun rays that get through the canopy above. Even in the underbrush they can easily place themselves so they are hit by sun. So there needs to be a reliable feedback mechanism to let us know if we have been successful in providing the gecko with what they need to thrive. The golden standard is if a female is healthy after laying completely calcified eggs. This is the time of greatest draw of calcium. If the UVB was insufficient, symptoms of hypocalcemia would manifest. This would be a precursor to conditions commonly termed “Metabolic Bone Disease”.

With UVI 1 available and no dietary D3, we regularly receive fully calcified eggs. In addition to this, our females often show calcium sacks by their cheeks. While it is unknown whether these calcium sacks are healthy or undesirable, they show that there is no issue with calcium being absorbed. So we are comfortable with our husbandry as far as D3 synthesis. (Note: it is the presence of vitamin D3 which allows calcium to be absorbed from the gut.)

Vitamin A. As vitamin A in its final form is found in the organs of vertebrates it is doubtful that U. phantasticus gets much pre-formed vitamin A through their diet. Although we must always allow for the possibility that there is an insect in their native range that provides them with preformed vitamin A, it is worth exploring whether they are effective converters of carotenoids. For example, beta carotene is a carotenoid which humans use to create vitamin A. It is for this reason that we use Arcadia EarthPro-A. It has a focus on providing a wide range of carotenoids. The Repashy Calcium Plus products also have carotenoids in them so if you are using Calcium Plus or Calcium Plus LoD you are giving both preformed vitamin A and carotenoids. You do not want to give too much vitamin A so we have gone the route of providing carotenoids. So, how do we know we have it right with our choices? The only way we can measure this is by the health of the babies hatched from mothers on our protocol and raised up until they produce healthy babies themselves.

The advantage of getting vitamin D3 from UVB and vitamin A from carotenoids is that both have natural checks and the gecko’s body will stop production of both once there is enough in their system. This is important because both D3 and A are fat soluble vitamins. Providing pre-formed vitamins through oral supplementation could result in an overdose situation.

We feed our geckos every other evening and place food in the cages just after the lights go out. To feed an adult, on a typical day, we place five to ten two weeks old crickets that have been coated with Arcadia EarthPro-A into a small deli cup and place the cup in the cage or in the branches of the plants. This cup is removed in the morning.

The normal sleeping position of a phant is being sprawled over branches and leaves. When they are hungry you will notice they hang upside down as if they are looking for an insect to launch themselves on – which is exactly what they are thinking.

If the gecko is old enough to go home with you then it is past its baby diet weeks. But,as babies, they are raised on supplemented fruit flies. We use the Drosophila hydei. To keep the fruit flies in the cage we place a small slice of banana in the cup with a convenient perching branch coming out of the cup.

We in the community know very little about reptile nutrition and even less about phant nutrition. We make many leaps of logic and often attach false confidence to our convictions. Each one of us that care for U. phantasticus must decide the approach we will take and then give ourselves tests to measure their effectiveness. So we are not here to tell you what all will work. We are here only to tell you what works with us and will leave it to you to decide what balance of D3/UVB+vitamin A/carotenoids you decide to use. But one thing we do know is that phants need a great deal of calcium. We dust with a calcium based supplement (Earth Pro-A) every feeding. Especially when feeding their favorite, crickets, as crickets are high in phosphorus. Until further information is available we will assume that the standard ideal 2:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus applies to these geckos and we will add the calcium necessary to get crickets into compliance.

Which ever supplementation/UVB routine you select, keep an eye on how your phants are reacting and growing. They are the gauge by which you measure success!