Henkel Leaftail Gecko

Hey everbody, I have two female uroplatus henkeli and one male and I plan to try my luck at breeding them this upcoming spring but I've been having a problem with my females. The problem is that I don't feel they are getting enough calcium to handle the drain of breeding. I dust their crickets but they usually don't eat the crickets right off the bat. What I've tried a couple of times is giving them turkey baby food with lots of calcium mixed in and they seem to like that but is turkey baby food alright for their systems? I've heard about liquid calcium but where would I even find that? Does anyone have any ideas of what to do for them so they get an adequate amount of calcium? I really appreciate anyone's suggestions.

I wouldn't be feeding them baby food for humans..Crap, that's like unhealthy for them, where did you get that idea???

I own 3 Uroplatus, this is the product I have found to be the BEST in terms of calcium powder sticking to the crickets for a few DAYS..Get TRex's MicroStick BoneAid, I swear it works just like it says. My Mossy's and my henk have HUGE calcium sacs. My female's is largest, they are so large, they look like tumors almost hehe. The sacs in all my animals appear to be as large as their eyes actually, so they are pretty big I think.

On top of that, how large are the lizards? How often are you feeding? And get them off a human food, they will be dead in no time if you keep feeding them that.

These are insectivores, feed them crickets!!!

Hey Viper69, thanks for the feedback. My leaftails main diet is crickets and I've only used the meat baby food as something to put the calcium in to boost their calcium reserves a couple of times. I also have Crested geckos and in books I've read about them it recommends mixing baby food fruit and meat if the CGD is not used and no live prey is given to them. So that's how I got the idea of mixing a tiny bit of baby food with calcium so I could give them extra calcium.

Wow! The size of their eyes, huh? Yeah, mine definitely need a boost. You said you have mossys and henkels? How do you like the mossy's compared to the henkels? It's nice to hear what other people's leaftails are like.

I do use Bone Aid's Microstick Calcium Powder every time I feed, but the calcium doesn't seem to stick to the crickets for more than a day. I think that is because I have a habba mister in their cage to battle the dry, Nevada weather and it is constantly spraying water out over the whole cage. I feed them 2-3 times a week, both my girls are about 10 inches long and have good weight on them but they definitely need more calcium. Do you have any ideas of what I could mix the calcium with and give to them orally?

baby food is not unhealthy for them. it may not be giving them exactly what they need in terms of nutrients, but it certainly will not hurt them.

as for calcium sticking to crickets for a few days, i am not sure how that works as they woulc suffocate within a day. on more than one instance, i dusted my crickets well with calcium and if they were eaten, they were dead within 8 hours. i had one batch that i dusted for my wife to feed the beardeds we had when they warmed up and they died within 4 hours.

i would try and time your misting with your feeding habits. perhaps you can turn off your mister for 3 hours after throwing the crix.

Originally Posted by oscar

baby food is not unhealthy for them. it may not be giving them exactly what they need in terms of nutrients, but it certainly will not hurt them.

as for calcium sticking to crickets for a few days, i am not sure how that works as they woulc suffocate within a day. on more than one instance, i dusted my crickets well with calcium and if they were eaten, they were dead within 8 hours. i had one batch that i dusted for my wife to feed the beardeds we had when they warmed up and they died within 4 hours.

i would try and time your misting with your feeding habits. perhaps you can turn off your mister for 3 hours after throwing the crix.

I just try and avoid anything that's human food....I do know people feed them such food...but Jess, hadn't mentioned anything about frequency, and it sounded like she was feeding them as you would a Day Gecko...

Try pinkies! My female Henkeli is now 76 grams!! Shes a big girl that lays eggs every 27-30 days! My male also eats pinkies every now and then also. But the pinkies help out with the calcium to! If you ever decide to sell them please tell me and Ill pay top dollar for them!!! Erik

Thanks for the tips... Do you hand feed the pinkies?

ya I hold them with tongs and then they jump at the pinkies. If you have any more questions feel free to e-mail me at slitherstuderik@yahoo.com ! Thanks Erik