Toasted wheat germ has a lot of Vitamin E. It might be a good way to increase the Vit E in the crickets and Meal worms. Snails are naturally high in fat soluable vitamins. Cyndy
-- "maleldil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Actually, from reading the your article in Reptiles I've been extremely cautious about avoiding getting the bedding wet. The leaves and moss get moist but the bedding stays relatively dry. But occasionally I let the bedding (Bed-a-beast type bedding) get very moist around the Ficus plant so that it doesn't die. I do this bi-weekly if I remember. My sprayer makes fine mist which makes the air humid but the water doesn't stay long so I have to spray pretty frequently. I know what you mean about the red-bits in the vitamin. They are the hardest part to dissolve in my vitamin soup. I would like to try herpnutrition but I am very turned away by inconvenient ordering and short shelf-life. I don't mind frequent ordering but shipping here can get pretty expensive. The crickets are on potato, carrots, dandilions, and melon for moisture plus some kind of Flukers orange flavoured vitamin thing that I have for some unknown reason. I occasionally throw in different vegetables I find lying around. For protein I keep them on corn meal. For food animals I use crickets primarily but I regularly use isopods and slugs. The isopods are breeding in there. I can't find snails for some reason. I also use the occasional mealworm and waxworm but 1) my mealworms aren't fed anything except carrots and bran meal, and 2) i need to hold both types of worms in forceps when I feed because the geckos won't use a dish, and burrowed worms = rotten worms. This makes it inconvenient to use them. Also, any soft bug I find I will occasionally try (except for spiders which you freaked me out about in your article). Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Neil A. Meister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 3:47 PM Subject: Re: [gecko]head infection in U. phantasticus > If it is simply an injury, it will likely heal as long as the animal > isn't stressed by something else. Sometimes fussing too much over them > can be a stress in itself. > > Concerning misting, they do need a good bit to avoid shedding trouble, > but it should dry between mistings and the substrate should no be waterlogged. > If you get a warm spell and the soil is soggy, you get a nice bacterial bloom > combined with heat stress on the geckos and then you have trouble! > > Your supplement regimen sounds good. I do worry with Herptivite that the > beta-carotene (red bits) might not stick to small crickets well. > > What do you feed the crickets? Are you offering other insects? If the diet is > mainly crickets, supplementation becomes very critical to general health. > Check out herpnutrition.com for some good products. > > Neil > > > > >Hi Neil, > > > >I'm starting the vitamin E as of today. I remembered it last night while in > >bed ;-) . I am using Herptivite for the vitamins and Repcal + vit D for the > >calcium. Both of these are at every feeding because the older female is > >starting to lay (infertile) eggs. I also give a direct dose of > >vitamins/calcium mixed in water once a week from an eyedropper. I am doing > >this because I worry that there isn't any calcium left on the geckos after > >being in the enclosure for longer than a few seconds. > > > >I still think Barbie was right - that the dark spot is fungal - but I hope > >vitamin E will help the geckos fight off any other skin infections/injuries. > >The injury looks a lot better after removing the dead skin. > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "Neil A. Meister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 1:50 PM > >Subject: Re: [gecko]head infection in U. phantasticus > > > > > >> Hi Mike, > >> > >> That is a nasty looking injury. > > > > >> Betadine won't hurt, but I would keep watching the other > >> geckos. Skin problems heal better with Vit E supplemenation. > >> You can simply take a droplet of goo out of a capsule and put > >> it on the tip of their snout. > >> > >> This was recommended to me by vets when I ran into > >> a vitamin E deficiency. Since then I've found it helps > >> skin problems clear up. I would give them all small doses > >> for a few days and then cut back to weekly and see if that helps. > >> > >> What are you using for supplements? > >> > >> Neil > >> > >> >I apologise if this message appears in duplicate. > >> > > >> >I wrote: > >> > > >> >This is a long post but I hope someone can help lead me on the right > >path. I > >> >have a number of U. phantasticus/ebenaui in 3 separate vivaria. In an > >effort > >> >to experiment with the amount of spraying actually needed, I stopped > >> >spraying as frequently. This weekend I noticed that one male had a shiny > >> >spot on his head that wasn't going away. I thought it was just water but > >I > > > >noticed the spot every time I spray the viv. Since the viv was now "dry" > > > >there was no reason a droplet should have stayed on his head so I took > >him > >> >out and there was a hole! It was like the tissue was receding at that > >spot. > >> >I took him to the vet and the vet told me it was a physical injury (also > >> >implying the injury looks like a burn from a bulb which is absolutely > >> >impossible). I suppose this is possible but very unlikely. He prescribed > >> >betadine for me to daub on the gecko's head. I decided to take a look at > >the > >> >other geckos and lo and behold, all the males (3 in total) have some form > >of > >> >"shiny" growing there. It's not significant but I think it's there. Two > >of > >> >these males have only been with me for less than 2 weeks. However, the > >> >female in this group does not have the shiny beginnings of this injury. > >> >Also, this "injury" does not exist in the other viv containing the other > >2 > >> >young phants and 2 young ebens, nor does it exist in the quarantine of 2 > >> >other ebens. > >> > > >> >So here is the scenario: the vivs are split into - viv#1) 3 adult males, > >1 > >> >adult female (she laid infertile eggs) and viv#2) 1.1 young phants, 1.1 > >> >young ebens. Viv 1 is less "planted", viv 2 is very well planted because > >it > >> >has the youngsters in it. > >> > > >> >This is what I think the possibilities are. > >> >1) In viv 1, the males fight and bite each other. This isn't occuring in > >viv > >> >2 because they are all young. This seems far-fetched. > >> >2) Because viv 1 is less planted, when I spray the viv, water gets on the > >> >animals and starts to rot their heads. But this doesn't explain why the > >> >female doesn't have the infection. In viv 2 the geckos are always > >"hidden" > >> >from water because they are small and always in the leaves. > >> >3) The geckos are infected with something and it's just a matter of time > >> >before it gets the female (or she is just stronger than the males). > >> >4) Crickets bit them. > >> > > >> >There is something ill at work here. I don't understand why even new > >geckos > >> >are getting this. I really think it's the spraying but does anyone have > >any > >> >other ideas? I included a pic so you can see the injury. (The pic makes > >it > >> >look a LOT worse than really it is.) > >> > > >> >Thanks for any help, > >> > > >> >Mike > >> > > >> > > >> >Attachment converted: Neil's HD:injury.jpg (JPEG/ogle) (000B75BC) > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Neil Meister > >> > >> Promotions Secretary > >> Global Gecko Association > >> http://www.gekkota.com > >> http://www.gekkota.com/html/gecko_night_2002.html > >> > >> President > >> Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society > >> http://users.eastlink.ca/~nshs > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Global Gecko Association > >> http://www.gekkota.com > >> Classifieds > >> http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi > >> gecko mailing list > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Global Gecko Association > >http://www.gekkota.com > >Classifieds > >http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi > >gecko mailing list > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko > > > -- > Neil Meister > > Promotions Secretary > Global Gecko Association > http://www.gekkota.com > http://www.gekkota.com/html/gecko_night_2002.html > > President > Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society > http://users.eastlink.ca/~nshs > _______________________________________________ > Global Gecko Association > http://www.gekkota.com > Classifieds > http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi > gecko mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
