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Posted by waterdragonlady on January 11, 2003 at 17:06:24:
Hello everyone,
I thought I would share some news with you. I like you have been wondering about the debate on whether or not Rhacodactylus as well as other nocturnals require uv lighting. It seams that some geckos such as Tokays, Leopard geckos, and many others do not require uv and develope fine.
I have many diurnals that all have uv but for nocturnals I've had mixed feelings. Some species bask in the sun during the day while others do not even in the wild.Well I have many tokays that are fine as well as two cresteds and a young gargoyle. We first noticed the cresteds doing the relaxed tail thing. Then are little gargoyle started to act strange. We noticed when we would bring him out for fruit his jumping was off. He use to jump and never miss. Then sometimes he would stumble, and he wiggled when he walked. Everytime we were ready to take him to the vet the next day we find him in a big shed. So we thought that was why. We are not new to keeping reptiles and we do alot of rescuing where we get in sick animals so we are not inexperienced.
Well I had enough and took my little gargoyle to a friend who is into herpetology, and has years of experience. He watched our gargoyle walk and he felt as well that this was strange. He knew that we suppliment weekly so he said "could he have fallen and hurt his back?" It seamed to be in his ability to flex his back. Well,we suppliment weekly with calcium with d3 and use regular calcium as well. We even put it in his fruit to make sure he got it every week.
Well that concern was enough for me. I called my vet and begged for an appointment when they were closing in three hours and it was a Saturday! She said come in and we did x-rays. Well, I was almost sick he is in the beginning stages of MBD! We cought it really early and she gave him a calcium shot and a shot of vit a&d. She was as shocked as me, we have a good history with her and we bring in rescues and she knows that we are experienced.
I'm not saying that all Rhac need uv but this little guy was only 2 inches and 1 gram when we got him. Maybe he was malnurished as a hatchling. He is now 5 inches and 12 grams and he is nine months old. If I thought that this can't happen to me I suppliment weekly than this story may not have a happy ending.Maybe he was sick as a hatching and the suppliments were not enough to boost him, but he was growing,eating, and very healthy and alert. I had no reason to doubt anything that I was doing. He now has a uv light and lots of places to hide so even if he comes out twice a week he'll get some uv and I can live with that. If you read the Rhacodactylus book almost all there pictures are of them out in the middle of the day. I still have mixed feelings but for this little guy I will choose to provide uv. Then make a decision at his next x-ray in three months. I hope that this helps somebody that I won't be the only one to learn from this.
wd lady
