new england conditions

[audio]

I've been researching leaf tails and am wondering if there are any leaf tail owners in New England (or other rough weather places) and if it's too troublesome. I live in an old house that doesn't heat well in the winter or cool down in the summer so it's difficult to keep temp controlled and just for the location, humidity is difficult too. I do have cresteds and they do well (keeping around 70 degrees and trying to keep high humidity) but perhaps leaf tails are more sensitive to temp. than cresteds? Not sure. Just know they can die if the temp gets too high. Help appreciated, thank you.

 

[T-ReXx]

It really depends on the species. Different species have different temperature requirements. With hardier ones like henkeli or lineatus temp swings are less of an issue than with more delicate ones like sikorae or phantasticus. If you can keep temps above 65 in the winter and below 79 in the summer you should be ok for most species. Humidity on the other hand is VERY important. I keep my leaf tails in a temperature controlled room and they experience night lows of 66 in the winter without issue and up to 80 in the summer but I use a cool air humidifier combined with regular misting to stay on top of humidity. I live in New York, it can be done but you have to be able to control the environmental factors.

 

[Northstar Herp]

I live in New Hampshire and have five Rhacs and six Uroplatus. I live in a twenty year old house that is pretty up to date though. I second T-Rexx on the humidity, and to protect my investment, I bought a misting system. Ain't no Uros dying from being too dry on my watch...

So far so good, everybody is still alive...

 

[audio]

I see. I'm doing this with my crested geckos right now, keeping in about the same range for temps and humidity. I get huge humidity drops though between mistings. Maybe once I get better humidity control with these guys I could get leaf tails. I'm getting an ultra sonic humidifier soon and putting a tube to it to fog the enclosures like I've seen people do. Right now I'm just misting really heavily twice a day.

 

[Northstar Herp]

I think a helpful thing with high-humidity species is to use moisture retentive enclosures. If you use screen cages, the animals will dry out quickly. But if you use tubs or exo-terra type enclosures with most of the screen blocked off, the animals will stay humid longer than the rest of the room.

You can put that fogger on a timer too, so that while you're at work the thing kicks on for ten minutes here or there.