Northern Spiny-tail — Fact Sheet

Strophurus ciliaris · Northern Spiny-tail

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Climate-controlled indoor vivarium; outdoor housing only in a secure enclosure under suitable local conditions
• Minimum for one adult: 45 x 45 x 60 cm; house singly
• Tall, well-ventilated glass or PVC vivarium with every cable and door gap sealed
• 5-8 cm of compactable sandy soil or sand/clay/soil mix, with leaf litter on the cool side
• Avoid calcium sand, sharp wire, pesticide-treated branches, sticky tape and unstable rockwork

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Dense network of thin and medium horizontal, diagonal and vertical branches
• Cork bark, upright hollow tubes and at least two tight elevated day refuges
• Hardy plants or dry scrub-like foliage for shade and visual cover
• Keep one clear feeding route and anchor every branch securely

💡 Lighting

• Low-level UVB is recommended: UVI 1-2 on part of an upper branch, with deep shade at every height
• Use a short linear UVB lamp, moderate visible daylight and a separate guarded basking lamp
• Measure output when possible and replace the lamp on the manufacturer’s schedule
• Safe unfiltered sunlight may supplement care; never expose a glass tank to direct sun
• Photoperiod: 11 hours in winter, gradually increasing to 13 hours in summer; no coloured night lamps

🌡️ Temperature

• Basking spot: 31-33 °C

• Warm zone: 24-29 °C

• Cool zone: 21-24 °C

• Night: 18-22 °C

• Provide warm exposed branches and cool shaded hollows; do not reproduce the wild range’s climatic extremes

• Check perch surfaces with an infrared thermometer and air at two heights with digital probes

• Use a guarded overhead lamp on a dimming thermostat; avoid heat rocks and bright night heat lamps

💧 Humidity & water

• General humidity: 35-55%, with a brief rise after light evening misting
• Let branches and leaves dry and maintain strong ventilation
• Keep a small shallow dish or elevated cup clean and available; many animals also lick droplets
• Provide one localized humid bark retreat for shedding instead of saturating the enclosure

🪳 Diet

Feed freely:

• Gut-loaded crickets, roach nymphs, small legal locusts, silkworms, flies and black soldier fly larvae
• Adults: suitably sized insects 2-3 evenings weekly; juveniles: smaller meals more often

In moderation:

• Beetle larvae and other fatty feeders
• Soft-bodied prey as part of a varied rotation

Avoid:

• Oversized or wild-caught insects and crickets left in the enclosure by day
• Vertebrate food and excessive fatty larvae

Supplements:

• Light plain-calcium dusting at most feeds
• Multivitamin and D3 according to the product label and measured UVB access; do not stack fortified products

🩺 Health — warning signs

• Weight loss, abnormal droppings or persistent refusal to feed → parasites, stress or systemic illness
• Tremors, weak grip or soft jaw → possible calcium/UVB disorder
• Retained shed, wrinkled skin or sunken eyes → dehydration or inadequate humid retreat
• Breathing noise or skin lesions → cold stagnant dampness or infection
• Repeated sticky defensive spraying → excessive disturbance; rinse eye exposure with clean lukewarm water

Seek prompt care from a reptile-experienced veterinarian for these signs, swelling, wounds or suspected retained eggs.