Product Review 2: Magnaturals Feed and Water Ledge by Pet Tech
I still can't believe the luck I had finding this product. I really want to go back to Big Al's and just buyout the lot of everything I want. Sadly, that would hurt my wallet. It's not cheap, but so far, well worth the price.
Overall Rating: 10/10
Pros: It's a ledge, it's a bowl, it's magnetic. What more could one ask for? The dish comes out easily and is replaced easily. The whole of it is light-weight, and the magnets are immensely strong, so it feels like it could support a small gecko-sized elephant. It's foam, so it doesn't absorb and it's easy to clean, though admittedly, I haven't had to clean any crap off it yet. And above all else, it looks crazy-good!
Cons: Well... If you have a weak grip on the magnet while attaching it, I guess you could bust your glass. That's about all I have to say about that.
Comments: Above and beyond the pros? Not much to say, really. I'd love to say that Rocza loves it as much as I do, but the little guy enjoy his privacy. So far as I can tell, he hasn't ventured out onto it yet. As tonight is cricket feeding night, I plan on changing that. Oh! One comment; it was bigger than I had anticipated. That's about it.
Images:
The earth-toned colour really fits in well with colour-scheme of my set.
Just posting this a preliminary post to the two that will follow.
It's been about a day now that I've used the Monsoon system, so I'll give you my input on it. Also, just got back from my birthday trip to Ottawa for some fancy sea-food nom noms, as well as a little pet store shopping. PetSmart was about the same as always. Same stuff as the one in town, just more of it, which is okay for your all-around pet care. I definitely need to update my info regarding Big Al's. That place is a gold mine! I had more than (literally) ten minutes to look this time, since I got there at a decent hour, and I'm totally in awe of the amount of great stuff they have. I thought the place looked small at first, it's not, it's huge, their fish section also has reptiles and amphibians, the had an eel, it was awesome!
Best part? They sell Magnaturals! Like everything. All I wanted. Sadly, it's all bigger than I though, so I didn't buy everything I wanted for lack of space, which consisted of the small hideaway and some hanging jungle plants. What I did get was the feeding dish, and yes, that's the one I just did a product research bit on. It got me totally by surprise. I really didn't expect to find a store that would stock Pet Tech. Pet Depot has a couple, but they tell me their supplier is kind of going to stop selling it. It was obviously more expensive than the listed online price, but once you factor in shipping and exchange, it came out much cheaper in the long run. Well, more like short run, shipping would have taken way longer.
So, to follow will be my review of my two new products: the Monsoon RS 400 and the Magnaturals Feed and Water ledge.
Oh and a little post script here:
Fed Rocza again today, since I'm still waiting on the crummy US postal service to get my Repashy to the freaking border so our crummy Canadian post can take its sweet time getting it to me. Yeah, I have issues with the postal service. Bad experiences, old and new. Amazon informed me I would have my Repashy by... let's see, last Friday and when I checked last Friday, it was still in Miami or some crap.
Anywho, just fed him once cricket today, since it's between feedings. But, the little bugger still looked hungry (after he bit the cricket in two, leaving me holding half), so I got my sneaky on and stuck a few pellets of his thus-far untouched gecko food to the end of the feeding tongs with some water and got him to try a bit. He didn't seem to mind it, but he either lost his interest or his appetite and crawled back into his bushy lair.
So I've been having concerns that Rocza isn't getting enough vitamins and what not from the crickets he's eating despite the dusting and the gut busting. It's not like I'm not providing the additional gecko diet, he's just not interested. I tried wetting it down last night, but in hind sight, that probably wasn't the best time to do it, since he had his crickets earlier in the evening. He also shed, so he had all that delicious... dried... flaky skin... to eat... *barf!* (no seriously I'm making myself nauseous thinking about in such detail, haha).
The point is, he spends his twilight hours roaming up top of his habitat, which is in quite the oposite direction of his food dish. As a result, I've been looking into different ways I could serve up his food, especially considering that I'll soon have a third dietary option to provide him with (Repashy!).
So, here we are, looking into feeding dishes. Just food dishes for gecko diet, not live cricket feeders. The one I found stood out above all others was the...
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Magnaturals Feed/Water Ledge (Research Phase)
Right, so I know, Rocza's still acclimatizing and ventures out little by little, but that doesn't change the fact that he will be primarily arboreal. He's going to spend most of his days and nights chilling out high as can be (the little stoner... See it's a pun), which leads to some annoying feeding issues. I feel that, in time, he could be trained to come down for food, especially with how fast he shot down after the crickets yesterday. But, till then, he still needs food. Beside that is the fact that floor space is limited in a terrarium and at a premium. I need a nice "cricket arena" when I feed him his little snackies, but I also need that space to put up plants and other fun things. This dilemma has lead me to look into wall-mounted feeders and platforms vs food dishes.
The product I'd liek to get, but can't seem to, is the feeding and watering ledge in the Magnaturals line of products by Pet Tech. It's a nice-looking piece with a removable tray for easy cleaning and refilling. I've seen some hideaway products by these guys and they were made of this nice, lightweight foam which also had a durable-ish feel to it. To go staging any wrestling matches in it though. The coolest thing I found about this product is the mounting system. It's held in place via magnets that are placed on the outside of the glass. This just seems so handy to me, since it runs a blank spot on the walls of your terrarium into a bit more of a natural-esque nook for sunning, climbing, and in this case, feeding. This product comes in three colours: earth toned, Mojave, and granite. My personal choice is the earth tone, since it looks more like natural wood or mushroom growth than the granite. The Mojave-coloured one is this gaudy red which would look okay in a desert biome. They also provide a smiliar, gecko-related product with two compartments, but of larger size.
Despite the awesome usefulness of this type of product, I'm actually having a hard time finding any kind of alternate, both local or online.
Why I need it:
-To provide food at a higher elevation, since that is where Rocza spends his time.
-To give me more floor space to add extra scenery and toys for my gecko.
-As an easy-to-use distribution method for my incoming Repashy diet.
-It's also a great way to add extra climbing space for your little animals.
Why this product:
-This product is light-weight, with sturdy magnets for support. At least, this is based off the other products I've seen by Pet Tech.
-This dish has a nice, natural look to it.
What compares to it:
As mentioned above, I didn't find all that much that serves the same function as this product.
-Pangea has a feeding ledge that holds two disposable cups, but it's made out of clear acrylic and is pretty much just a shelf, with absolutely no natural look. It's clean-looking, I suppose, but I think it would clash with the synthetic-natural look I'm going for. If you give Exo-Terra only one compliment, let it be that their products look good!
-To be fair, their is still the option to keep using ground feeders and train your creature to go to it. In that respect, there's a huge selection to chose from, in all shapes, colours, and sizes. My preference so far is the Exo-Terra line of dishes. Sturdy, stable and decent to look at. Exo-Terra even offers a dish specifically with omnivorous geckos in mind which has a small secondary compartment for whatever you may also be feeding your creatures. Their water dishes are made with a small ramp to avoid drowning in small animals and crickets, which is thoughtful and shows a little foresight on the designer's behalf. Again, though, this isn't exactly Exo-Terra specific. Zoo Med makes a variety of dishes too. Follow your heart!
-I found a sort of unconventional option as well, one provided by the good people at Zoo Med. The mushroom ledge they make looks very nice! In fact, in terms of esthetics, it has my up-vote. Not only that, mushrooms are also a big part of the micro-biology of tropical forests, so this seems like a logical option for people trying to recreate a natural-looking enclosure. At least, it's better than that tacky-looking reptile hammock Zoo Med puts out... Ugh. My little pretentious moment of the day: you wouldn't catch MY gecko lounging in one of THOSE things! The only drawback is that it is not magnetically affixed. It comes with a silicone adhesive. I have wondered though if it would be possible to drill small holes on it and stick some earth magnets, or even just a strip of plastic-covered metal (to avoid rust issues in a humid environment). Give it some time though, these companies are always coming out with new stuff.
