Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've kept leopard geckos for years, but I'm new to cresteds. I'd appreciate the advice of experienced keepers about my setup and one critter's behavior/symptoms.

"Scamp" is a male, about 8 months old. He grew up to 12 grams quickly but has lost 2 grams in the past 3-4 weeks. His weight's been stable at 10 grams for about one week now. His head seems large for his body, and his ribs are showing just a bit. He spends most of his time on the cage floor and doesn't move around much. When presented live food he reacts to it with only slight curiosity; he doesn't attack it like my leos do. But when handled, he's very responsive and frisky; climbs arms and hops briskly. This morning, I find him up in the climbing branches, shedding his skin.

The other gecko, about half Scamp's size, is unsexed and unnamed as yet; we just bought it Sunday at the Rocky Mtn. Reptile Expo. It's doing great. I may name it "Lightning." The two are getting along quite well.

Environment:

20-gal. aquarium upended, with an acrylic hinged door drilled with air holes. Substrate is 3" of coconut husk fiber, moistened. A slab of cork bark studded with artificial broad-leafed branches and some 5/8" artificial "jungle" vines provide lots of climbing and hiding facilities. I mist at least twice daily, aiming to keep a few spots of fog on the glass for most of the day. Cage is in a living room that gets lots of indirect sunlight.

Heat sources include a 4x6" heat pad under the cage, which provides a horizontal floor temp gradient of about 70 to 82 F corner to corner, and a ceramic heat emitter on a router speed control that provides variable heat from above. Vertical temp gradient is about 80 F an inch from the ceiling to 75 F mid-level down to the 70-82 gradient at floor level.

Food: Reptivite dusted/gutloaded crickets; waxworms; and Clark's Diet mixed 50/50 with baby food. I'm presenting all three foods daily this week, trying to whet Scamp's appetite.

Am I missing anything? Should I be concerned about Scamp, or does his behavior fall within crested gecko norms? I'm considering hand-feeding him dextrose/electrolyte solution via a syringe to beef him up a bit, but I'm unsure whether that stress is warranted by his condition.

Thanks for your feedback!

Personally, I wouldn't put your two geckos together, especially considering your first one doesn't seem to be thriving well. A new cage mate would stress him out more, risk him being exposed to any diseases or parasites the new comer contains and being bullied, dominated by the newcomer and deterorating even further.

Separate your geckos, even using a sterlite container from walmart (the 58quart clear tall containers are great) as a cage for the new one, if funds are short for buying another store bought tank.

For your old gecko, it seems you have alot of heat sources for him. What are you using to measure the temperature of his cage? Also, there is no need to have two sources of heat, he probably is trying to find a cool location to go and finds it hot at the bottom as well as the top. Most crested geckos do find at regular room temperatures, especially if they range between 70-78F. A small 40watt bulb can be used during the day if it gets cooler or a 40 night bulb for night, if it always drops below 70F. Make sure your temps are accurate by using a digital thermometer with probe, or temp gun (though best to use a probe as well, to measure air temps, the temp guns are good for surface temps).

When you see your male on the ground all the time, is this at night or during the day? Keep in mind crested geckos are nocturnal and thus spend most of the day hiding and sleeping. During the early evenings and all night, they are more active.

For food, I would use either straight Crested gecko diet from T-Rex or that stuff you are using now, which I heard has also been specially formuated for crested geckos. If they are not eating insects at all, then don't use them, get them to eat the special diets instead. I feed all my geckos exclusively on the Crested Gecko Diet (or Gargoyle diet, as I have those too). Occaisonally I give them newly molted small superworms, small crickets or small silkworms, when I have some available as a treat.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks. Could be the newbie is stressing Scamp, but the latter was losing weight three weeks before the newbie arrived. I'll keep an eye on them, but they seem to be getting along fine.

I use a digital thermomemeter with probe suspended in air.

Room temp falls to the upper 60s at night. With one heat source, either the top or bottom of the tank gets that cool. I'll try turning off the UTH and see if that encourages Scamp to climb closer to the ceramic emitter.

Scamp spends night and day on the ground now. When he was alone in a Critter Keeper, he spread his time between high and low.

The insects are disappearing, so I reckon someone's eating them all. Clark's diet/baby food isn't moving very well. Maybe I should try a fresh fruit mash?

I would recommend the T Rex diet over the clarks at this point. I started with the clarks and they love it, but my babies stayed pretty small. Now I mix a bit of clarks (for taste) with the T Rex diet, and they have doubled in size. This is just my opinion. Also, I would definately get rid of the under the tank heater. Cresties do not do well with a lot of heat. They need somewhere to cool down. Peoples animals have died from too much heat.

Thanks to you, too. I killed the UTH yesterday. I should mention that Scamp had no external heat at all until this Monday, when I built the new cage for the two of them.

Scamp shed last night and his behavior has changed. He's in the trees now, and clinging to the tank's walls. Right now, he and the new gecko are upside down near the top of the cage, about two inches apart. I don't think they're having any trouble getting along.

I don't see anything wrong with your setup

Its a male right? Are there other geckos in the cage?

The food thing doesn't matter, and his weight could be because you haven't fed him for a couple days, my female lost 3 grams in between 4 days.

Good Luck
L.A. Cresteds

This cage is new since Monday, Aug. 14, when Scamp moved in with the gecko we bought over the weekend. Previously, Scamp bunked alone in an unheated critter keeper.

It seems both are doing well now. Maybe Scamp needed the moister climate and a little higher basking temp.

Thanks, y'all!