Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Heating-
Would heat from the bottm of the cage be better or from the top? So what I am asking is, is it better to have the bottom of the cage colder or the top of the cage colder. I am used to snake and horizontal cages not vertical one.

Food-
Comments on the T Rex diet for Crested geckos.

Coloration-
Do males show more color that females or is it pretty much the same.

Size-
Do males get larger than female or the other way around?

Cage Decor-
What types of wood are safe and how would u attach fake vines to the glass so the geckos dont knock it over and get hurt?

I use suction cups that I have put on the plants in my corn snakes cage but i dont think I could put the suction cups on the vines.

Any tips on getting suction cups to stick longer, they seem to let loose after about a week(wet or dry when applied)

>>Heating-
>> Would heat from the bottm of the cage be better or from the top? So what I am asking is, is it better to have the bottom of the cage colder or the top of the cage colder. I am used to snake and horizontal cages not vertical one.

Unless your home is exceptionally hot or cold, they do pretty darn well @ room temp, so usually a heater is not strictly necessary.

>>
>>Food-
>> Comments on the T Rex diet for Crested geckos.
>>

T-Rex CGD is good stuff, mine loves it (though she started out almost completely ignoring it in favor of crickets, but once she got most of her growing out of the way, her preference seemed to shift.)

>>Coloration-
>> Do males show more color that females or is it pretty much the same.
>>

I don't know the authoritative answer to that, but in my somewhat limited personal experience, they are about the same as far as coloration goes.

>>Size-
>> Do males get larger than female or the other way around?
>>
Sizes are pretty similar between the sexes - there might be some variation, but I don't think it's a huge difference.

>>Cage Decor-
>> What types of wood are safe and how would u attach fake vines to the glass so the geckos dont knock it over and get hurt?
>>

I remember cedar being toxic to most lizards.

As far as the vines go, I have some fake vines in a 10 gallon with my crested, and they're actually stiff enough to hold her weight just fine when she climbs though them w/o any suction cups, etc. We tried with the suction cups at first, but she kept knocking the vines off of them, and the hooks on them worried me a bit, given that cresteds leap a lot - I didn't want to find her impaled on one (not that they're sharp, but cresteds can put a fair amount of power into a leap).

My current setup for her is paper towel substrate, a plastic hide, a water dish, a food dish, a fake tree, and a bunch of fake vines. There's not a lot of open space in there, so she's got plenty of places to hide it holds humidity reasonably well, and with paper towels as substrate, it's pretty easy to clean, which is important, cause holy crap do they poop everywhere, and a lot!
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

On another note, if you've got more questions, I'm sure everybody here is happy to answer them, but another great resource would be a book on the care/feeding/breeding/etc of cresteds. I don't personally have one, but I've got one on leopard geckos, as I have one of them as well, and I've found it to be full of all sorts of useful info. I'm sure the same would be true of a book on cresteds, and with any luck, somebody on here can chime in with a good title (I wouldn't mind picking one up myself, too, as, if nothing else, I'm sure it'd be an interesting read).
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

A highly recommended book (both from here and AC's forum site) is the book called "Rhacodactylus: The Complete Guide to their Selection and Care" by Philippe De Vosjoli, Allen Repashy, and Frank Fast (Paperback - Oct 2003). It is hard to find at stores (most book stores I've visited wouldn't even order it for me!!), but easily found on-line (try some herp supply stores or amazon or the like). It's a bit costly, but reputed to be the best out there. It has a ton of info on all rhacs, but focuses about 1/2 the book on R. Ciliatus. Also supposed to be the best collection (biggest) of Rhac pics in a book.
As for ways to attatch vines so they would not fall on a crestie, petco sells some suction cups with plastic rings as a way to attatch the suction cup to the vine. It works well for stuff you can thread thru the pliable rings. I'm not sure how well it would work for a large length of vine...
Anyway, good luck with your set-up. You'll have to share some pics when you get them going.
~C
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1.1 Crested Gecko (Anton/Angelina & Harley)
1.1 Crazy dogs (Alex & Sadie)
0.2 Vacationing Kitties (Puddy, PeeWee)
0.1 Amazing Wife =o)
Charlie - RIP 9-8-05 (Veiled Cham)

This is what I was trying to describe above

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1.1 Crested Gecko (Anton/Angelina & Harley)
1.1 Crazy dogs (Alex & Sadie)
0.2 Vacationing Kitties (Puddy, PeeWee)
0.1 Amazing Wife =o)
Charlie - RIP 9-8-05 (Veiled Cham)