Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am about to get a baby crested (1-2 month old) and I wanted to know your opinions on fake vs live plants. The fake plants seem easeir to take care of and rearrange, but live plants seem like they would be better in terms of mildew from the daily misting.

Any suggestions?

Get the plants intended for terrarium use and you won't have any problem with misting, they are made for that purpose. We use exclusively artificial plants for these reasons:

a) Sanitation. Since we lost our first leo to parasites our rules for all pets are everything they own must be able to be thrown away or bleached on a regular basis. I also feel more comfortable being able to thoroughly clean the plant BEFORE putting in the enclosure.

b) Bugs. We live in a moldy and humid climate in the summers, if I have any kind of houseplant and water it more than once a month we get fungus gnats and mold. I don't want them (or anything else) in my enclosures.

c) Maintenance. I don't want to deal with cutting back another crazy pothos or trying to keep it in the enclosure or repotting it. Especially when I can buy a perfect sized leafy vine and just string it up in the terrarium once.

There are reasons for keeping live plants too, this is just our reasoning at this time. We have thought of vining in a plant from the outside, but that will have to wait until we move into a bigger place. Good luck and we don't mind the questions at all. I love answering questions if you ask them BEFORE you've got the gecko in your care. (Of course, we'll answer after too, but asking before shows forethought, we really appreciate that and can tell you how many problems just a little of that would have taken care of!) Happy herping!
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Thanks for both responses, since I am getting a hatchling I am extra cautious about getting it right since he/she won't be established yet.

Are there any other tips or tricks that might help? Or things I shouldn't forget?

No problem, glad I can help. Let's see, have you gotten your hands on a few care sheets and or a book? (crestedgecko .com is a good start)

I guess the list would be: enclosure, substrate (papertowels is fine), plants, a hide (tupperware or plastic hides, we have one intended for use with hamsters, but it is perfect), a water bowl, a food bowl, crested gecko diet (CGD), organic baby food (like bananas, apricots, or peaches, never any citrus) - we found that little cresteds don't always take to straight CGD, but mixing with half and half baby food temps them. (Now our full grown only wants straight CGD, weird huh?) Crickets until s/he is full grown- which may mean a cricket keeper, gut load/cricket food (we like "cricket yummies", and of course calcium/vitamin dust (those designed for leopard geckos are usually recommend). What am I forgetting? A thermometer and a hygrometer and spray bottle... and a gecko!

Oh, if you have hard water like we do, you may want to consider bottled water for misting if you still want to see in the enclosure after a few days... we learned that the hard way! That's what I can think of off the top of my head for a checklist. Knowing a good herp vet in the area is nice, hopefully you'll never need it.

I wish you the best of luck, cresties are very fun and funny, even if they can be a pain to clean up after sometimes! All the hoping and flopping and their funny expressions. Please ask anything else I've forgotten.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Great post sleepy!
Another consideration is the lighting required for live plants. They do require maintenance.

Now, having said that, I do not use live plants in my baby, subadult enclosures prefering artificial plants (check your local craft/clothing supply store like Michaels or JoAnn Fabric for deals on plastic plants). But I do use live plants in my adult enclosures as I think it add a bit of nature to the setup. Also, my adults use the dirt to lay their eggs. I've had great success with this method even though I have lay boxes in the cage, they just prefer the plants.
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http://wkern.msspro.com/supremegecko.html

I agree that fake are easier to clean & care for, but I tend to lean towards real. Any parasite load my animals may have would be from the live prey they eat. I'm a fan of the naturalistic set-up, so (except with hatchlings and young juvies) I plant an all-natural vive... with the exception of those bendable vines, everything in my terrariums is found in nature somewhere.
The plants do require quite a bit of initial prep-work. I wash all my plants, re-plant in organic soil, then either plant directly in the viv, or leave in the pot & cover with a coc-fiber/peat/soil substrate or moss. My animals seem to all love it. It's really up to you what you prefer and what fits into your lifestyle.
below is a pic of one of my vive's. It's only 1/2 finshed in this pic. I have since added a bromaleid (sp?!) and snake plant that are about 4x's the sixe of the pictured plants.
Since moving to the new vive, Anton's colors have brightened considerably both resting and when fired-up. I didn't know a new environment could impact coloration on acrestie, though i should have guessed, as it is true with other geckos & chams...
Anyway, I'm rambling. Good luck & enjoy =o)

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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)

I vote for live plants too! They help keep the humidity up and I think that they look better. Whatever you choose, real or fake, your crestie will love to hide in them (mine do). Be careful that you don't over crowd the enclosure though, your crestie should have some open space to hunt for crickets.