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My girlfriend coaxed me into bringing home a crested gecko (the people said it was about 4 monthes old), I've done research on them before due to curiosity and I think I know enough about them to be fine for the most part. But I think I was spoiled with the abundance of information at my disposal when getting an iguana months ago, and am a Little skiddish with a couple of things I don't know.

I'm keeping *it* in a 10 gallon tank, with paper towels and peat moss as substrate, i've got (1) plastic plant in there, a large water bowl, a log shaped like a dead tree to perch on, and a leaf food bowl suspended with a suction cup i've been dabbing baby food into each night. I'm abotu to leave school but when i get home i'll add more information to this. Does anyone have a VERY good caresheet with as much information (accurate) as possible?

THank you

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is peat moss - is it more of a soil-type substance or actual moss? i thought it was like soil but i don't see how you would use that in conjunction with paper towels.

i would caution against using a large water bowl, as young geckos especially are susceptible to drowning. they won't drink much out of a bowl anyway so a small shallow bowl is sufficient.

i would also get away from the baby food diet and switch to CGD.

http://www.pangeareptile.com/id52.htm
http://acreptiles.com/geckos_crested_recommended_reading.htm
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3.1.1 snakes, 3.1.1 crested geckos, 0.1 gargoyle gecko, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta

Ok, first, get the little guy off the peat moss... You can use the peat moss later on when it gets a bit older, but with younger geckos you don't want them on loose substrate, they can become impacted pretty easy, just go with the paper towels for a few more months. Don't use a large water bowl, use a smaller water bowl as they don't usually drink out of the water bowl anyways, and deficate in it regularly. You have to spray it at least once a night, they usually get their water froim the droplets on the sides of the cage and off the leaves. Also get away from the baby food, baby food is like candy for geckos unless you mix a bunch of other stuff into it. Crested geckos diet is a complete diet with everything your gecko needs, if it was fed baby food before, it may not want to go with the cgd at first as the baby food is alot sweeter, just mix a bit of the baby food in the diet for a while and just use les and less until you are not using baby food at all anymore.
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Matt Smith
Exotic-Adventure

Alright now that I'm home, and have taken some time to explore the websites shown to me I think I'll post all I can think of at the moment.

To Smith: Thank you for the pointers, I'll pick up some CGD the next time I go to the pet store (very soon). I have been misting daily, 2-3 times actually. That's not over doing it is it?

To warnersister: Peat moss is a moss generally used to retain moisture. My mom uses it to line her flower pots so that she doesn't have to water them as much as she usually does. I put it in
the tank hoping it might raise the humidity levels.

To Both; be alarmed or don't be alarmed. Although the water bowl I have I large and isn't be used to it's full potential I've taken the precaution to have less than a centimeter in the bowl at all times.

Now;
since I received the crested gecko from a reptile expo, and from a group that isn't the breeder itself. I wasn't able to find out the exact date of birth or relative age (although I was told it's about 4 monthes old, I'm kinda picky and prefer to have specifics so I'm not left guessing things.).
so to address that; I have not detected a bulge. On the breeder website given by warnersister the gecko's vent is comparable to the females. However at the young age, I'm correct in assuming this can easily change (even overnight?!)? When do y'all recommend I call and end to the investigation and decide it's male/female since I don't know the specifics?

What mixture of CGD:H2O do y'all recommend?

How big of a serving is recommended for a young crested gecko?
Exo-terra night bulb or an infra-red bulb? I live in Texas and the ambient room temperature is around 74F(I think, I would have to get up and go to the thermostat to double check)

I've got a pair of the dial thermo/hygrometers manufactured by zoomed, Is a second set required or is this sufficient?

Well that's it for now;
Thank you

Actually 3 times may be over doing it just a bit... Do it once in the morning and once a night. 3 times may not be a problem, just keep an eye on mold and such.

As I said about the peat moss, at this young age you may want to take that out and just use papertowels as little cresteds become impacted pretty easy... If you mist them twice a day, you don't have to worry about the humidity... and if you are worrying, do the mist 3 times a day, it's probably not going to hurt it, but if it becomesz impacted, then you have a serious problem on your hands.

You might not see a buldge for a long while... even up to like 10 months or so. Alot of times it's sooner, but theres plenty of tgimes where it takes a while and just all of a suden, theres a buldge out of nowhere.

There's directions on the CGD bottle, it's 2 parts water to 1 part diet by volume not weight.

Room temp is usually fine for cresties... the basic rule of thumb is, don't drop it too much below 60 and not too much above 80... if it goes too much above 80 for too long of a period it can stress them out very much and maybe even be fatal... But 85ish should be fine as well.

The thermo/hygrometers should be fine... just remember this... don't get too crazy with the humidity, spray in the morning and let it dry out a bit, it's supposed to... it's supposed to be high in the morning drop down in the afternoon then peak way back up at night... the night misting is the main important one and alot of ppl only mist at night.
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Matt Smith
Exotic-Adventure

The best advice I can give is to check out these guys:

crestedgecko.com, if you head to the crested page and the available, you will get one of the best care sheets out there. All your questions asked and by real professionals, working for years at these guys. I wish I could order one myself.

Good luck!
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Direct link, if I am allowed to post it:

http://www.crestedgecko.com/cg_care.htm
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

>> But 85ish should be fine as well.

I've seen them get very freaked out at that temp. I've actually seen one start running around at very high speed and throwing itself into the walls of its enclosure because of too much heat. As soon as it got cooled down, it was fine. Really you ought to try to keep it to 82 or under for them to be in their comfort zone.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Thats why i said 60 - 80... I have never seen any of my geckos have a problem at 85ish... It has even gotten warmer than that and I've yet to see any of my geckos have a problem. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, and yes you should keep it below 85, but I was pretty much trying to say you probably won't have to worry at 85... ALthough if your geckos start acting like his geckos, then yes, you may want to worry at that temp...
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Matt Smith
Exotic-Adventure

matt gave some good info, i'd like to add to that.

>>When do y'all recommend I call and end to the investigation and decide it's male/female since I don't know the specifics?

since you don't know the gecko's age, you can go by weight. you should be able to loupe for pores and accurately determine gender by around 15 grams. it is possible to do this earlier if you're really good at it.

>>What mixture of CGD:H2O do y'all recommend?

1:2 - but add more or less water to your gecko's preference and how fast it dries out or molds up. it should be able to last for a couple days (you can remoisten on the second night).

>>How big of a serving is recommended for a young crested gecko?

i use a bottle cap about 1.5" in diameter and 0.5" high for small geckos. you could use disposable souffle cups but i find those get knocked over easily due to their light weight (i guess this wouldn't be a problem if you use the feeding ledges, i have never used them). you can mix enough food for a week or two and freeze it, taking each cap out to thaw the night of feeding. try to make an amount to where you can see the gecko has licked most of it up.

>>Exo-terra night bulb or an infra-red bulb?

your room temp is fine but if it gets really cold in the winter, you can use a low wattage (40-50 W) bulb. as long as the light is red or blue it's fine, some allow you to see them at night better, personal preference.

>>I've got a pair of the dial thermo/hygrometers manufactured by zoomed, Is a second set required or is this sufficient?

one set should be sufficient. i prefer the acu-rite digital ones with a probe for my permanent setups so i can get temperature readings from the top and bottom of the cage. analog have been known to be off by as much as 5-10 degrees.

http://www.usahardware.com/inet/shop/item/61220/icn/20-408195/acu_rite/00891.htm
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3.1.1 snakes, 3.1.1 crested geckos, 0.1 gargoyle gecko, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta