Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I saw the cresteds at Crestedgecko.com while looking for leopard geckos and i am know really interested in them. I read the caresheet listed on kingsnake. I have a couple of questions.

1)Can you handle them?
2)Will one live comfortably in a 10 gallon aquarium?
3)What do you feed them primarily? the caresheet i read said you alternate between live and already made

Yes you can handle them, but some like it more than others and yours may not, who knows. A 10 gallon tank is just perfect for a small crested as long as it has enough climbing objects and something to hide in that is not on the ground. Once it gets bigger however, it will need a bigger tank to be comfortable. When they are young feed them just crickets (small ones)but as they grow you can feed them larger crickets and introduce smashed soft fruits like bannanas or apples. Don't make the cage too complicated at first because a small crested might have trouble finding the crickets. Some people use only a powder crested diet mixed with water, but I believe that they should have the stimulation of hunting live prey. My opinion is that people should mimic the animal's natural diet as closly as possible and cresteds do not eat powdered minerals and powdered fruits in the wild. If you want an extremely acurate caresheet, go to google and type Allen Repashy, then keep clicking on the different links until you find his 10 page long aticle(it's about the 1st to 4th listing on the first page). He is one of the writters of the new rach. book and konws a LOT about cresteds.

hey well if you're thinking about getting into cresteds they're great, very easy to care for, and they breed pretty readily. For you're first question about handling them you can definitely do it but as with most geckos be careful because they can lose their tails, and they don't regenerate them, but it normally doesn't have any long term health effects and they still look cute without them.
For your second question about housing them in a 10 gallon, if it is a baby this is fine but as they mature I would move them up to at least a 20 high. They need a vertically oriented tank because they are climbers and they need plants with nice big leaves for them to curl up in and hide during the day ( they're nocturnal. Also another thing that's great about these guys is they don't need an additional heat source as long as the room they will be in isn't too cold. I like to keep mine no higher than 80. Humidity is a must for these guys, it is best to give them a good spray at night right after the lights go out because they will drink the water drops that form on the leaves.
And for your third question about feeding, I give mine crickets, meal worms, and baby food ( mango flavor is their favorite).
Hope this helps, and you should definitely consider getting one of these guys-they're a lot of fun!