Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am new to the crested world and am planning to start a breeding colony eventually. I am probably going to purchase a 5 lot and raise them to breed, but i have a few questions. The 5 lot is all juvies and i have a 3footx2x2 foot screen cage that used to be chameleon enclosure. Will this be suitable to house all the juveniles in and when should i separate them. I realize that once they become sexually mature they will have to be separate by sex. How long can i keep them in the same enclosure if at all? Also when they are adults, can 1 male to several females be housed together even when ou are not trying to breed? Sorry for all the questions but i just want to be ready before i aquire the geckos.

Thanks!

The best information Ive seen on this topic came from this forum by a frequent poster and breeder Anthony Caponetto,Below is his post(copied and pasted) to another with the same question.

If you buy babies, you'll have about 6 months to separate them...and that's only if you end up with 1.1. If they turn out to be 2.0, they'll be fine until they're about 9-10 months old...and maybe longer than that if they're never around females.

In fact, I separate juvies by sex in order to prevent premature breeding, which can be devastating to a female. I generally keep up to 3 juveniles (of the same sex) per cage and have never had any of them fight.

In my experience, juvenile males housed together won't generally fight. Just make sure they're given sufficient hiding areas and cage size. Of course, you don't want to keep multiple males in a cage with females.

All in all, considering a group of adults can be kept (and bred) in a $4 Sterilite or Rubbermaid, I really don't think having two cages ready when you buy two baby Crested Geckos should be much of a concern.

-Anthony

You'll also find emerson sy's crested gecko article on many webpages such as Gexfiles .He answers the rest of your questions in that article.

That article is probally the best place to aquire basic knowledge for anyone considering cresteds

One thing that I would suggest is that you look at a smaller cage size to start with. I know that goes against alot of what you hear about other animals, but the fact is that Cresties are rather lazy when it comes to food gathering/hunting. Alot of times you can have an enclosure that is big enough that they can not find food easily enough. I like to start groupings like that in smaller enclosures with minimum decorations...and when I know that they are adjusting and eating, then you can move them to somethign bigger...maybe after a month.

I hope that this helps, and as always keep in mind that others opinions may vary...this is just my .02

I don't see a problem housing five juveniles together, but that is a huge cage, so I'm not sure that it would be a good idea. I would think that it monitoring their eating and behavior in a cage that size would prove to be difficult, beccause you're likely going to have problems actually finding the geckos in the cage. If you do take this approach, I would certainly take care not to overdo the cage decor.

I'm a big fan of rubbermaid enclosures and "Kritter Keeper" enclosures for young geckos. They're cheap, effective and they come in a variety of sizes.

As for housing together, that is fine until bulges start to develop in males. At that point, you need to get the males away from the females, so that they won't breed them prematurely. Premature breeding can wreak havoc on a female and is something you really should avoid. This does not mean that the males have to be kept singly. I typically house juvenile males together without agression, provided they're given ample space and are not around any females.

Hope this helps.

- Anthony

>>I am new to the crested world and am planning to start a breeding colony eventually. I am probably going to purchase a 5 lot and raise them to breed, but i have a few questions. The 5 lot is all juvies and i have a 3footx2x2 foot screen cage that used to be chameleon enclosure. Will this be suitable to house all the juveniles in and when should i separate them. I realize that once they become sexually mature they will have to be separate by sex. How long can i keep them in the same enclosure if at all? Also when they are adults, can 1 male to several females be housed together even when ou are not trying to breed? Sorry for all the questions but i just want to be ready before i aquire the geckos.
>>
>>Thanks!
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

I really don't want to buy another enclosure but i see 2 possible solutions. If i used some extra substrate the cage would have less area (the door is in the middle so this would be possible). Or i could maybe buy some larger sterlite containers. The babies are most likely 2-4 months old already so what would be a good size for a couple of sterlites. And sterlites are ok even though they arent vertical? I will probably eventually need sterlites when they are adults to separate them so also what is a good size sterlite for adults? Which solution seems good or both???

Thanks again!

The cage doesn't have to be taller than it is wide. I breed trios in 58 quart (24Lx16Wx12T) containers. Four younger animals can be comfortably kept in that same size. When they get to the point of being sexable, I would keep no more than three males (they need their space) or four females in that size of a cage.

With a 2x2x3 foot tall cage, you'll need a lot of substrate...think of how heavy that cage is going to be. Adding that much extra substrate sounds like a pain.

Not to get off the subject, but if you're feeding crickets, there is a likely chance that the geckos will choke to death if they accidentally end up with substrate in their mouths. I use paper for a substrate, but something very fine like soil or fine ground coconut husk would be ok...but only with adult Cresteds. It doesn't take much for a baby Crested to get something stuck in its throat.

>>I really don't want to buy another enclosure but i see 2 possible solutions. If i used some extra substrate the cage would have less area (the door is in the middle so this would be possible). Or i could maybe buy some larger sterlite containers. The babies are most likely 2-4 months old already so what would be a good size for a couple of sterlites. And sterlites are ok even though they arent vertical? I will probably eventually need sterlites when they are adults to separate them so also what is a good size sterlite for adults? Which solution seems good or both???
>>
>>Thanks again!
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com