Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just recently bought my first cresty at a local pet store. I've had him for 12 days and he had never shown signs of ANY problems. I've read everything I could about them BEFORE I bought him. I kept his cage between 70 and 80 degrees at all times, he had plenty of places to hide, climb, bask...etc. Water stayed clean, crickets not too big, fed gecko food bought from the pet store, no poisonous plants in the aquarium, only handled him a few times so i wouldnt stress him. There were NO signs of injury what-so-ever. Would anyone have any ideas what the problem might have been. Just kinda upset and very curious. Any info would be great. thx.

It does sound as if you did all the right moves and still ended up with a dead lizard.
One of my first thoughts is did the pet store do the right things prior to your buying him? I was at a store today that had toads ,anoles golded geckos green tree frogs and newts all displyed in the same tank ..with crickets way to big for all but the toads to boot !No way do those species have the same needs .
From all that Ive read and from prior experence with iguanas, Reptiles metabolism works very slowly and often nothing seems wrong until its too late.
Its very possible the cresteds fate was already sealed before you ever aquired him .
My second thought would be choking on your substrate only because Ive noticed cresteds arent too clever when it comes to what ends up in their mouths

Thx so much for the reply I did add a small amount of moss around the base of some of the plants for a better hiding area, so it is possible. I've read that is was safe, but i don't think i will use it again just in case. Also, i've read that cresteds eat their shed. Is that correct? Mine shed about 4 days ago, but he didnt eat it. It all came off clean though.

what kind of moss?

Thats really sad and unfortunate

Moss shouldn't cause impaction the only way to really find out what happened would prolly be to take it to the vet, but that will prolly be expensive

again i'm sorry for your sudden loss

I've actually heard of geckos choking on moss, and that's my concern here.

~Aaron