Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a crested male a week ago. He is eating baby food off my finger, but I'm not sure he's eating it in his cage. ALso his sides have a lot of wrinkles in it. Why would that be?

ALso how often do they shed?

Wrinkles would be of dehydration, just add a splash of pedialite to the baby food for a few days maybe 4 and that should do it. Pedialite has a ton of electrolites in it to rehydrate pretty quickly.

The dehydration is probably due to the stress hes gone through with all the shipping around.

Eric

Thank you, I will definately do that. I bought him for a classroom pet and my students love him. He has been such a great addition to my room. Because I teach special education 3rd and 4th graders we deal with lots of behavior problems. Since the gecko has been in the room my days go by with no problems at all!

I do bring him home on the weekends, do you think this would be added stress? Would I be better off leaving him at school?

THank you so much for your help!

is he left at the school overnight, or do you take him home with you? in order to get the right care i think you should be taking it home and misting it at night, because if you leave it at the school overnight, theres no one to mist him, which would also be a reason for him to be dehydrated.

No I don't take him home at night. I mist him throughout the day and right before I leave for the night. I thought a good misting once or twice a day was plenty? Am I wrong?

well, one or two mistings a day is fine, as long as that is enough to keep the humidity up. remember these guys need fairly high and constant humidity. does anyone check up on him over the weekends and holidays, or does he stay at school all by himself? this could all be tied to your problem of being wrinkly, you should try making a tupperware humid box for him, just cut hole in it and put some damp peat moss or something at the bottom. in this case, he can crawl inside and soak up the humidity if he needs it. if all else fails, you might want to get a misting machine, that way you can put it on a timer.

I have found that my geckos tend to not eat for a couple of days when I put them in a new cage. I would leave him at school rather than transport him back and forth(Unless your moving the entire cage)

PS Cresteds will use a shallow water dish to make sure hes getting enough water keep one in the cage.