Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm thinking of constructing a few enclosures for our crested. We have one male at the moment (I posted a pic earlier this morning) but are thinking of getting quite a few more over the next year or so. (Cresteds are SO DARN CUTE!) I don't have very much experience building stuff - I took wood shop in high school 20 years ago - but I am handy and sufficiently motivated! In looking back over past posts I've seen some pictures of enclosures made of combinations of glass, plastic, wood and screening. I'd love to hear from some people who have built their own things and what they would do again or NOT do again.

As much as I love the naturalistic set ups the care and feeding of these guys are the responsibility of my 10 year old son who has lots of other critters to care for, so we are going with a more utilitarian approach until he's older.

On another note - I'd love to list who we've got, but can't quite figure out the little # codes (I knew once years ago....) before each species (I think male, female, unsexed juveniles - in that order?) If someone would straighten me out I'd appreciate it!

I don't know much about building...but you have the "codes" right (male.female.unsexed)
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0.3.0 Dogs - Delaney, Darcie, Mali
2.1.0 Cats - Dante, Diesel, Dixie
2.0.0 Cockatiels - Toast, Waffles
2.0.0 White's Treefrogs - Splish, Splash
1.3.2 Leopard Geckos - Joey, Phoebe, Rachael, Emma, Gunther, Monica
2.0.1 Crested Geckos - Stubbie Mike, Chandler, Ross
0.0.3 House Geckos - Ben, Erica, Jack
1.1.0 Jewelled Curly-Tailed Lizards - Harry, Sally
1.0.0 Chinchilla - Poncho
4.0.0 Guinea Pigs - Rodney, Reese, Ray, Rufus
0.1.0 "Fancy" Mouse - Ella

Not to mention the plethora of fish:
5.0.0 Bettas - Maui, Gianni, Timmy, Horatio, Mac
0.0.2 Goldfish - Monkey, Ernie
0.0.1 Black Ghost Knife - Grissom
55 Gallon Community
29 Gallon African Cichlid
20 Gallon Marine
1.1.0 Ocellaris Clown - Jack, Diane
0.0.1. Neon Blue Goby - Cecilia

1.0.0 Boyfriend - Michael

Honestly, I don't think you'll save any money by building something, especially considering how many ways there are to house Crested Gekcos so inexpensively. If you already have materials, that's one thing, but by the time you go and pay for materials, yo may find that you're not saving any money at all.

Here are some really popular methods...

Plastic Kritter Keepers are cheap and work great for smaller geckos. They make sizes that work well for hatchlings up to about 30 gram geckos. This is what I and many others use for babies. They cost about $2.50-$10 each depending on size.

Sterilite/Rubbermaid totes are also dirt cheap and work awesome for adults and subadults. That's what I keep all of mine in. The only downside for you here is that visibility is limited, which I like (because the adults get their privacy). These cost $3-5 each and some are big enough to house groups of breeding adults.

A ten gallon tank with a screen top ($20 max) would be good for a single adult (maybe even a pair).

Or, if you wanted to spend a little more money (around $50-60), you could go with a screen cage from ReptileDepot.com.

-Anthony
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

id recommend spending $50 on a cage from reptile depot. i have one and am VERY impressed. if you do decide to go that route, a word of caution. its not exactly cricket proof. with some eletric tape, however, ive solved the issue.

Anthony,

Thanks for your response. I have to say - I've done quite a bit of reading around here before I ever posted anything, and you are a great source of information. I appreciate your willingness to help and you are able to share your information in such a way as to not make us newbies feel like dopes for asking a question. That's not true on many of the other herp forums I've been on, and it's refreshing! Your website is informative and I'm looking forward to doing business with you in the future. (I greatly admire your rack system, by the way, and perhaps we'll be able to go that route sometime down the road.)

Regarding the Rubbermaid totes - I had some questions about those: What size do you use - I'm wondering if the ones I have on hand are high enough. I'm sure this isn't an issue, since you wouldn't be doing it with success, but how do they find the crickets in there? Just watching our little guy I thought they were nocturnal visual hunters - do you need to have the clear plastic ones only or can you use the opaque ones?

Thanks again for taking the time to read this.
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1.0.0 Uromastyx - Draco
1.0.0 Ball Python - Vilthrul
1.2.0 Giant African Millipedes - Cocoa, Vanilla, Millie
1.0.0 Crested Gecko - Hoolie
0.0.1 Corn Snake - Slither
2.1.8 Hissing Cockroaches - Diamond, Emerald, Ruby and kids

i agree the best way to go would be to buy a 10 gal tank(10$ at walmart) or use rubbermaid/steralite tubs (try the dollar store before you get them somewhere else they are very cheap there sometimes)but if you really want to build something try the cage and habitat forum on here. there are some cabinet maker guys and handymen on there that are very knowlegable and willing to help
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1.1 Gargoyle geckos
1.1 leucistic leopard gecko
0.0.1 asian golden tree frog
1.0 oriental firebelly toad
0.1 european firebelly toad
1.0 albino betta
1.0 orange tabby
0.0.1 asian painted frog
1.0 broad headed skink
0.0.1 fowlers toad
1.1 red eyed tree frog
1.1 red eared sliders
476.769.47 feeder crickets