Reptile & Amphibian Forums

At the local pet store yesterday, my son and I went in for a lizard recommendation. We came out in love with crested geckos. They are so cute and friendly, and will fit our set-up fine. We have a 45 gallon fishtank we are converting into a habitat. Can you share any tips?

Recommendations were that we use a peat like substrate and plant our plants right in it. He said they don't like to drink out of bowls, but we should spray the plants daily. The geckos they had were a little blah looking compared to the ones I've seen online. Does the color change as they age?

I want to research these little guys thoroughly before we buy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

if you're going to plant plants directly into the substrate, you will need some type of clean dirt or something, as i don't think they will grow very well in the aquarium just in peat. i would also highly suggest eco earth or bed-a-beast coco husk over peat moss as it is not as dusty/clingy.
finally, as far as pattern goes... gray may turn orange or red, and colors may get brighter. but dalmation spots are dalmation spots, pinstripes are pinstripes, and flames/harlequins are flames and harlequins right out of the egg. their colors may change dramatically, but their patterns won't.

Thanks for the info. It's really helpful.

Do you think it's a good idea to plant the plants or just leave them in their pots? I'm not sure it was peat he was selling, some bagged barky dirt stuff for lizards. The one we held had dalmation spots, but was a very bland color. It was pretty pricey, $90.

Any pitfalls to watch out for? I'd love to learn from the experience of people who have been there!

well, quite honestly if i were you, and i were looking to spend 90 dollars, i would probably buy something offline. most petstores will be in the 45-60 dollar range for cresteds.
there are several problems that are associated with the typical petstore, the main ones are as follows
you don't know the age, breeder, or previous conditions of the animal
petstores typically keep less than sanitary conditions, and will often times keep captive born animals in the same enclosures as wild caught animals, sometimes without even changing cage decorations or substrate.
they're marking the cresteds up about 200% from what they get them for or sometimes more. i sell most of my plain juvenile cresteds to pet stores for 15-25 dollars depending on how many they buy.

as far as substrate goes, i would definitely not choose anything that may be a potential choking hazard ( bark/mulch and anything rocky or gravily)
and would suggest eco earth or bed-a-beast as the top layer.
if you're going to put live plants in the cage, i personally would plant them directly in the substrate ( i use from the ground up 1-2 inches clean pea gravel, 1 inch of small clay pellets, a layer of fiberglass screen to keep the dirt from washing out, clean dirt with no fertilizer/pesticide/herbicide etc. , and finally i cover the top with eco earth)
if you want to keep it a bit simpler, as some people do, you may choose to use paper towels as the substrate, and plant the plants in pots.
however, the main thing you want to do is completely re-pot the plants being sure to remove all perlite and dirt that came in with the plant, and clean the plant leaves once or twice before putting them in the cage.
glad to see you're not buying on an impulse and doing your research. i guarentee you after you buy one, you definitely won't stop there, and would either suggest getting a plain juvenile to start off with to see how things work out, or just going for a nicer animal from the start.
cresteds are honestly one of the easiest animals to keep and breed as long as you do your research prior to getting them.
let me know if you have any more specific questions

Andrew Gilpin
L.A.C. Herps
Living Art Creations Herpetoculture

one more thing, i noticed at the beginning i said, OFFLINE...
i meant online
also, if you buy something offline, then you could possibly look around for local reptile shows and see if you find something a bit better for the price you are willing to spend. depending on your area, some places have shows ranging from once a year, to twice a month.

Thanks a ton, Andrew. Just the kind of advice I was looking for. The kind you can't get in books. :~)

There is a reptile shop in town that I'll be visiting today. The owner posts informational stuff about lizards on craigslist. I'm going to see what he has, and get the breeder info too. His cresties are all $50, regardless of pattern.

About ordering online...how can you be sure it's a friendly gecko if you've never held it? I'm really getting excited about our new pet. Since I know I'll primarily be taking care of it!

as far as handling goes....
if the gecko is under 15 grams, or about 4.5" total length, then it will most likely be jumpy. however, crested geckos are not mean and typically do not bite. even if they do bite, you can hardly feel it and really only notice it happen if you see it. Most cresteds as they mature will start to calm down a bit. a couple of months ago i purchased 2 adult females, that had basically never been held or touched. They were quite jumpy and skittish, but over the past month or two only holding them maybe once or twice a week, they have calmed down tremendously.
definitely check out your reptile shop that sells them for $50, and if you're not impressed with color/pattern you may consider asking if he can get any higher colored ones that he could sell you for your original price range of $90. also, remember to look at the way the animals are housed, to see if it is clean, and the cage mates also look healthy. if one of the cage mates is scrawny, has sunken in eyes, or it's tail bone/hip is noticeable i wouldn't buy any of them. good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.

Okay, here's the scoop. The reptile cages seemed very clean (though the shop was dusty!) There were small servings of babyfood from the night before, I got there the minute they opened. The owner breeds them himself and seemed to know what he was talking about--he does not inbreed, etc. He asks you to bring the gecko back for a free one month check up so he can see how they're doing.

The only qualm I had was that there were three geckos from the same "clutch" if that's the right word. They were beautiful but one was much bigger than the other two. He said they were about 4 months old. The small ones had no protuding bones and seemed well proportioned, just about a third smaller than the big one. The older geckos he had in another tank were all the same size, but a paler color. All of his geckos had lines across their heads.

Sound good? Thanks for the help. It's nice to have a knowledgeable on my side (and the geckos side).

sounds pretty good. the one thing i would stray from once it's in your control is giving them babyfood. babyfood is like candy, and will just make the geckos look fat and healthy, but their diet is typically just the opposite.
as for size, it is very common for one or two geckos to eat more than others, or to slightly stress others out so they don't grow as much. i've gotten a couple of cresteds awhile back that were clutch mates, and one currently is 17.9 grams, and the other is 22.3 so there can be some healthy variations.
i would feed t-rex crested gecko diet over any other food available. it is a complete diet that you just have to mix with water. i use it for ALL of my crested geckos, and they love the newer sweeter version that allen repashy has come up with. you can purchase it just about anywhere ( lllreptile.com and many other places). when i have extra crickets i will still throw dusted ones in their enclosures, as the geckos tend to grow faster with a varied diet ( especially if it contains insects)
now it's your job to find the best looking one and take it home

Thanks again for all of your advice. My son and I are going to start setting up the habitat. Will post pics in a few weeks when we get our crestie.

A few things that haven't been discussed yet:

My crested geckos drink water from a bowl, no problem. If you mist the cage, that's all the water they need, but a water dish is good insurance, especially if a child is (partially) in charge of the gecko's care.

You know they're nocturnal, right? That's good because they don't need ultraviolet light sources like most lizards do. But the downside is that they sleep all day.

Also, I don't think you mentioned how many you will get. Based on the size of your tank, I assume it will be more than one. Two males will fight (sometimes or often, depending on who you talk to). A male and a female can be kept together, but the female may lay eggs all the time and die from calcium depletion if you don't separate them (and/or cool them off) during part of the year. Multiple females are probably easiest, but adult females can be hard to find. It's easy to tell males and females apart if they're adults, but with juveniles you can't tell.

All things considered, I think crested geckos are about the easiest reptile pets available, and you and your son sound like you're asking all the right questions at the right time (i.e. before you make the purchase!). I hope you enjoy your new pets.

Thanks for your input, Jer. The shop mostly carries females (he said something about keeping the eggs a certain temp to get more females), so we'll be getting one for now. If all goes well, we can get a male later or another female. We can always put in a plastic divider to separate them when we need to.

My son is so pumped. He spent $120 of his saved money last night getting the stuff for the setup. I felt really well informed about what to buy, thanks to this forum--flamedcrestie in particular! Got a food and water dish (tiny), a cave/rock, a good climbing branch, t-rex food and calcium powder, a thermometer and a couple of plants (they have no soil-bonus!)

A few things I'm not sure about:
We got the bricks of eco-earth and I have the gravel already. By clay, do you mean something like unscented cat litter? And for the soil, would organic topsoil do? Do I need to "sterilize" the soil by putting it in the oven or something or just hope there are no bad bacteria in there? We have kept fish for years, so I know about beneficial bacteria.

Another newbie question. You guys list your pets with deciamls. What's that all about? Thanks!

the first number is how many males you have, second number is how many females you have, and the third number is how many unsexed you have...like for your babies or juvies that aren't old enough yet to tell what they are. I asked that same questions a long time ago ; )

Dennis

"The shop mostly carries females (he said something about keeping the eggs a certain temp to get more females), so we'll be getting one for now"
just so you know, temperature sex dependency is far from being proven in crested geckos. i think the highest credible ratio i've heard so far is 40% males and 60 % females. just thought i'd let you know.
as for mixing the eco earth, i mix 1/2 gallon of warm/hot water in a container that allows it to swell to about 7 tims it normal size. let it set for 1/2 an hour. if you don't it will be hard to break apart.
i also wouldn't worry about cleaning the dirt, and the clay pellets should be sold at a nursery, if not the clay can be left out because it pretty much does the same thing as the pea gravel but the clay absorbs some of the water.

You mentioned calcium powder...if you're using the T-Rex Crested Gecko Diet, calcium supplements aren't needed. If you were to feed baby food, you would need to mix it with a vitamin/mineral supplement. But the CGD is nutritionally complete. Some people keep a dish of calcium powder in the cage for the gecko to lick if it feels the need for more calcium, and I'm sure that's okay. I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to "oversupplement" your gecko by trying to supplement the CGD. If you feed crickets, they should be gut-loaded and dusted, but you probably know that already.

remember it's not a life that cost fifty it's fifty that you spent on a new pet. i don't think it's right to say that you'll spend only so much on a pet. the cricket bill, the viarium or cage (two differnt things), the thing to remember is you know where it came from, the place is clean and cares (no poo on the cages), and you get great customer service.

buying in person IMO is best. like with a boa, some feel right and other just feel jump. online buying is about buying from those with integraty like acreptiles or geckosunlimited, coolbreed industrys but not johns gecko barn...ask a ton of questions to them, both avenues and find out if they care and know things that will help you or just want to sell an extra "retail item". hope this helps.

when holding your prospective new pet, check the pads, vent and so on. i have a client that order two cresties from someone and one was missing chunks from her pads, and both animals seemed to have poo built up on their feet.

thanks,

I can tell that you care about animals, as do I. I'd be perfectly willing to spend $90 on a pet if there was value in it. After researching, I felt the $90 price tag at one store was not a good value compared to others I saw online, etc.

It's our first reptile ever. I liken it to a first time aquarium owner. It's smarter to start with a few guppies than it is to start with a black arowana, right?

Our 45 gal. vivarium is all set up. It looks great. I'll post pics on another thread.