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Someone had a set up and a crested gecko that was dropped off on someone's front porch. Someone found it and told someone else... Someone else took it... Someone else else(me) took it. This little guy/gal has been through a few different places, eh? Well, I need some advice... I have CGD and will try and feed it tonight. The gecko has a little stud tail instead of his/her normal tail .

Sorry for the pics. I don't have a humidity/temperature gage in his set up yet. I have used a temp gun but the temp has been like around 70 to 72.? . I have a heat pad under the side with the tree kinda thing, the left side. Should I get him a hide? Tonight what should I feed? He was down on the bottom until i put black paper on the left, right, and part of the front side. When I came back in he was near the lid of the 10 gal. tank. Does he want to be able to look around? Should I invert the 10 gal tank to make it more arboreal? More plants? Over head light? House temperature is around 72-74 i think. Their were like over a dozen crickets(i think crickets) in the tank when I got it home. I took most of them out and put them in a container. I think there is a mealworm down in the substrate. I think the substrate was the brick of stuff that you add water too...

Thanks

Before thinking about moving things around too much, I'd give the little guy some time to settle in. That being said, while it's hard to tell his/her age from the pics provided, even if s/he is small enough to be ok in a 10 gallon for now (I would only suggest this for juveniles), you'll eventually want to upgrade to at least a 20 gallon, and have it be a more vertically oriented tank, as they do like to climb. Exoterra (http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/glass_terrarium.php) makes a few nice ones with front-access doors, or you can go with a screen cage-topper (http://www.herpsupplies.com/product.cfm?id=SSR40010) in order to expand the terrarium you've already got. Be aware with the topper that it obviously allows easier escape of humidity from the tank, so if you live in a dry area, you will need to mist more often with that. Also, the wire mesh is just wide enough that they can sometimes push "deposits" through it if they're creative about how they excrete, so it's not a perfect solution, but in some situations, it can be effective.

Blocking things off with paper like that is a good idea, especially if the tank is in a high-traffic area of your home - it'll let him/her feel more secure. You may also wish to use paper towels as substrate, at least temporarily, so that you can more easily monitor when/if/how much s/he is defecating. CGD is definitely what you want to be feeding long-term, and you were 100% right to pull the crickets out; a dozen uneaten ones wandering around in there would cause lots of stress, as they can crawl on and/or bite the gecko; I usually give mine crickets maybe once every two weeks as a treat, and usually only a few crickets at a time; certainly not a dozen!

Don't worry about the stub tail; that just means s/he dropped it at some point. It won't regrow, but they do fine w/o them; just means they look a little goofy. Unlike some other geckos (leopards, AFTs, etc), their tails are not fat storage, so apart from healing the wound, it's not a nutritional strain on them to lose their tails.
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