I'm interested in purchasing my first Crested. I have previously owned Golden Geckos and I currently breed Leos. With this basic knowledge, how easily are Cresteds maintained?
-Patrick
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I'm interested in purchasing my first Crested. I have previously owned Golden Geckos and I currently breed Leos. With this basic knowledge, how easily are Cresteds maintained?
-Patrick
>>I'm interested in purchasing my first Crested. I have previously owned Golden Geckos and I currently breed Leos. With this basic knowledge, how easily are Cresteds maintained?
>>
>>
>>-Patrick
They're not really any harder than leos, with a few small caveats:
One, they do not have a 'bathroom corner' like leos, so be prepared to clean poop from everywhere in their enclosure.
Two, they need higher humidity, so you need to either have an enclosure with less ventilation or mist it regularly or both. No big deal, just something to be aware of. Obviously in a higher humidity environment, mold can become a concern, but it's not a big deal as long as you clean their enclosure reasonably regularly.
They don't really need supplemental heat, as most people's houses are kept at their normal temperature range (high 60s to high 70s F). The only heat issue they have is that if they get too hot, they start flipping out and can be permanently harmed by it. Shoot for 80F or below as a max temperature. If they see significant time above 82 or 83, they react badly to it, and 85 is a big no-no. This means that mine lives in the room the A/C is in during the summer, but otherwise is not a big deal.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear
They're between leos and goldens in terms of handleability. With their ability to jump and stick to anything, they certainly have the capability to be a handful, but they're less flighty than goldens. This is not to say they won't take a random leap on you sometimes, but age and handling does calm them down significantly.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear
All the above comments are correct, and I'd like to add something else.
Their diet is slightly different than that of leos and goldens. They are not strictly insectivores, in fact I feed mine on only Crested Gecko Diet (from Repashy/T-rex), they only get crickets every few months. Even if not feeding only the diet, usually crickets are only fed once of maybe twice a week in conjunction with the diet being offered.
Good point - I forgot to mention that - mine gets crickets something like every couple of weeks, basically whenever I get the whim to give them to her. While they're by no means a necessary or frequent part of her diet, she definitely loves them.
One thing to note about crickets is that as juveniles, some cresteds are much more interested in crickets than CGD, only gradually transitioning over as they get older. That was definitely the case with mine, but she happily eats CGD now.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear
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