Any crested Gecko owners

[snowflake311]

So we inherited a crested Gecko that needed a home. she lost his tail in the 2 hour trip to our house sadly. she is maybe 5 years old I am not sure. I have been doing my research on them.

I first met this little guy in 2013 here is a photo of one of the Geckos They had 2 back than I guess the male died. The owner had been fighting cancer for 9 months. These guys were neglected a bit. The last 3 months were really hard on the family and pets.

This little girl is shedding now and I want to help her regain her full health. She had a rough past few months. So any advice on caring for them. I want to put her in a 20 Gal tall aquarium she is in one of those small tall reptile cage.

reptile by Sarah Ireland, on Flickr

 

[Kiwibird]

Awww, thanks for giving this beautiful girl a home I have an ancient leopard gecko, I'd imagine care would be fairly similar.

First, since she is molting make certain you are misting her habitat, which will help the skin come off easier. Also, do NOT remove the shed skin right away. Allow her the opportunity to eat it, which geckos almost always do as their shed skin is a good source of nutrition for them. Also, my leopard gecko sheds every month like clockwork. A healthy gecko should shed pretty frequently. A broken tail will grow back, but will be stumpier than the original and may appear slightly deformed. This is normal. Keep an eye on the stump as it heals and observe for signs of infection, but if it scabs over nicely and shows no signs of infection, just let nature take it's course. Personally, I prefer reptile carpet to any other bedding. Leo almost died from being put on sand as a juvenile (every time he ate a bug, he ate sand too and it effectively cemented his insides together). Ever since I will use nothing but the special carpet. I also refuse to use under tank heaters and prefer heat lamps in appropriate high heat fixtures. Too many horror stories of those under tank heaters catching fire. All prey should be gut loaded for several days before feeding. Gut loading is basically feeding the insects highly nutritious food, which should be a combination of produce and commercial gut loading pellets. This insures the insects are full of nutrition. I am not familiar with crested geckos, but some general things to look into would be:

-Active during the day or a nocturnal species? This will help understand her natural behaviors better. A nocturnal gecko may come out every so often to bask under their sunlamp, but will mostly sleep during the day and it's normal. A day active gecko who's sleeping excessively during the day may be ill.
-Environmental needs (climbing? vines? rocks? Long tank or tall tank? etc...)
-Heat and humidity needs. This is VERY important to maintain good health, digestion, shedding, activity levels, appetite etc... Reptiles are very sensitive to environmental conditions. Some may also need a heat gradient in their enclosure where there is a very hot area and a cool area so they can self-regulate their body temperature.
-How often to feed. I know of no reptile that should be fed daily (no matter what places like Petco may say). Overfeeding can lead to early death and health issues. My gecko eats once or twice a week or so, less frequently in the cool months.
-Does this species need calcium dusted prey. Many reptiles are prone to calcium deficiencies and need supplemental calcium.

One last thing, some vets may look over a reptile, but finding a vet who specializes in/cares about small reptiles will be next to impossible. Not many people are willing to take a $20 lizard to a vet. Make sure you are familiar with signs of illness, but in general a healthy reptile being properly cared for will never have to see a vet.

Edit: One last last thing Geckos can be extremely long lived when properly cared for. My old guy is at the end of his life at 20 and I don't honestly expect him to live too much longer. But a 5 or 6 year old gecko is still quite young with a lot of good years ahead!

 

[riddick07]

I've only skimmed their care occasionally since I've thought about one but never actually get one. From what I remember they are climbers, higher humidity, and lower temps. They do not regrow their tail. Your guy will have just a nub.

I would look into reptile forums. I know a few with a couple crested gecko breeders. You can put together some pretty amazing bioactive displays with these guys.

 

[snowflake311]

Thanks guys.

Sandy is doing ok so far she was out and about this morning watching me do a water change on my fish tank that is next to her. She is so cute. I want to give her a bigger better come.

It stinks that she will only have a nub for a tail. She was delivered to me this way. I would have covered her to reduce stress. oh well she will live just fine with no tail.

I am working on putting together a nice set up with live plants for her. I keep planted aquariums so a terrarium sounds fun and different. I am afraid I will become a reptile person now. I am already a fish, bird, and dog person. I was a rodent person too but my dog is a killer so no chinchillas for me. If anyone in Nor Cal is looking for a chinchilla PM me.

 

[snowflake311]

I took some photos of her. She is doing better already. I would say she is doing much better now that she is getting the care she needed. She is staying nice and moist now.

I put together a GIF my first GIF ever. I took these photos last night all manual auto focus did not work. when you do low light photography you can only get it right if you do the settings yourself.

Enjoy Sandy.

 

[Terry57]

I love those GIFs!!
She totally looks like she is smiling in the last one!

 

[Kiwibird]

Awww, she is super cute! To me, geckos always seem to be smiling Reptiles can indeed be quite inquisitive and often learn to recognize their carers. I've never done live plants with my reptiles/amphibians. Plants wither up and die if I look at them wrong lol and I like the ease of cleaning. I've heard good and bad things about planted enclosures for reptiles, mainly issues with fungus on the soil due to high humidity conditions and being more difficult to clean, but if you have experience with planted aquariums I'm guessing you wouldn't have any issues with a planted terrarium.

One thing I forgot to mention in my initial post is if she can climb glass, make sure her enclosure lid is secure. They can be quite crafty Leo is not a sticky gecko (and quite lazy, so never an escape attempt from him), but my newt can climb glass (how, I will never know, newts don't have sticky feet) and has escaped on a few occasions. I had to alter the lid on his vivarium to prevent escape