Newbie with Crestie questions...

I'm planning on getting a Crestie this year and am currently in the research phase. I have a few questions that I hope you experts can help me with:

1. I was thinking of using EcoEarth or Bed-A-Beast as a substrate, but was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on ESU's Jungle Mix?

2. When feeding baby food, what do I need to look for when finding a good brand? Are there popular brands among crestie keepers?

3. What is the purpose/role of their Calcium sacs?

4. I usually only hear people mention feeding bananas, peaches and apricots.....what about other non-citrus fruits? I also plan on getting a blue-tongue skink whoe will eat fruit and I thought it would be nice to be able to coordinate meals. Things like fig, papaya, mango, raspberries, blue/blackberries, melons, strawberries, guava, etc.

5. I'm looking at getting a Boaphile cage (24x18x18). Is this a good size for a single adult and does this cage seem like a good idea? If so, I'm also trying to figure out how many vents to order and where they should be placed. Here's a link to the cage:
www.boaphileplastics.com/arborealcages.html

6. I've been trying to decide between live or artifical plants. What are the pros/cons for each? I guess I should also add that I've never had a plant in my life and don't know the first thing about caring for them.

7. And do you feed them every day or every other day?

Thanks for any advice!

Marla's off the net for a few days while she moves, but I'm sure she'll answer this one when she gets back. :)

Thanks JLC!

I'm back! :)

1. I've never used any of those, and I'm not even sure which is which because I have a hard time keeping all the brands straight. What I will say is that you should use a substrate that won't be easy for crickets to hide in, like aspen or coconut fiber would. I use peat moss, but if you used long-strand moss I'd mix it in with sand or potting soil or both to weigh it down and make it hard for crix to hide. Also, if you use a loose substrate, don't make it too deep because the cresties will get a little in their mouths when they hunt. If it's just a little, they'll wipe their mouths on a nearby branch or what have you and be fine, but if it's too deep they can get a mouthful that they can't get out without your help.

2. Look for a lack of preservatives and no added sugar. Beyond that, you should be fine.

3. Females store calcium for egg production in their calcium sacs. I don't know that they have much of a role except just as a general reserve for males, but females tend to have larger sacs.

4. I don't have any resources I can point you to, but it seems to me that there was a reason to avoid berries, possibly because the acid content was too high? I'd think they'd do fine with mango, papaya, melon, etc., though.

5. That size should be okay for a single adult, but if you start with a baby you might want to start out with a small upright Rubbermaid (they have some with a locking top that are around 12"-14" high) and paper towel or newspaper substrate to make it easier for the cute-but-not-too-bright baby gecko to find its food. As far as vents go, I'd suggest both sides for a cross-breeze, but you need to consider how you'll be misting them, too, because that is generally how they'll get their drinking water. Sandiego really likes the birdcage water dish I attached to the side of his and Carmen's cage, but he uses it for cooling his tuckus, not for drinking.

6. Pothos are cheap, fairly durable, and do well in low light conditions. I've bought three plants for my geckos, and while all three are still alive, the pothos is doing the best by far. Better yet, they are inexpensive, so if you have no green thumb and manage to kill it, you haven't wasted a lot of money. For me, the live plants are easier to deal with because I leave them in their pots and can pull them out and rinse the "fertilizer" off the leaves and down into their soil, whereas the fake plants have to be attached to the cage somehow, which means they have to be detached for cleaning.

7. Easy enough to just put in a dish of crested gecko diet every day, but juvies need more protein and should have either crickets or gargoyle gecko diet at least twice a week. Feeding them crickets with calcium twice a week and fruit with herptivite 2-3 times a week is also a good way to go. Just make sure that either your vitamins or your calcium doesn't have vitamin D. You want it in one but not in both.

Hope this helps!

Thanks marla! Hope the moving went well - I hate packing, moving and unpacking. Ugh!

You'v been a big help - and my future Crestie thanks you. LOL>

I found the ingredients for the Jungle Mix by ESU to see what you think. Their site says:
"Jungle Mix provides a natural living environment for terrarium animals and plants. It is a unique blend of sterilized virgin organic soil, fine grain sand, vermiculite, peat moss, orchid bark and green tree moss. Jungle Mix is organic, natural and perfect for burrowing reptiles and plants. It promotes breeding, nesting and egg incubation".

Also regarding feeding. I've been reading about the Crested Gecko Diet, etc. I was wondering if I were to feed fresh mashed fruit some days & baby food other days, can I use the Crested Gecko diet in the mixture as a supplement? And then some days I'd also give insects that are dusted and gutloaded. But my main question is can I just use the CGD (or the Lechie or Gargoyle diet) in it's premixed form and just add that to the fruit or babyfood w/o the need for additional supplementation?

Moving is still really in progress. The kids spent yesterday and are spending today getting their last minute stuff at the old house and gathering garbage and whatnot. I really hope they'll be done today, but if not, at least we don't have to be completely out and have it clean until July 1, which gives us several more days. The plus side is that I'm getting buff from the workout of painting and moving. :)

The Jungle Mix sounds like it would be a good choice for substrate, especially if it's not a baby-baby crestie. If it's little bitty one, you might want to think about using newspaper or paper towel to start with. I know it's not pretty, but sometimes they're clumsy when they're hunting, and Scooby got a mouthful that would have been disastrous for him if I hadn't noticed and cleaned it out for him. He knew I was helping him, though, and I think that's why he's the friendliest of my cresties.

You can definitely use the CGD as a supplement. The thing is that it is perfectly balanced to be fed solo, so I am not sure what an optimal balance is when using it as a supplement instead, but I always give them some CGD or GGD when I give mine fruit, and sometimes I give them the diet plain (mixed with water, of course). I've read that some people have trouble getting their cresties to eat it, but I have had no such trouble with any of mine. They won't take it from my finger like they will with fruit, but they will absolutely eat it up.

Have you found your crestie or your breeder yet? Anthony Caponetto and Derek Moynihan tend to have nice ones, as do Sandfire Dragon Ranch and Mother Gecko. I'll definitely be interested to see what you get. :)

Thank you again.

There is a local breeder I found (I got my corn from him and may also get a blue-tongue skink), but I"m not sure I'll be ready (setup-wise and done researching) when his eggs have hatched and he's ready to get rid of them. I've only heard of two of those breeders so I'll check the others out as backups.

Thanks again!

Are cresties considered social by nature? I know many keep more than one in an enclosure, do they seem to 'enjoy' (for lack of a better word) the company of others?

I would like to get a breeding pair in case I want to breed in the future; however, I don't want lots of babies. Is it okay to house them separately and then put the male in with the female when I want them to breed - or do they need to be with eachother all the time?

Since you can't sex them until they are a bit older, does that mean I can't buy more than one baby and house them together from the get-go (since I don't know if they are 2 males)?

Thanks !

You're absolutely welcome. I'm looking forward to more chatter and pics in this section of the forum. Judy should be getting her cresties fairly soon, too, and Godfather should have his tomorrow. :)

Cresties shouldn't leave the breeder for at least 4 weeks after hatching, so if those are still eggs, you should have plenty of time to get set up if you want to buy from that particular breeder, and if not he might hold on to one for an extra week or two for you.

I'm hoping I'll be able to start breeding before too long. Carmen is up to about 40 grams, with minimum breeding weight being about 35 grams. I want to set up a new enclosure for Carmen and Susan and put Sandiego in a separate enclosure with conjugal visits to the girls. Then the enclosure Carmen and Sandiego have been living in will be converted to a lovely rat house for Punkin.

"conjugal visits " - that's funny.

With more than one female to a male, how do you know who lays the eggs - is it obvious when the female is carrying?

With the different colors and patterns for cresties - how does the breeding genetics work?

I forgot about the breeder needing to keep the babies for awhile - that does buy me some time. I think that I'll also set up a smaller home (like a critter keeper or rubbermaid tub, etc) to start with so that will make me ready even sooner.

Cresties are somewhat social. Mine definitely tend to hang out together in the cage even with lots of other space available. You probably saw the crestie meeting pic I snapped. :) On the other hand, I understand they'll do fine as solor critters as well, but according to the Rhac book, they are commonly found in clusters in the wild, so I figure they're happier to have company. You can definitely buy two babies and house them together if you want, as males housed together from babies will rarely, if ever, fight, even once they reach adulthood. They just need adequate space in the enclosure as adults so that they're not competing for good spots, and I wouldn't keep 2.1 together once they reach maturity either.

As far as which female laid the eggs, from what I understand, it should be visible for at least a few days before she lays her eggs, but probably the only way to be absolutely certain is to separate your females. But other breeders who post on the ks forum don't do that and seem to have no trouble figuring out the parentage, so I don't think that will be a problem.

As far as the polymorphic characteristics and reproduction, my understanding is that each crestie is limited in what it can produce (makes sense), so if you put (say) a red female with a red male, odds are best of your getting red offspring, though they don't really show their true colors for a few months. Of course, you could end up with a yellow dalmation from a red flame and a plain buckskin. ;) Scooby has brightened up quite a bit since I got him/her and has a great amber flame, but Waldo is still a very plain brown with some orange pinstriping.

And yes, setting up a critter keeper or Rubbermaid will be both a good move for little guys and a way to buy you some more time to get your final setup ready. :)

How many cresties can I house in a 24x18x18 enclosure?

I think I might try the live pothos in the temp hatchling enclosure to see how it goes. Do I need to plant it myself since plant/garden stores may have treated it with chemicals? Remember, I know nothing about plants. :D

I'm having a hard time finding out if I need to proivde hides on the bottom of the cage.

Two to three adults should be fine in that size cage with adequate hides. Repotting would be a good idea, if you can do it. I'm not plant person either, but repotting isn't difficult. :) Mine never use the hides I've provided at the bottoms of their cages, so I think it's up to you. They should have an egg-laying box when it gets near that time, though.

I'm following this thread closely....excellent questions from Tiger and as always, excellent answers from Marla! I'm very much looking forward to getting my cresties in another couple months.

Once again "Thank you" and believe it or not............I can't think of any more questions right now. :)

I'm just glad I don't seem like a pest. I am a major reserch hound before doing anything - especially when it comes to a living creature. I got Robbie Hamper's "The Crested Gecko in Captivity" book in the mail the other day and have ordered "Rhacodactylus: The Complete Guide...Gecko Reptile Book " by Philippe de Vosjoli. I can't wait to get it.

Thanks again!

I am the same way, but at some point you have to either dive in and give it a shot or decide that you're not up to it/ not interested. I read the Rhac book all the way through pretty quickly, but haven't gotten the other one yet. I also read the entire archives of the rhac section on ks. I figured that ought to be a good running start, along with the 20 or so caresheets and a few other forums I read before getting mine. :)

Goodness. When you both are done reading you'll be like...so loaded with information. You'll be like experts.

LOL. I've had mine a few months now, and they seem to be doing very well. I'm like a Boy Scout: "Be Prepared." :)

LOL! I'm more like; "How much does it cost? :shock: Heck! Its cheaper there, lets go.

LOL. I have to be that way to make sure I'm serious and ready. I researched Bearded Dragons, Uromastyx lizards and Leopard Geckos for at least a month each (on the Internet, library books, forums, etc) for some time before deciding they weren't what I wanted at this time.

I knew it was only a matter of time before I came up with more questions. Just two - one kind of gross and one not so much.

Would one of those plastic critter keepers be okay for a hatchling - dimensions are 8-1/2" x 14" x 10" high . If so, how long will this last - I don't plan on keeping my new crestie in there long, but want to make sure I don't keep him in a house that size for longer than is best.

Also (sorr to ask, but keep in mind I'm used to snakes), what does a cresties feces and urine look like? I just want to know when to be alarmed by knowing what healthy feces/urine is.

Thanks again!

Very good info. Thanks Marla!
Maybe you guys should make this one sticky.
Even if I dont have plans for geckos in the near future, I love reading about different herps and getting to know about the husbandry...

TG, I'd say that a critter keeper ought to be fine until it reaches between 4" and 5" total length, which is probably (just estimating here) 3-5 months old. Alternatively, there are some appropriately-sized Rubbermaid and Sterilite containers that typically run under $5 that you might consider using instead.

As far as crestie output, expect it to look a lot like what birds drop. As far as I can tell, there's just the one variety, sometimes runnier, sometimes whiter, but all in one ummm expulsion.

Thanks, green man. There's another post here somewhere where I put a lot of info including a shopping list for cresties. I think I should find that and make it sticky.

See, this is whay I ask questions - because sometimes I can be an airhead. I don't know why I didn't think about a sterilite container. I know they're cheaper and the 'frosted' quality would provide my new little friend with a bit more privacy/security until it gets it's new luxury home.

Well, critter keepers are an obvious choice. :) It's just that whenever I walk down the storage aisle at Target or wherever, I think about what each container that catches my eye would be good for, and I've definitely spotted a few for cresties. In fact, my smaller cresties share a Sterilite that's 40-something qt size, but considerably smaller would work for a single crestie very well, especially a little guy. I'd try to give them at least a foot or so of height, but 10" or 11" isn't exactly going to be traumatic. ;)

Thanks again!

You are absolutely welcome. :) Now we just need Godfather to get his digi cam and post pics of his new cresties. ;)