At what age/size....

Can I move my baby onto a soil substrate?

She's on some now, but that's because I didn't plan on feeding crickets - can't find them small enough. But should I find some I'll switch her to paper towels. But just wondering when I can permanently move her onto the soil substrate?

When you can see that she's hunting well enough and has good enough control of her limbs for you not to worry about her getting a mouthful. I'd guess around 3 months would be a good age. They're so puppyish and can be a little clumsy, but you could also just feed crickets in a separate container and keep her on soil from now on if you like. It's not as if she's likely to be too stressed or shy to hunt them in an unfamiliar container. ;)

She is a bit clumsy. The other day she jumped from one are to another, was loosing her footing on her landing, grabbed the branch with her tail and just swung a bit by her tail till she stopped and her front feet and head were resting on the ground. Then she just stayed there for a few minutes like she was trying to pretend she meant to do that. So funny. I thought about feeding in a separate container, but I'm a little nervous about handling her right now. She's so tiny and looks so fragile. She seems just as scared as I am. I figured I'd not really try handling her until she reaches the 3 inch STV as recommended in one of the books I bought. I haven't held her at all yet. When I first brought her home and moved her into her temp cage, she jumped on my hand and then I just put my hand in the cage for her to jump off.

Very cute! Every now and again one of mine will jump on the bamboo in a way to make it spin, and they always look so surprised when it does. :)

You don't necessarily have to handle her to feed in a separate container -- you could use a Gladware type container to scoop her up in, or just put a container with deep sides and nothing to climb on inside her enclosure. Little crickets can't jump that far, and they're better at climbing rough surfaces like eggcrate than smooth ones like glass or plastic. Just make sure it's either heavy or anchored well enough that her jumping onto or off it won't cause it to fall over.

What are you naming her?

Excellent ideas! Thank you. Would one of those tall deli cup/containers work (of course I'll still have to weight it down a bit)?

Am I being too cautious about handling her or am I doing the right thing by waiting?

I have 2 girl names picked out: Piper and Phoebe (but Phoebe will be my bluey's name if it turns out to be a girl) and the only male name I've come up with is Nemo. I'm not good with names.

If you weight the tall deli container, it should work perfectly. Alternatively, check your dollar store for ceramic pitchers or the like. I heard about waiting after I'd already gotten and handled Waldo and Scooby, and neither of them seems traumatized by it, but they were already about 8-10 weeks old when I got them, so they were a little bigger. I'd worry more about her making too big a jump and hurting herself than about her being traumatized by handling. They really do adapt to it very well over time.

Nemo is a cute name, and so is Piper. Are you waiting for months to find out which it is before sticking the name?

Yeah, I'm going to wait to find out the gender before naming. I've tried getting her to jump on my finger in the cage - she just takes off the other direction. So I think that makes me more nervous about trying to handle her.

It definitely takes some handling before they'll come to you voluntarily, so don't be discouraged about that just yet. The good thing is that when they're not panicked, they'll give you warning when and where they're about to jump (like a puppy wiggling before pouncing), and you can put out a hand or something for them to jump to. I'm sure you've read about the hand-to-hand walking method. I'm not saying you *should* handle her now, just don't wait for her to ask you to pick her up before you decide it's time to start handling her.

And another 'Thank you'.

No sweat. :) I'm glad to have another regular to discuss these great lil guys with.

Man, I can't imagine keeping reptiles w/o the Internet!! It's great to not only meet others with the same interests, but to have a support group to turn to for help. :)

Absolutely! When I had my first ball python, I just had to go on what I was told for care instructions by the one person I knew who knew anything about them. We must not have done too badly because her sheds were mostly whole and she rarely if ever refused a meal, but it would have been great to have more people to learn from and talk about her with. It's great being able to look up almost anything and hook up with people to chat with. :)

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Originally Posted by Tigergenesis

Man, I can't imagine keeping reptiles w/o the Internet!! It's great to not only meet others with the same interests, but to have a support group to turn to for help. :)

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Amen :) Without this place, i dont know where i'd be :):)

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Originally Posted by Marla

They're so puppyish

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thats funny you said that,lol, my first male crestie the kids named him puppy. cuz when i introduced himto my females, it wasn't five minutes and he started "barking" like a dog to breed. he was very vocal. the kids thought was hilarious. i did too. he was high yellow, not these buck skin ones they are calling yellow. totally handleable, great little guy, i miss him. had to sell my group. but i wish i had the camera back then that i have now....it would of made a good video clip

Puppy sounds like a good name for him. :) It's too bad you had to sell them. I so enjoy how entertaining these guys are. My Susan who recently died was a rich butterscotch-y kind of yellow with a darker stripe down her back.

wow sorry to herethat about your susan.how did susan die may i ask? she sounds pretty nice.i got mine back in 98'/99' , they were pretty scarce then. i am gonna did up my pic's one of these days and scan them, you have to see him. i miss him. and my females.i lost my overtime at work and sold off most of my collection ufortunately. :(i had a tim tytle orange bloodlines too. my first ones were from alan rapashyy...real nice reds...they all threw magnificent babies. i think out of all the gec's i did, ccresties where my favorite......i call them boxes of chocolates........cuz you never know what you were gonna get when you breed them!!lol i think they are THE best beginner gecko, better thanleo's. and easier too!for toooo many reasons. i just cant get over when i see them for sale and they are tailless. i litterally had 100's of babies andd quite a few adults over the years, and not one EVER lost a tail. the kids handled them, thier frends did, hell even i did. how rough are these people being?? now i understand accidents happen, i know that. i guess it just bothers me to see that. and people try to sell breeder females like that, thats just wrong..i don't think it would be healthy for them to breed like that.i could be totally wrong and thats just my opinion. i am getting my albumtogether i will definetly add my cresties, even though they are in washinton somewhere:.( tooooooo sad ;(

I'll look forward to seeing your gecko pics. Boxes of chocolates is a good term for how they can surprise you with their offspring. They are definitely my favorite gecko, too, but I'd like to have satanic leaf tails at some point as well.

Susan's death was in another thread here very recently. She had gotten out and been missing for several days, and I'm not quite sure just how she died. It made me very sad. She was beautiful. I do have one with a missing tail, Waldo, and I'm not sure how she lost it as I just came home from work one day and saw it was gone. She does just fine though. Apparently almost all adults in the wild are tailless, so I don't think it's that big a deal, though I'd rather my others didn't lose theirs.

Here's a pic of Susan
http://www.happyvalleyasylum.com/her...onecloseup.jpg

i am sorry i just realized these other sites where here the other day and never saw your post. hope you arent offended. i am kinda new here.
when i was looking for my pic today and saw a cool pic of a crested you posted...nice pic. i am having trouble uploading mine....on my kodak easyshare they say jpg but when i try to upload it comes up as an error.a buddy of mine is coming over tomarrow to help with it. even my mom couldn't figure it out.ill get it right. i also have alot of pic's to scan too.
your gec is nice. i like the red stripes and dalmation on her.and alot of what they call fur. the yellow i hadhad tiger stripes, he was nice.
you are right the ones in the wild probly don't have tails. it takes alot out of females to breed them. and they are like energizer bunnies and dont know when to quit and will breed all year if you let them. i found they retain sperm too.

wendy the pic you tried to upload was probably too big. there is a limit (i think its 250KB) as to how big an image can be. there is also a 500KB limit for your entire gallery. you can resize your images using xnview. you should be able to get each individual pic within the 15-40KB range without any trouble. hope that helps. :)

mlededee hit it on the head for what probably caused your pic problem. Give xnview a try and see if that doesn't fix it.

I'm not offended by the fact that you missed my other thread on Susan. It's easy enough to miss the whole Rhac section, so I guess you're ahead of the game. I was looking forward to seeing what I could produce from Susan and my red dalmation, Sandiego, but I'll just have to see what he produces from the other girls instead.