I am soo totally hooked!

This weekend my husband and I went and picked up MORE cresties. Yes, I said more cresties. We got a male and female pair along with thier exo terra enclosure. The male is a stubby, he was bred by Robbie Hamper, he is a rust tiger. The female was bred by Hatching Herps out of NY, she is a bi-color red dalmation. Very beautiful pair. The female is a light red even when she is not fired up, the male is normal looking, til he fires up, them you get the treat of seeing just how beautiful he really is. They are both almost a year old. As of yet, I have not handled them, but they are settling into my house and they are eating well so far.

Sorry about the quality of the pics, I know they are not the best, but I did not want to mess with the little critters to much yet.

Nice cresteds. I am really thinking about getting some. How many should I keep in a 29 gallon? also It looks like its time to update that avatar ;)

Awesome Jeanne! They look beautiful. The Hamper's always have a nice collection available at the show. I had to bow out this weekend... everytime I go, I end up buying something, and that simply won't do with Christmas on the way!

Looks like someone's caught the Crestie Bug... :)

OMG I have so caught the crestie bug it is not funny, but so has my hubby. Now hopefully my baby that the kids got me is a girl who can eventually live with the pair I picked up, if not, thats OK too, just means I will be getting another exo terra enclosure to sit next to the one already on my dresser and looking for a mate for that one... more cresties.

Now I TOTALLY see why all you ELLLA ppl are hooked! These have got to be the neatest lizard I have ever seen or had. Before, my fat tailed geckos were my absolute favorite, now them and the cresties come in with a tie! I love the way they feel and the way they look and......... well I just love them little boogers!

Anyone know how long before the pair I just got starts breeding?

You need to wait til the female is at least 30-35 grams, just for her health before you put them together.

Here, I stole this off of Pangeareptile.com:

In order to induce breeding, temperatures should be kept between 75 and 80 during the day and dropping up to 5 degrees at night. The enclosure should be misted lightly once or twice a day particularly in the evening, however you should not soak the cage so much that it doesn't dry up in a few hours. Special attention should be paid to making sure the breeding crested geckos are getting plenty of high quality food. Gut loaded insects and supplemented baby foods are great. Make sure to dust the crickets and baby food with a good Calcium and Vitamin D3 powder at least 3 times per week. Check the calcium sacs of your breeders (located on the roof of the mouth) once per month to make sure they are not getting depleted.

An egg laying container should be used inside the cage for the females to dig in and lay their eggs. The container should be large enough to accomadate the female and allow her to dig down at least 3-4 inches. It is recommended that the egg laying medium be a 50-50 mix of moistened Peat Moss and Vermiculite. However straight Peat Moss works too. A piece of cork bark works well to conceal the container and make the female comfortable laying her eggs. You should check for eggs every morning while they are breeding and remove the eggs promptly so they do not dry up. Females will lay a new clutch of eggs every 25-35 days. The eggs should be placed in an airtight container with 2 inches of slightly moistened (3 parts water to 4 parts substrate-by weight) vermiculite, perlite, or a mixture of the two. I prefer to use Vermiculite. The top should be removed at least twice a week for ventilation and to check on the eggs. I keep the eggs at a constant 76 degrees and they hatch in about 60-70 days. Eggs have been hatched at a variety of temperatures ranging from 72 to 80 degrees. I would recommend incubating somewhere in between. Temperature dependant sex determination (whereby the sex of the offspring is determined by the temperature at which they are incubated) has not yet been proven with crested geckos.

Females can also retain sperm, so, even if you take her away from the male, she can still lay eggs for awhile after that (which it is recommended to let her have a little alone time every now and then :) ) Good luck!

the red female is gorgeous! i love the reds. :)

here is my input on breeding and the material referenced above:

the male and female should be close in size, within 10 grams or so, before being placed together and the female should be 35 grams minimum weight and at least or very close to one year old. if your pair meets those requirements and you want to start breeding them right away i would check the calcium sacks on the female since you just got her and don't necessarily know that she has been getting all the nutrients she needs.

i have never had to "induce" breeding by manipulating the temperatures or anything else in my cresteds' environments, although i do keep temps on the warm side at about 76-80 degrees (76 being only during the winter as the room temp drops slightly). they will usually breed without any help as long as the basic crested husbandry needs are being met and it isn't too cold.

supplemented baby foods are not great. they contain a lot of sugar which is not good for the cresteds' diet. t-rex crested gecko diet is great and should be fed without baby food added to it unless you are in the process of weaning your cresteds from the baby food.

females lay approximately every 4 weeks. if you mark a calendar each time they lay you can learn each females' schedule pretty well. i use a rubbermaid sandwich container for lay boxes. i fill them with sphagnum moss and leave the lid off. i tried peat moss but i didn't like how messy it got in the cages when i used it because the females will dig and fling it all over the place. you have to monitor the sphagnum a little more closely to make sure it is retaining enough moisture, but if you spray it down pretty well each evening that should be enough. i would NOT recommend using vermiculite or perlite in the lay box under any circumstances. if they were to be injested while the female was digging and pushing the eggs around they could cause impaction.

incubated at a temperature of 78 degrees all of my babies have hatched at almost exactly 58-60 days. i use a shoebox size rubbermaid for an incubator with one tiny hole drilled in each side for ventilation. i use a 2:1 ratio of perlite to water as incubation material. this will seem a bit dry, but drier is better--too much moisture will cause the eggs to mold. once a week open the container and to let in fresh air and wipe any excess moisture from the lid or sides of the container.


if your new pair of cresteds is sexually mature and have been housed together chances are they have already bred and the female will lay eggs for you soon. if their environment was on the cold side it is possible that they may not have bred or that she will hold her eggs until the temperature warms up enough that she feels comfortable laying them.

Hello im also thinking about aquiring a female to breed my Oliver. What is a good Scale to buy to weigh reptiles that don't cost alot? And do you have to buy a incubator for the eggs? Thanks Aaron

Very cute Jeanne! I can see why you've caught the Chrestie Bug LOL.

As I'm still learning about these things hope you don't mind educating me a bit. Now the male's tail came off did it or was he born that way? Will it stay as it is or regrow more? I understand when lizards regrow their tails they don't come back "normal" but are they still functional tails?


~~Jo~~

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ballpythonandragon

Hello im also thinking about aquiring a female to breed my Oliver. What is a good Scale to buy to weigh reptiles that don't cost alot? And do you have to buy a incubator for the eggs? Thanks Aaron

---

i use this scale: http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/in...PROD&ProdID=12. you can also usually find good deals on scales on ebay.

if your room temps are warm enough (70-80 degrees or so) you don't need an incubator.

Haha! Congratulations! Don't you just love those Exo-Terra terrariums? They don't seem very economically efficient for breeding with a large collection, but keeping a few Cresties in them for display is perfect.

Keep us posted on the breeding, and when you get more Cresties!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by frankykeno

Very cute Jeanne! I can see why you've caught the Chrestie Bug LOL.

As I'm still learning about these things hope you don't mind educating me a bit. Now the male's tail came off did it or was he born that way? Will it stay as it is or regrow more? I understand when lizards regrow their tails they don't come back "normal" but are they still functional tails?


~~Jo~~

---

crested geckos drop their tails in the same way that many other lizards do, however unlike most other lizards and geckos they do not regrow them. interestingly enough, in the wild cresteds never keep their tails.

Thanks for the input you gals and guys!

The pair have been housed together most of thier lives, except the short time the male was alone before the previous owner got the female. I know they were a bit cold at her house, at least thats what the prev. owner said, so I do not expect that they have bred at this point, however, now that I know they could have, I will be watching more, in fact, I think it may be a good idea to put in a lay box immediately just in case. As I said before, the male is just over a yr. old and the female will be a yr. next month. They are very close in size, but the male is slightly chubbier though, he seems to be a piglet, he sits on the food bowl and lords over it till he feels good and done. Then the female comes down to eat. I did go look into thier mouths for that sack you told me about, hers seems pretty big actually, and his is about half the size of hers.

When I picked them up, the girl I got them from sent over a full bag of Clarks Crested Gecko Diet, but everything I have read on it, indicated it is not as good as the T-Rex brand, as thats made as a total suppliment of thier needs. And Clarks is not. I am going to the petshop (2nd one to look for this stuff, otherwise it will have to be ordered) to see if I can get the T-Rex brand, and will start to wean them off the Clarks. I would rather they had a more complete diet. They dont want anything to do with crix at all, neither does my baby though, so the need for the T-Rex is even greater now.

Yeah, Clark's is supposed to be a supplement, given twice a week, and crix twice a week.

I personally love the T-rex MRD, as do my geckos :)

you can sometimes feel or even see eggs in the female's belly if she is pregnant. you can palpate her gently just below her ribs for the eggs. in a few of my females i can pretty clearly see the eggs if i hold them so that i can see their bellies, especially when they are within a week of laying.

you can order the cgd from mgreptiles.com or reptiledepot.com if you can't find it locally--those are pretty much the best prices i have found on it.

What are the cage requirments for crested geckos?

check out the caresheet, it has all that info on it: http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....ewarticle&id=6.

that was quicker than i guessed, i gave you a month at least! lol. one of my favorite males is from robbie, she has a nice collection.


vaughn