Newbie with Crestie questions...

[Tigergenesis]

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!

[JLC]

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.

[Tigergenesis]

Thanks JLC!

[Marla]

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!

[Tigergenesis]

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?

[Marla]

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.

[Tigergenesis]

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!

[Tigergenesis]

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 !

[Marla]

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.

[Tigergenesis]

"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.