Special Needs Cresteds

[Crestiezoo]

Hi.

First off its great of you to take them in! In my experience however crested geckos with incubatio triggered deformaties rarely make it past 3 months old. Given the description of the second larger one, and the photos of the clearly deformed jaw I would be leaning more to a calcium defficiency from birth onwards resulting in Metabolic Bone disease.

In light of these disabilities I would move then both solely onto the standard repashy mix, and once a week icorporate repashy bugs'n'grubs into their diet. Other good alternatives include pangea and black panther zooilogical (again made using insect proteins.

Its not my common practice, but I may also consider using a 5.0 UVB in their setup. It may, or may not help with balancing their condition but it certainly wont do any harm so its worth taking the chance benefits of UVB are still unproven in crested geckos.

The one thing to remember is they will never get better. But you can make sure they dont get worse

It mas also be worth mixing a little liquid calcium e.g. vetark Zolcal with their repashy once a week aswell.

All the best with the little ones!!

[Crestiezoo]

Also with regards to gender. Sadly size isnt a good indication. The biggest crestie in my stock is actually and F2 generation female . The only way to know for sure is to sex them. If they are over 20g the males should have developed his bulges, so if theirs no bulges at this weight its a good chance its female. To be sure you can pore sex the from about 8g. The smaller they are the more difficult it is, but with a bit of experience it gets easier.

Given their conditions I would seperate them regardless. You need to make sure you know which one is feeding if not both

Cresties have been my main area of interest and study for the last 8 years so feel free to pm if you have any indepth questions or just questions on basic care. Im in the UK so may have slightly different products availavle to the US but knowledge should be the same

Apologies for typos, my phone has little buttons

[JacksPythons]

I definitely will be separating them. They haven't been fighting, but I want to keep it that way. I have a spare 20 gallon, so I'll use a divider in it.

The level of repashy in their bowl has been dropping each morning, so they are eating.

I know that Zig Zag is a male because he has indeed developed his bulges. Lemon Drop hasn't, but he/she is also smaller, so I'll just keep an eye on him/her.

Thank you all very much for your help. I'll be very sure to keep updates posted.

[JacksPythons]

I discovered some small bits of substrate in Lemon Drop's mouth. I would think this is because he can't fully close his mouth due to the overbite.

Should I remove the substrate from his side?

Is there a good way to remove the remaining substrate from his mouth? I don't want him to swallow any.

[LightningPython]

If he is getting substrate into his mouth, I would switch right into the paper towel. Like others, I am not an expert, however, if you feel like he is ingesting the substrate, and would be worried then remove it right away. Its better to be safe than sorry.
If it has only a little bit in his mouth, it might be worth getting a small cotton bud, and wiping it off, or if it gets licked off by the gecko, it should be alright. A little substrate wouldnt hurt him. As long as he is pooing fine, he should be alright
Good luck with them- I look forward to hearing the updates.

[LightningPython]

Is there any updates on them?
I hope they are doing okay