The babies made me do it!

[Jay_Bunny]

I was at the store yesterday getting feeders for the ball pythons and my fiance and I found the baby cresties. They were soooo cute tucked into the leaves and we got to talking. I think we have decided that we want cresteds instead of getting more leopard geckos. We talked to the man at the store (the store specializes in herps) and he said that cresteds do well at room temperature (and I checked that in the FAQ section on crested geckos.

Temps in my house range between 68 and 72. I use a space heater in the winter to keep temperatures around 72-75. I take that this is ok for cresteds.

Humidity stays anywhere between 20-40% in my house so a humid hide and mistings would be required.

I have a cage that is 2 feet tall, 2.5 ft long and 1 ft wide. It has screen doors on either end and a screen top. I will have to reinforce the screen doors as the screen is very weak and my cats could easily rip it open. I won't be putting any cresteds in that for a while so I have some time to do that. We want to start off with babies.

So given that we want to start off with babies I have a few questions.

The man at the store said you can keep a single baby in a small critter keeper with paper towel substrate, vines, fake leaves, food and regular mistings. Is this true? If so, when should the gecko be moved up to a larger sized enclosure?

How many adult females can live peacefully in the tank mentioned above? I have been told previously two but I wanted to check.

Also, since we want to get babies, it would be very hard to determine sex when we get them. All of the babies will be kept seperate until sex is determined. If we find out one is male and we don't wish to breed, what size tank is appropriate. Is there a critter keeper that is large enough to house a full grown crestie?

As for food, I have to buy crickets for my leopard gecko anyway, so I will probably give crickets to the cresties as well. Are they to be dusted with both calcium and vitamins? And with baby food, how often should that be offered? Do you have to prepare the crested gecko diet in any special way?

Sorry for all the questions, but I want to get as much information as I can. I will be looking through the internet for more information as soon as class lets out. thanks for any replies!

[mlededee]

Temps in my house range between 68 and 72. I use a space heater in the winter to keep temperatures around 72-75. I take that this is ok for cresteds.

yes, those temps are fine but 68 is really the lowest you want to go especially with little ones (they eat less when the temps are colder).

Humidity stays anywhere between 20-40% in my house so a humid hide and mistings would be required.

you will definitely need to mist several times per day and use a humid hide since your humidity is low. keep a close eye on hatchlings as they shed to make sure they are getting all the skin off of their toes and tails--shed stuck in those places causes constriction and loss of the affected toes or tail tip due to lack of blood flow.

The man at the store said you can keep a single baby in a small critter keeper with paper towel substrate, vines, fake leaves, food and regular mistings. Is this true? If so, when should the gecko be moved up to a larger sized enclosure?

i keep clutchmates together in small kritter keepers. i move them up to a larger kritter keeper around 3-4 months old and separate the males either at that time or by 5 months old.

How many adult females can live peacefully in the tank mentioned above? I have been told previously two but I wanted to check.

you should be able to keep up to 3 females in a tank that size.

Also, since we want to get babies, it would be very hard to determine sex when we get them. All of the babies will be kept seperate until sex is determined. If we find out one is male and we don't wish to breed, what size tank is appropriate. Is there a critter keeper that is large enough to house a full grown crestie?

a single adult can be kept in this size rubbermaid, or the sterilite equivalent: http://rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid/pro...d=HPProd100206. a 10 gallon tank turned vertically also works well for single adults.

As for food, I have to buy crickets for my leopard gecko anyway, so I will probably give crickets to the cresties as well. Are they to be dusted with both calcium and vitamins? And with baby food, how often should that be offered? Do you have to prepare the crested gecko diet in any special way?

yes, dust the crickets with vitamins and calcium prior to feeding. do not feed baby food as it is high in sugar and not healthy. you can feed finely mashed fresh fruit--strawberry, mango, watermelon, banana and peach are favorites, but you can offer anything except citrus fruits (they contain too much citric acid). to prepare the cgd you just mix it with water--it's super easy.

[SatanicIntention]

What if the babyfood doesn't have any sugar in it? I know Gerber contains alot of sugar, but the organics and the other brands usually don't. Mine don't get babyfood that often, but when they do, it's a brand that doesn't contain any sugars except for the natural fruit sugars.

[Jay_Bunny]

Thanks for the reply. You all tried to suck me into this a while back when I was curious about cresteds and now I think its happening all over again! Don't show me pictures though. If you do, I might be tempted to go pick some babies up right now! lol.

As far as the critter keepers go. What are the dimensions of the small one. I'm trying to find an example of what I have available to me, but Petsmart's website doesn't have them on the site, but does have them in the store. Petco had these... http://www.petco.com/product/5914/Le...r-Keepers.aspx

I always have tons of fruit on had as I have sugar gliders. Pears, apples, plums, peaches, kiwi. Is kiwi ok?

I can use the heater to heat the room. When using it the ambient room temperature is always above 70 and never above 76 or so. I will do a little trial this week and see what temperatures my room reaches with it on in different settings and I'll see if I can maintain a good temperature for the cresteds.

Oh a question I forgot on my first post...

Do they need any special lighting like UVB? I know that leopard geckos don't because they are nocturnal. I read that cresteds are nocturnal as well so I'm guessing they don't need it but I wanted to make sure. I have a UVB bulb at home if it is needed.

[Jay_Bunny]

Oh my goodness. I'm so full of questions today.

I will look online for this bit of info but just in case I don't find it here is my question.

I saw on another thread, someone posted the weight of a baby they had purchased. It was apparent that the baby was far to small and I was wondering...What is a good healthy weight for a baby crested?

[mlededee]

What if the babyfood doesn't have any sugar in it? I know Gerber contains alot of sugar, but the organics and the other brands usually don't. Mine don't get babyfood that often, but when they do, it's a brand that doesn't contain any sugars except for the natural fruit sugars.

organic baby food is okay as a very occasional treat as long as it isn't citrus flavored. if i want to give a treat i prefer to mix up a gecko smoothie in the blender--fresh fruits, cgd, plain fat-free yogurt and water as needed for consistency (it's pretty thick without adding some water). they all go nuts for it and it's healthy at the same time. you can even add in wax worms or phoenix worms for added nutrients.

[mlededee]

As far as the critter keepers go. What are the dimensions of the small one. I'm trying to find an example of what I have available to me, but Petsmart's website doesn't have them on the site, but does have them in the store. Petco had these... http://www.petco.com/product/5914/Le...r-Keepers.aspx

i use the small version of this kritter keeper for hatchlings and the medium and large versions for juvies and subadults: http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...et-containers/.

I always have tons of fruit on had as I have sugar gliders. Pears, apples, plums, peaches, kiwi. Is kiwi ok?

kiwi is fine, just cut out the part with the seeds.

Do they need any special lighting like UVB? I know that leopard geckos don't because they are nocturnal. I read that cresteds are nocturnal as well so I'm guessing they don't need it but I wanted to make sure. I have a UVB bulb at home if it is needed.

nope, they don't need any special lighting although some people choose to provide UVA/UVB lighting. if you do this, be sure to supplement with vitamins without D3 as you don't want to overdose your geckos.

Oh my goodness. I'm so full of questions today.

I will look online for this bit of info but just in case I don't find it here is my question.

I saw on another thread, someone posted the weight of a baby they had purchased. It was apparent that the baby was far to small and I was wondering...What is a good healthy weight for a baby crested?

you should look for geckos that are 4 weeks minimum age, but 2-3 months is preferable. weight should be at least 4 grams, but it will vary depending on the exact age of the gecko you get and what its diet was like. i.e., if you get a 4 week old gecko, it may not be 4 grams yet but if you get a 3 month old gecko it will likely weigh more.

[Jay_Bunny]

Thanks for the reply and answering all of my questions.

My fiance and I are very excited about this. We were thinking of picking up a baby or young gecko at the upcoming show on the 4th. Since its right down the road (literally 5 min from my fiance's house, we could walk there) we wouldn't have to worry about a long car trip.

I will look in Petsmart for the cgd and see how much it costs. You can use that as a complete diet right? With crickets and fruit as treats.

[SatanicIntention]

Yep, mine get the smoothies mostly(they love that peach yogurt!) with Clark's diet or CGD added in. I'm hoping to get some of that Repashy superfood mixture at the next show, they always have a booth. They aren't picky girls whatsoever, and one will eat off of a whole banana(she was a rescue) until she's full. Little chunkers.

What flavors have you found they like the best? Mine are both adults, and one really likes banana, the other could care less about it. I was thinking of trying the mango.

I hope you get a cutie, Jay! Oh wait.. They're all cute..

[Jay_Bunny]

Yea, even my fiance is getting excited about it. I've been looking through pictures and I want to go out right now and get one, but I will wait until the show.