I welcome my new crested gecko overlords

[cinderbird]

I've wanted to get into cresties for a little while, but I wasn't quite ready to take the plunge. About a month ago, I did a little soul searching and found a few animals in my collection that may be off with different homes. My carpet python was one of the two animals I chose to rehome. After a ton of adds came in, I found a few people who i would actually be willing to rehome her to, one of whom offered me a trade in the form of a cream/orange sub-adult male crested.

After a long phone conversation about our husbandry methods for our various critters, the reasons these particular animals were being rehomed and a ton of other information, we agreed on a meeting place and a time and i came home with this beautiful little boy.

He's currently without a name, but that will change. He weighs 19 grams (i understand they are sexually mature around 25-30 grams) so he still has a little way to go and I can watch him grow. He is absolutely hilarious, I love watching him even though he's only been here for a few hours. I cant wait to see how he'll fire up. He keeps almost wiggling his throat (like a frog), is this normal?

My boyfriend (the guy who is terrified of snakes) even HELD him briefly while I was inspecting him. Which is so super awesome. It is SO cool to actually have a reptile he can at least look at without being terrified.

I've got him in a 20 tall. I did plan to put it vertical, but i don't trust my cats. Eventually He'll be in an 18x18x18 exoterra cage that opens in the front, but this is what I was given. He has plenty of vines to crawl around on and a food and water dish and a few little hides. I plan to spruce it up with more twigs and stuff he can climb on. He's been resting in normal positions so i think what I have is adequate (ie, no floppy tail syndrome). And i have him on paper towels until i'm done with the monitoring stage.

His previous owner told me he was eating meal worms and CGD. I don't currently have any meal worms, but after reading more they aren't very good for cresties are they? At the show in a few weeks I can pick him up a different kind of worm (would phoenix worms be ok if i can find them?) eventually I'd like to see him just on the CGD with a light sprinkling of insects as a change up.

And i've read fruit is good as a treat, will they eat solid fruit? I can easially get him baby food for a very rare treat but if whole or mashed fresh fruit is better i'd rather do that (like mashed fresh blueberries or grapes or strawberries or something). Or if im making a fruit smoothie for myself can i give him some before i add sugar or yogurt or something? There seems to be a lot less info on these guys than BPs lol.

Now to give him time to settle in.

Without further adieu! ---



part of my set up

[mainbutter]

very pretty food/water dishes I like the setup!

[cinderbird]

very pretty food/water dishes I like the setup!

are they ok? They aren't too deep are they? (omg im worrying about everything. WELCOME TO HAVING NEW SPECIES. lol i did the same thing with my first BP and with with the cats).

[RhacHead]

He looks good.Your husbantry is fine.Just feed CGD every other day and mist once a day.One of the easiest geckos to care for around! Congrads I know you will enjoy him.

[mlededee]

Congrats on your addition.

You are correct that mealworms aren't a good choice for cresteds. Phoenix worms are great if you can get them as they are very nutritious and contain a lot of calcium. CGD should be the staple diet, which you can supplement with insects once per week or just every once in a while if wanted. Your food and water dishes are not too deep--he is large enough that drowning is not a risk unless you have a really deep water dish. Mainly, you want to use a dish that holds just enough food--enough to be consumed within 48 hours time but is not spread so thin that it dries out too quickly. I use 1 oz deli cups for my adults and fill them to varying degrees depending on how many geckos are in the enclosure. A 3/4 oz cup is good size for a single adult or for sub adults.

If you want to give fruit as a treat their favorites are usually strawberry, mango, watermelon, peach and banana although they can eat other fruits as well. Just make sure to stay away from anything acidic like oranges, grapefruit, etc. as they cannot tolerate the higher amounts of citirc acid that those fruits have. You will want to mash up the fruit or make it into a smoothie. You can add CGD to the smoothie too, just add water for consisitency so it isn't too thick. Steer clear of baby food as it is too high in sugar and not healthy.

The throat movement that you see is just normal crested breathing. It is kind of like a frog. And cute.