Large Naturalist Tank for Multiple Geckos

[frankykeno]

Well I'm just starting the process of getting our male crestie, Sprocket, a couple of nice mature lady friends. He's been housed alone in his lovely little glass tank and is doing very well. I've got a much larger glass tank which I'll meaure later to give specifics on that I'm thinking would make a very nice home for 3 geckos. It should have the space to provide lots of varied climbing vines, branches, etc. as well as floor space for moss, hidey holes, etc. I'm going to have a TON of questions though so brace yourselves (especially you Emily LOL).

First question because I do want this to be a lovely display enclosure but also of course safe and healthy for the gecko family is what sort of substrate to go with. I've seen Orchid Bark mentioned as both lovely and appropriate. Any thoughts on this? I realize a setup like this will be more work for me to keep clean but I really don't mind that part I just want to enjoy watching the little gecko trio living in something natural looking.

I can imagine real plants would be a huge hassle so I'll of course stick to fake vines and plants that can be cleaned properly.

I've thought getting those feeding stations/platforms I've seen advertised for geckos so they can eat up high as well as their bowls on the substrate. I'm thinking with 3 geckos this might be a good thing so they don't hassle over food or can just enjoy a drink or snack while they are up in the higher reaches of their home. Anyone use these and any thoughts on them?

http://www.pangeareptile.com/products.htm#cupholders

Last question (for now) is can you give them too much room? Keep in mind all three are young adults and not tiny babies. I want them to have lots of room to explore and many different levels of branches, vines, etc. for a varied experience but I don't want to accidentally stress the heck out of them. I would assume with a bigger glass enclosure you want a fairly "busy" environment so they don't feel exposed especially since it will be in our livingroom which is a fairly active area of the house.

Any suggestions or pics of your own naturalistic enclosures for Cresties would be much appreciated.

[mlededee]

i love crestie questions, so ask away.

i use paper towels as substrate in all my crested enclosures. i realize this is not the most natural look but it is the easiest and has the absolute lowest risk for impaction. if i was ever to switch i would most likely go with something like bed-a-beast. it is fine enough that it shouldn't cause any impaction issues but it still a vary natural looking substrate. one concern with this might be egg laying--if kept moist it would also be a tempting egg laying material, in which case you'd have to constantly search the bottom of the cage for eggs. if kept relatively dry and a nice, moist substrate kept in a separate lay box, there might not be an issue--but i've never tried doing it this way. orchid bark would probably be a good alternate, but i personally tend to stray away from anything that the gecko could possibly injest, especially if you feed live insects.

the feeding ledges that pangea makes are great. you might want to get 2 for 4 geckos--one for each side of the cage. that way all the geckos could eat/drink at once if they wanted. i don't actually use the ledges right now but of course what i do isn't in tune with the naturalistic enviroment you are going for here, but it works great. i use egg crates in my crested enclosures for climbing and hiding structures. on the bottom of each enclosure i place a section of eggcrate--1 ounce deli cups fit perfectly into one of the egg cup/slots. so i place a cup of water and a cup of food into an eggcrate in each enclosure and this keeps the cups from getting spilled.

for a group of cresteds the age you are looking at more room is better--they will use and appreciate whatever space you give them. they are past the hatchling/juvie stage where they are growing at light speed and they have established eating habits and are pretty settled into finding food and whatnot. plus, with the food/water ledges they will learn quickly that there will be food there so even if they miss a cricket or two they will know where they can get food if they are hungry.

here is a shot of what i do for climbing structures in my cages:

i sealed the bamboo with water-based polyurethane, which makes it a snap to clean. the vines are fake vines purchased from petsmart and secured to the bamboo with small zip ties.

[kavmon]

hey jo, i know a local guy that keeps his cresteds in big cages/tanks. he keeps trios and sometimes 1.4 or 1.5 in large screen cages and big tanks like 75's and 90's. he has had good success with this.



vaughn

[mlededee]

someone local to me has a huge custom-made iguana enclosure for sale. i was checking it out yesterday and thinking how awesome it would be to turn it into a naturalistic crested habitat--we're talking like 20-30 geckos easily fitting into this cage with plenty space for each to roam/hide/whatever. aaaah, one can only dream...

[frankykeno]

Well thanks for the feedback folks (I love this stuff! LOL) It's all still in the early planning stages but any suggestions are so very welcome. I'm looking at getting one of the ground platforms and two of the shelves Emily so they would have three feeding stations which should give them tons of choice. I still haven't measured the tank (it's sooooo busy at home right now...ack) but I will get to that in the next few days and give you an idea of what size tank I'm working with. Thanks for the suggestions about bedding ideas. I do want to go with a natural look but need to be mindful of any issues with impaction during live feeding as I'll be likely offering both live crickets and phoenix worms as well as their GSD and a bit of fruit baby food as a treat. Our local craft stores have amazing selections of fake vinery and suchlike, so that's easy enough to find but I think I'll add in some of that bamboo you use. Thanks for sharing the pic of how you secure and treat the bamboo so it's cleanable.

[mlededee]

one option if you do want to use orchid bark or something more chunky like that as substrate is to feed crickets out of some kind of bowl. if you pull their back legs off they can't jump around so much and stay pretty well contained in a high enough dish or one of those bowls that exo terra makes (i think its them who makes it) that looks like some sort of tan rock and has a lip that goes inward to keep mealworms and other insects from being able to climb out. i use one of those in one of my leo cages and pull the leges off the crickets--it works fairly well but ocassionally a few do still get out. something a little taller might be better in this case.

one other thing i'd say to do that you might not think of is to provide hides on the bottom of the cage. some of my cresteds always choose to hide and sleep under or in something on the bottom of the cage rather than hiding in the leaves. with multiple geckos in one enclosure its always best to provide plenty of options.

[reptilesnr/c]

where are these hanging food dishes at? Im interested in those and i love to get some of those branches. So you can house more than one male togeather is there is alot of room for them. What size would be good for this?

[ECLARK]

It never would be a good idea to house 2 males together!

where are these hanging food dishes at? Im interested in those and i love to get some of those branches. So you can house more than one male togeather is there is alot of room for them. What size would be good for this?

[mlededee]

most of the time males are territorial and aggressive toward each other and will fight if kept together so it is not recommended that they be kept together. i know that a few people have done it with larger enclosures with lots of space and hides, but generally speaking i'd avoid it.

jo linked to the cup holders up in the first post.

[reptilesnr/c]

that is what i thought but i just wanted to make sure, but you can keep a couple of girls togeather correct.