Housing
Keeping your crested gecko correctly will only contribute to good health. Avoid illness by providing the right environment.
The Tank
The tank is a place where your reptile has to feel comfortable to spend his life in. As a result, think well before you buy a tank! 3 main factors are important when choosing a terrarium;
Type: Crested geckos can easily walk on a smooth vertical surface. Therefore, a glass or acrylic terrarium is ideal. A mesh terrarium like those of chameleons is not ideal because it is harder to keep your humidity up.
Orientation: Cresties are arboreal and thus climbers. Give them the ability to climb by choosing a vertically orientated tank.
Size: A crested gecko can grow up to 20 cm on average (tail included). A tank of 50 x 50 x 70 cm approximately is preferred for such a larger species (European regulations taken into account).
Ventilation: Make sure your tank is ventilated. A grid on top and some ventilation holes up front are ideal.
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Decoration
Mimicking it's natural environment is the best way to make your reptile feel comfortable. Therefore it is important to know where your animal is originated from. Crested geckos live in New-Caledonia and thus in a colder tropical climate. As a result, a vivarium or paladrium are the best options for your gecko. Bioactive or semi-bioactive terrariums are always more appealing to the eye and contributes to a good mental health of your animal.
Soil: A mixture of soil always works best. I always put a layer of hydro granules at the bottom to stabilize humidity. On top of that, I put a mesh so females don't dig in between the granules. The soil needs to be capable of retaining water. A mixture of peat, cocopeat, coal and sphagnum moss is a healthy soil for your plants.
Plants: Tropical plants like ferns, monstera, bromeliads, calathea, spathiphyllum epipremnum, dracaena, and chamaedorea palms work totally fine. Also sansevierias are loved here. If you like to add some fake plants on for example the background, go ahead!
Climbing possibilities: Apart from plants, you need to add branches, lianas and cork. Place them diagonally and horizontally.
Background: You can add a background if you like. Exo Terra sells some pre-shaped backgrounds but you can also make them yourself.
In case you have a paladrium, make sure to put a rock or a branch into the water so your crestie can always climb out.​
Lightning
Lightning is important for both your animals and your plants. It regulates their circadian rhythm (day-night cycle), informs them about the season and it is also responsible for the production of some vitamins.
LED/TL: LED-lights as well as TL-lights are used to lighten up your tank. You use these lights to mimic daytime. They don't provide heat or UV.
UVB: UVB-lightning is needed for every reptile and is in fact obligated in Europe. Yes, crested geckos are crepescular/ shade dwellers, but this doesn't mean they don't need UVB. The only difference is they are more capable of absorbing UVB more efficiently. Therefore UVB-lightning with low intensity like Reptisun 5.0 is sufficient.
Don'ts: Crested geckos don't need heat bulbs. Also don't place any lightning inside the tank cause they will burn themselves. Don't place UVB-lightning on top of glass, it can't penetrate glass. No need for night lights because it will disturb their day-night cycle and it will keep the temperature up, while it is supposed to drop during the night.
Temperature and Humidity
Wondering what temperature and humidity is needed for your reptile? Just check out the climate of it's natural habitat! In this case: New-Caledonia.
New-Caledonia has a tropical climate influenced by the surrounding sea. This place has only 2 real seasons; the rainy season (summer) and the dryer season (winter). In summer, temperatures rise to 30°C during the day and drop to 21°C at night. During the dryer winter season, it still rains but at a lower frequency and intensity. Temperatures vary between 24°C and 17°C in this period.
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So what to do with your tank? Humidity between 60-80% is just fine. Keep in mind cresties can really cope with temperatures that are more extreme than mentioned above. They can survive in temps from 15°C (during winter nights) up to max 40°C (in summer). You can cool your tank down by turning off the lights and placing a fan in the room. Don't mist your tank more often to give them some "refreshment" cause a higher humidity will actually get your temps up!
Daily Care
All about food, water and supplements.
Food
Crested geckos are both insectivorous and frugivorous. They need food 2 to 3 times a week. Not more, remember reptiles have a low metabolism. A lot of new food brands have been popping up lately!
Crested gecko diet: The main part of a crested's diet can be found in powders of different brands. These powders should contain all necessary components for a healthy crestie life. Brands that I am familiar with are Pangea, Repashy, Dr. Rhaco, Reptile Supplies, Leaping Leachies and Nekton. These powders need to be mixed with water till a Ketchup like substance is obtained.
Insects: Cresteds can eat crickets or dubias. I always dust my crickets with calcium (with vitamin D3). You can feed your insects with healthy veggies so your geckos can also benefit from extra vitamins.
Fruits: They love multiple sorts of fresh fruits like mango, papaya, peach, fig, khaki etc. Easy trick: Put your fruits into the blender, pour it into small cube forms and place them into the freezer. Melt one if you need one!
Water
Geckos drink water by licking water drops from leaves or the glass. In order to let them drink, spray water into your tank and wetten the leaves once a day. Because they are active at dusk/night, It's best to spray in the evening or before you go to bed. You can provide a water dish, but I honestly never saw any of my geckos drink from a dish before. If you provide one, make sure it is always clean! Bacteria and algae can grow rapidly in stagnant water.
Supplements
Normally, your main crested gecko diet must contain almost all vitamins and minerals your crested gecko needs. Their are a few ways to improve their vitamin and mineral intake though.
Calcium: Calcium is easy to buy in powder. Just dust your insects with it, easy peasy.
Vitamin D3: The vitamin everyone talks about. But why? It is important for the calcium uptake. Without D3, your reptile doesn't use the calcium you are giving. You can provide D3 in drops, with enriched calcium powder or through your UVB bulb. Be careful, you can overdose with D3. Wondering how D3 works? Check out our information corner!
Other vitamins and minerals: The best known source of vitamins and minerals are of course fruits and vegetables. Fruits you can give to your cresties, but they won't touch veggies. Solution: feed your crickets or dubias with healthy food! Endive for example has the best Calcium-Phosphorus ratio.
Feeding schedule example
It can be hard to understand sometimes, but reptiles are different from mammals in many ways. Because of their low metabolism, crested geckos don't need as much food as we do! Therefore, you don't need to feed them every day. Feeding them too often will result in waisted food (they won't touch it) or obese geckos. To make an example, this is our feeding schedule:
Wednesday: Fruits
Friday: Powder diet
Sunday: Calcium dusted crickets
Owning multiple cresteds
Can they be kept together?
Cohousing
Crested geckos are solitary and don't need any company. It might look lonely, but you are actually not making them happy by providing them with a "friend".
If you put a male with a female (talking about adults) , you have to keep in mind they will produce offspring.
If you put two males together, they will fight. The less dominant male will suffer.
If you put two females together, they will also fight. One female will start acting dominant.
what about offspring? You can actually house babies of the same size together until a certain age. Once they start growing and showing dominance, put them apart.
Cohousing is only for experienced breeders that know the signs of aggression. ​
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Breeding
Think twice before you become a breeder. Gain some experience with the species at first. Know how they behave, how they react to certain things, how to observe their health etc. Breeding isn't as easy as it looks. It is expensive, takes a lot of time and most of all, it is a tough world out there. Avoid to produce "low end" offspring by pairing 2 totally random animals. This will result in cheap animals on the market, impulse buy and in the end neglected animals. We don't want any animals to suffer!