Keeping the Crested Gecko

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Keeping the Crested Gecko

Note: We have also put together a list of the most frequently asked questions and answers that we have about Crested Gecko's.

Introduction to Crested Gecko's

The Crested Gecko (Rhacodactylus ciliatus) is a fascinating animal to keep. They are easy to care for, have a unique appearance, readily breed and a growing number of morphs are available. Of all the Gecko species available today these have the most potential, they are relatively new and there is so much more still to be discovered.

Crested Gecko's are easier to keep than Leopard Gecko's and as the number of Crested Gecko morphs grows, so is their popularity. So much so that before long the Crestie will be the most popular Gecko species.

What you have to consider when comparing the Crested Gecko to the Leopard Gecko is that the Leopard Gecko has been around in the hobby for a long time. Selective breeding has already brought about many Leopard Gecko morphs and through generations the morphs have already been well established, so starting to breed Leopard Gecko's now does not hold the same possibilities as breeding Crested Gecko's does.

So far there are not that many morphs of Crested Gecko and it is believed that there are many, many more yet to be discovered. So breeding Crested Gecko's is still full of unknown possibilities, which to many breeders is quite an attraction!

History of the Crested Gecko

Grand Terre, the Isle of Komoto and the Isle of Pines are three of the islands which make up 'New Caledonia' and they are where the Crested Gecko is found.

New Caledonia is east of Australia and north of New Zealand.

Map showing location of New Caledonia

The islands are warm, moist and filled with areas of dense forest where the Crested Gecko's can be found high up in the trees.

Crested Gecko's were believed to have become extinct in 1866, however an expedition in 1994 found them once more on these islands. Shortly afterward Crested Geckos started to appear in the trade, initially in the USA.

Since then their popularity has exploded at a dramatic rate, mostly because this beautiful Gecko is very easy to care for and is easier to breed than other Geckos.

The Unique and Wonderful Crested Gecko!

The Crested Gecko's unique characteristics are something that endears them to many reptile keepers. Their wonderful 'eyelashes', velvety skin, large triangular heads and awesome crests are hard not to like.

Crested Gecko Eyelashes

It is their unique 'Crests' that give them their name, these Crests are like small ridges of 'eyelashes' that run from their eyes down across their backs.

Other unusual characteristics include a prehensile tail that does not grow back but which does have lamellae on it's tip. Lamellae are what many Geckos have on their toe's that allow them to climb smooth vertical surfaces such as glass, the Crested Gecko has these on it's tail as well as it's toes.

Crestie's are also 'polymorphic', which means that though they are actually one species they can be a variety of patterns and colours. These colours can then be refined through selective breeding making the Crested Gecko fascinating to breed, as the colour and pattern possibilities are almost endless.

Compared to other Gecko species Crestie's are above average for adult size, reaching around 8 inches in length. As already said above, these are a relatively new species to the hobby and life expectancy is not known exactly, though it is currently estimated at between 15 to 20 years as some of the animals originally collected in 1994 are still alive and well today.

Crestie's can also be fairly 'vocal' as they have the ability to make a 'chirp' sound, although it is mostly heard during breeding. Hatchling Crestie's sometimes do this if being handled, probably in order to distract you so they can get away.

Crestie's can jump too, several feet if they really wanted. In the wild this ability helps them get around in the tree tops and to avoid predators. The Crested Gecko Crest

Temperament wise the Crested Gecko is good compared to most other Gecko's. Too much handling may lead to the odd nip at first, though with more frequent careful handling the temperament improves and once used to it Crestie's do seem to enjoy being handled.

When selecting a Crested Gecko make sure the animal is clean, healthy and alert. When handled during the day a Crestie may be sluggish but should soon come around and be alert. Also, if the Gecko has had previous shedding problems, it could have lost some toes, so do check it out thoroughly.

Selecting a Crested Gecko can be difficult, as they have the ability to change colour at different times of the day, quite dramatically too! They generally show their most vivid colouration during the evening and night time hours, this colour change has come to be referred to as 'firing up'. A Crestie seen during the day, that is not 'fired up', can look quite dull in comparison to its evening 'fired up' colouration. Colour changes can also be observed as the Gecko's mood changes, so the Crestie you see before you can dramatically change over a short period of time.

To further complicate things the colour of a Crested Gecko changes as it ages. In general the colour darkens and gets stronger as they age, but it can also change in hue.

The best way to see what a juvenile Crested Gecko will look like is to see its parents. Usually the juvenile will end up looking similar to the parents at the end of its transformation, although recessive genes (traits not showing in the parents) can also determine a gecko's colour.

Crestie's and their colour!

A Crested Gecko's colour and how it changes is quite remarkable, for a start there are no two Crested Gecko's the same. In fact you'd have a job finding two of exactly the same colour, never mind the exact same pattern! So each Crested Gecko is actually unique in its own right.

As already mentioned, in the last section, the Crested Gecko's colour changes from day to night and with its mood changes. In general, they show their best colour and patterning at night and appear less colourful during the day or when stressed.

Also they change colour as they grow from a hatchling to adult.

	A Crestie hatchling is normally a dark red/brown colour. In the next few days the colour lightens considerably.
	Within the next couple of weeks the Crestie can turn virtually any colour, and it varies from one to the next. This stage indicates nothing with regard to the eventual true colouration of the Gecko. Crestie's that come from red parents and that end up being deep red themselves can often be dull grey/brown at this stage.
	It's only at around 4 months of age that the Crested Gecko juvenile will start to show its true colour. Though at this stage it will only be a hint of its true potential. Over the next few weeks/months the colouration will improve much further.
	Full adult colouration is normally reached anywhere between 9 and 12 months of age, at which stage the colour change from aging is complete.

Through all this confusion, some colour standards have been established.

The colour standards for Crested Gecko's are currently:

	Buckskin - Various shades of yellow/brown/tan. This is the most common colour in nature.
	Chocolate - Similar colour to the Buckskin but considerably darker, to almost black sometimes.
	Cream - this is the latest designer colour morph and is not being produced with any great consistency yet. It's the same light cream colour that is seen on 'Flame' and 'Pinstripe' designer pattern morphs as part of their colour/patterning.
	Olive - Can be dark or almost pastel olive. Often described as a green colour, even though Crestie's cannot produce a true green pigment.
	Orange - a distinct and usually bright Orange colouration, much more yellow than the Salmon and much more red than the Yellow colouration.
	Red - anything from a pastel red to a deep blood red/brown.
	Rust - a dark colour morph that comes from a combination of the Orange and Chocolate colour morphs.
	Salmon - a peach and red colour combination, which has proven extremely difficult to reproduce.
	Sulphur - a combination of the yellow and rust colouration. Almost the same colour as an Orange colour morph but generally much darker.
	Yellow - a very pale yellow colouration, usually very bright and often considered a pastel colour.

Crested Gecko Morph's

First a note on naming conventions used when describing a morph. Any of the pattern morphs below can also be any of the colour morphs described in the previous section, and a morph should be described first by the dominant colour and then by the pattern(s) being displayed in order of pattern dominance.

So you could have a 'Buckskin Dalmation', a 'Red Harlequin White Fringe' or even an 'Orange Flame Dalmation' but not an 'Olive Red Flame' or a 'Flame Red Harlequin'. Now on with the Morphs!

The morph examples that I have provided below have had the colour removed from them altogether, this is to emphasize that colour is not relevant when referring to a pattern morph as they can be any of the colours described above.

Simply hover your mouse pointer over the morph names to see the example and description of each one.


	'Patternless'	'Bicolour'
	'Tiger'	'Brindle'
	'Chevron'	'Flame'
	'Harlequin'	'Pinstripe'
	'Dalmation'	'White Fringe'

There are some morph's starting to appear that are a specific colour/pattern combination, these will likely increase in number over the coming years.

So far there are only three morphs that are colour specific:

'Blonde' - Highly prized morph which is a 'Harlequin' or a 'Flame' morph with a chocolate and cream colour combination.

'Creamsicle' - Currently the most sought after morph, basically it is a 'Harlequin' or a 'Flame' morph with a cream and orange colour combination.

'Halloween' - Another highly prized morph, this is a 'Harlequin' or a 'Flame' morph displaying a chocolate and orange colour combination.

The value of any particular morph is not set, the value changes with the quality of the morph. This means that you can get some designer morphs quite cheap, though if you intend to breed with them you should realise that their offspring will be about the same quality and value.

A good quality morph has been bred specifically to improve that particular morph, the genes that give them great colour and patterning have been increased over generations of line breeding. So, if you want to breed quality morphs then you need to use quality morphs to breed with.

Housing the Crested Gecko

You can house a Crested Gecko singly or keep them in groups, although males should not be kept together as they will fight. Juvenile (unsexed) Crestie's can be housed together from an early age and will live together fine up until sexual maturity, when the males must be separated. A single male can be housed with many females without any problem, other than they will breed.

Hatchling and juvenile Crested Gecko's can be kept singly in small plastic enclosures, like the plastic cricket keeper containers and small faunariums.

The minimum size enclosure for keeping a single adult Crested Gecko should be no smaller than 12"x12"x24" high, the most important requirement for a Crestie enclosure being the height as they are arboreal Gecko's.

The enclosure for Crested Geckos can be anything from a very simplistic bare setup to a very complex natural display. If you plan to keep you're Crestie's as pets in your home then often the more natural enclosure is more aesthetically appealing. Simple enclosures should be used to house hatchlings and sick Gecko's, in order to enable close observation.

The enclosure itself can be made of glass, wood, plastic or even mesh. The important part is getting enough height and ventilation.

Height is important because these Gecko's love to climb and ventilation is important because these Gecko's need quite a humid environment but you don't want stagnant air in the enclosure as this leads to mould and disease.

The screen mesh enclosures often used to house Chameleons are becoming popular to house Crested Gecko's and do offer the most ventilation, although this type of enclosure would need more spraying to keep humidity up than other types of enclosure.

When thinking what kind of terrarium to use you need to consider lighting and heating the terrarium too.

Lighting and Heating

Lighting is not necessary for the Crested Gecko other than to provide them with a correct photoperiod, which can be done by keeping the terrarium in a room which receives daylight from outside. If they are to be kept in a room without windows (such as a cellar or basement) then some light needs to be provided so that they can tell day from night.

Crested Gecko's do not like bright light at all! So if a room, or their enclosure, is brightly lit then they will be hiding.

The Crested Gecko is a nocturnal Gecko, so they will spend most of the day light hours in hiding and only really come to life in the evening and night time hours. If you are up really early in the morning then you can see them around at this time too.

Crested Gecko's do not need additional UV light, they are a nocturnal species and in the wild the dense canopy of the trees keeps the sun off them during the day. Crestie's get their vitamin D3 from their food, which can be provided by dusting their crickets with Nutrobal or mixing Nutrobal in with their baby food, pureed fruit or by feeding the complete diet. (see section on feeding)

Heating depends on where they are to be kept and what the temperature is there throughout the day/night. In most homes with central heating, that are kept warm through the winter, no additional heating may be necessary. If they are kept in a cool place, such as a cellar or outbuilding then minimal heating may be required to maintain a reasonable temperature.

Crested Gecko's should be maintained at temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, with an average day time temperature of about 76 degrees. Night time temperature can drop well below 70 without causing any problems.

Temperatures down to 60 degrees during the night will not harm the Crested Gecko so long as it can warm itself again during the day.

If additional heating is necessary it can be achieved by use of a low wattage infra red heat lamp over the enclosure or inside it with a heat guard. This also gives the added benefit of lighting up the enclosure with infra red light which the Crestie's cannot see, so you can then watch them come out to hunt at night.

Some people do use heat mats to heat Crestie's enclosures, this can be done but it is not what I recommend. Crestie's are used to getting their heat from the air around them and not from what they are sitting on. Heat mats do not raise the air temperature and only provide a heat spot on the surface they are next to.

It is important that the temperature not go much above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, as temperatures of 83 degrees and above, for a prolonged period, will kill Crestie's. For this reason, you should always use a good digital thermometer to monitor the temperature and a dimming thermostat to control the temperature of the infra red bulb, to make sure the hot spot temperature does not go much above 80 degrees.

As with most reptiles, it is important to provide a warm and cool area in the enclosure too, so if adding a hot spot of 80 degrees do make sure that the opposite end of the enclosure drops to at least 70 degrees. If using an infra red bulb over the enclosure then you shouldn't have any problem as the bottom of the enclosure will be much cooler, which is ideal.

Humidity

Crested Gecko's come from humid dense forests and as such they require a humid environment to live in. This is misleading to some people as many seem to think that they need the humidity to be fairly high all the time, this is not the case.

The Crestie's enclosure should be misted heavily every night in order to raise the humidity but should then be allowed to dry out through the night and following day. If the enclosure is not allowed to dry out then you're going to get fungal growth, which is not healthy for the Gecko's.

A hand sprayer is ideal for performing the nightly misting. One other thing to note is that Crestie's will get a lot of their drinking water from the droplets of water on the decor. Because of this you need to make sure the water you use to mist is chlorine free, you can do this by letting tap water stand for 24 hours before using it to mist, as chlorine slowly dissipates out of water. Also there are commercial 'Dechlorinators' that you can use to remove chlorine immediately, if you want to be sure.

If you're using peat as your substrate then the peat should still feel moist the next day after spraying but should not be wet or have any puddles forming. If it has then you're spraying too much.

Not spraying enough will also cause other problems though, low humidity will mean your Crestie's cannot shed properly. So getting the amount of misting right is important and can best be judged by how dry or wet your enclosure is at the end of the next day. Most of the enclosure should be dry but a peat substrate should still be moist, which is why it helps keep the overall humidity up.

Ideally the humidity should reach about 70% and so long as you are misting correctly and the enclosure has the right amount of ventilation, this shouldn't be a problem.

If you're looking for a functional enclosure that will also make a great display then take a look at the Exo-Terra Glass Terrariums. We keep our Gecko's that are on display in our home in these and they make great displays to show off your Gecko's.

They come complete with the 'rock' effect background, can be accessed from the front or from above, have front vents and a mesh top which provide near perfect ventilation for your Crested Gecko.

The Simple Enclosure

The simplistic Crestie enclosure is easy to setup and maintain but rather plain to look at. The substrate is usually newspaper or kitchen roll making it easy to replace on a regular basis.

Hiding places are essential for a Crestie, even in a simple enclosure. For hatchlings or sick animal enclosures simple egg carton is often used to provide cover for the Geckos.

In a simplistic setup for adult Crestie's, hiding places can be provided by the abundance of plastic or silk plants and other decor available to use. You could also use a live plant in a pot if you wish (see this site for plants not to use).

Whatever you use for decor, make sure there is plenty of it. Crestie's come from dense forest areas and are used to having a lot of cover.

Water dishes and feeding dishes can be simply placed on the bottom of the enclosure. If you're not going to be spraying the entire enclosure (for example, if you use a simple enclosure with just egg carton for decor) a suitable moist box should also be provided to help the Gecko's shed.

A moist box can be a simple plastic box half filled with sphagnum moss that is kept moist and that has an entrance where the Gecko's can gain access.

The Natural Enclosure

In the wild Crested Gecko's spend their evenings roaming around the tree tops, weaving through the dense canopy of branches. A natural enclosure attempts to provide our pets with a similar environment.

A natural enclosure not only provides our Gecko's with a more natural home but they are much more of a visual showcase than the simplistic enclosure.

A natural enclosure is really the ideal set up for a Crested Gecko, once they have passed the hatchling stage that is. As hatchlings Crested Gecko's should be kept in a simple enclosure, in order to enable close observation and to make sure they are feeding and shedding well.

Substrate in a natural enclosure can be potting soil or peat, sphagnum moss, leaf litter, coconut fibre or any of dozens of other similar substrates. The choice is quite varied and it is constantly debated which is the best to use.

In my personal opinion and experience, I would recommend using peat in a natural enclosure, ideally a layer of around 3 to 4 inches deep in order to help maintain humidity and to enable the substrate to become bio-active.

Peat has a few advantages, it's organic and helps maintain the humidity in the enclosure, it's very natural looking, it does not cause any problems to the Gecko's if they accidentally eat some and when used in a deep enough layer it becomes bio-active and actually decomposes the Gecko's feces negating the need to replace the substrate.

Please be warned that some substrates are not really suitable for Crested Gecko's, despite the fact that such substrate is what they have in the wild it is not suitable to use in captivity. In the wild these animals rarely come down to the forest floor and when they do it is not to hunt, so they are unlikely to get any of the forest floor in their mouths!

In captivity the Crestie's prey (crickets) are usually on the substrate and so the Gecko's may well ingest some substrate whilst hunting. Many substrates may pass though adult Crestie's but in hatchlings they are likely to cause impaction (blockage of the bowels) and possibly death. For this reason be careful what you use as substrate.

Hides should be provided in many places around the enclosure, in my opinion this is best achieved by the use of numerous pieces of cork bark, built up on top of each other inside the enclosure.

Whilst we're talking about hides, it's worth mentioning that an all glass terrarium works best for a natural enclosure because once the enclosure is set up and all the decor is in, you will still need to be able to see around and behind the decor to check on your Crestie's and to look for eggs when they breed. In a wooden terrarium you would have to remove the decor in order to check these things.

As for decor you can use the now very realistic looking fake plants (plastic or silk) and/or live plants (see this site for plants not to use though). Plastic or silk plants have the advantage that they can be easily cleaned.

Live plants that are often used are Ficus, Pothos, Dracaena and Bromeliads. These can be used potted or can be planted in the substrate if you use peat. Any plants you add should be washed thoroughly before adding them to the enclosure, in order to remove any pesticides that may have been used on them.

There are also many other realistic looking pieces of decor available to use now, so be creative and make your own rainforest!

The natural enclosure may sound like a lot of work but it looks so much better, and you will find that you witness more natural behaviour from your Crestie's in these surroundings than you would in a simplistic enclosure.

Acclimatizing New Crested Gecko's

It may take quite some time for your new Crested Gecko to adjust when you first introduce it to its new home. It will have been stressed from being shipped and/or from its stay in a reptile shop where it's been on show to the public.

When you get the Crested Gecko to your home the enclosure you have for it may not be what it is used to either. The majority of breeders use simple enclosures with just egg carton for decor, so if you have a natural enclosure the Gecko will not be used to it.

All these stresses can cause the Crestie to go off its food, often for several days. This is normal and should be expected, so do not panic if your Crestie does not feed straight away. They should start feeding again within the next week or so, as long as the enclosure is set up correctly.

You should not handle a new Crested Gecko for at least a couple of weeks. It needs to be feeding well and have settled in before you even try to handle it.

Do not put a new smaller Crested Gecko in with existing larger Crestie's. If you are going to keep Crestie's together make sure they are about the same size.

Feeding, health and care.

Crested Gecko's can be fed on live Crickets or there is also a complete Crested Gecko Diet available now commercially. The complete diet is in a powder form that you mix in to a thin paste with water and feed to the Crestie in a feeding dish, this way of feeding is becoming more popular as it means you don't have to mess around with Crickets which some people have an aversion to, also the complete diet is quicker and easier to use than feeding Crickets.

Many Crested Gecko's can take a while to come around to eating the complete diet if they have been used to Crickets and many hatchlings and males seem to prefer Crickets.

Crestie's will also eat fruit, in the wild they eat fruit that has fallen off the trees and gone soft. This food is more of a sweet for them than a substantial part of their diet though and so should be fed sparingly.

In captivity you can provide fruit for them in a couple of ways. You can use ready prepared fruit baby food, which often comes in peach and apricot or you can prepare fruit to feed them yourselves.

We feed our Crestie's pureed fruit that we make ourselves. You can simply blend the fruit in to a pulp and then feed it, or you can freeze it as we do. We simply fill ice cube trays with the pureed fruit and then bag them up and label them to be kept in the freezer once frozen. Then we just get out a block of frozen fruit puree and let it defrost to feed. This way the Crestie's get a varied diet of different fruits, you can use peach, apricot, banana, pear, apple, kiwi, papaya and others. Do not feed any citrus fruits though as the Crestie's cannot cope with the acid.

Crested Gecko's should be fed Crickets or the complete diet every other day or 3 times a week. It's best to give them their food in the evening as that's when they start to get active. If feeding Crickets then 4 to 6 should be fed at each sitting, per Gecko, each Cricket being no bigger than the distance between the Gecko's eyes.

One other note here, never feed insects that you collect yourself from your garden, etc. These may have parasites or have come in to contact with pesticides.

You should provide small water and feeding dishes for your Crestie's to drink and eat from. Most Crestie's will drink from a water dish in time though many people say they won't. The majority of the time Crestie's get enough water from drinking the droplets of water they are sprayed with at night but the water dish is always a good idea too.

The Crested Gecko needs to have a Calcium and vitamin supplemented diet, unless you feed the complete diet. This means that you need to provide it with additional calcium and vitamins. You can do this by dusting their Crickets with Nutrobal and Calypso or by mixing these in with their baby food/fruit puree. If you feed the complete diet this does not need any supplements adding.

Nutrobal is a mix of Calcium and vitamins and Calypso is just Calcium. The reason you need to use both is because you can overdose the Crestie's on vitamins, especially vitamin D3, if you just use Nutrobal. They need Calcium supplementation all the time but vitamins are only needed about once a week.

So if you feed your Crestie every other day with Crickets simply use Nutrobal with every third feeding and the two feeds in between just use Calypso. Do not give Crestie's Nutrobal more than about once a week or they will develop problems due to an overdose of vitamin D3.

If you use the complete diet then you do not need to add any supplements.

The Crested Gecko stores some Calcium in what's commonly known as its Calcium sac's. These are actually endolymphatic sac's that appear in the roof of the Crestie's mouth. If you can get your Crestie to say 'Ahh' you can check these sac's as a general indicator that they are getting enough Calcium in their diet.

When choosing feeder insects you need to consider that the Crested Gecko does not masticate its food and they have weak mandibles. They can eat a variety of insects though, including: Crickets, Mealworms and Wax Worms.

If you are feeding Crickets then you're going to want to 'gut load' them before feeding them to your Crestie's as this dramatically increases their nutritional value.

Gut loading is where you feed the Crickets on a high quality diet (such as 'Bug Grub') prior to feeding them to your Gecko's.

When it comes to cleaning, Crestie's are quite messy compared to other Gecko's. As they eat fruit their feces tends to be quite sloppy and they don't have a particular place they will defecate like some Gecko's either.

In a simplistic enclosure this is easily cleaned up and the simple newspaper/kitchen roll substrate replaced. In a natural enclosure it becomes more of an issue.

You can spot clean as and when you see urine/feces but the enclosure will need a proper clean once every month or so. If you have peat as a substrate then this need not be replaced at all, as it becomes bio-active and decomposes the waste products, otherwise the substrate will need replacing at this time too.

Decor needs to be taken out and cleaned thoroughly and if you have a peat substrate you simply need to stir the surface up a bit and pat it down again before replacing the decor.

Handling the Crested Gecko

The Crestie is a fairly easy to handle Gecko, often being much tamer than Leopard Geckos, though some are more amenable than others. Some are more likely to take off than others and some are more likely to bite than others, but generally most can be handled several times a week.

It is better not to handle juvenile Crested Geckos too often, let them have a break from it and they will slowly get used to it. Most Crestie's will calm down with age and tend to become very laid back.

Be careful and gentle when handling a Crested Gecko as rough handling is very stressful for them and could also cause them to take flight and even drop their tail, which will not grow back if they do.

One thing to remember when handling a Crestie is that they are good jumpers and they will often take a flying leap from your hands. For this reason you should always handle them sitting down in soft surroundings, such as sitting on a sofa.

If they jump a good distance and/or land on a hard surface they can easily damage their limbs, so do take care when handling them. Do not try to stop them jumping though as this is more likely to cause them stress and to drop their tail. Just let them move freely from hand to hand and do not try to grab them.

Sooner or later the Crestie will jump on to the floor or some nearby object. Again, do not grab them, you should let them get on to your hand themselves, if necessary cup your hand around them and allow them to get on to it.

One way of getting them to think of handling as an enjoyable experience is to end a handling session with some baby food or fruit puree fed to them on your hand. This way they associate handling with a tasty treat and it can often lead to them becoming extremely tame and wanting to be handled.

Sexing Crested Geckos

Crested Geckos cannot be sexed until they are around 3 inches long from snout to vent, this is usually anywhere between 4 to 6 months old. Once this size is reached the males will develop noticeable hemipenal bulges at the base of their tail.

Breeders can often examine juvenile Crestie's before this size is reached using a high magnification loupe, similar to those that jewellers use, in order to try and establish their sex. This method is difficult to master and is not guaranteed though and is also why you may see juveniles for sale that say 75% female or 95% male.

Juveniles that have been sexed are of higher value than unsexed juveniles, as the sex has been established and a sexed juvenile will be bigger and older than unsexed juveniles. Note that females are also of higher value than males, especially those of a good quality morph, this is because so many females are kept back by breeders that they are not for sale as often.

I am not going to cover breeding the Crested Gecko in this caresheet, it is such a large subject that it deserves a caresheet of its own which I will add when time allows at a later date.

Diseases

One of the attractions of the Crested Gecko is that they are so very hardy and resilient. Proper care can prevent all of these problems from happening.

Dysecdysis

This is when Crestie's cannot shed correctly. It's commonly caused by low humidity levels and/or low temperatures. An incorrect diet can also lead to problems shedding though.

You also need to make sure that there are sufficient pieces of decor in their enclosure, with a suitable surface for the Crestie's to rub against, or again this will cause problems.

If you find that your Crestie can no longer climb up vertical surfaces then it may well have pieces of shed stuck around its toes. This is often the first place problems with shedding can be seen.

Check its toes to see if there is any shed stuck around them, if there isn't then the toes are probably just dusty or dry and should be fine once they get moist again.

If there is shed stuck around the toes do not panic, simply put the Crestie in a tub with a lid and mist it heavily. Leave it in there for 20 minutes to an hour and then gently remove the shed with some tweezers. If the shed does not come off easily then do not try to pull it off forcibly, just place the Gecko back in the tub and repeat the procedure until all the shed is gone from around its toes.

Another common place for shed to stick is around the tail and if this is not caught early enough it can constrict the tail, cutting off circulation and killing the end of the tail off. If you can catch it early enough then use the same method described above for removing shed stuck on their toes. Once the shed is removed the tail should be fine.

If the tail has already turned black and gone hard then there's little you can do, the tail is already dead. The dead tail end will fall off of its own accord and the remaining tail will look like a normal tail, just shorter. The same thing happens to their toes if you don't catch shed stuck there early enough either.

F.T.S. - Floppy Tail Syndrome.

Floppy Tail Syndrome (FTS) is when a Crestie's tail literally 'flops' about no longer under the Crestie's control. For example, when they lie flat against the glass facing straight down and their tail 'flops' down over them.

This is caused by Crestie's constantly laying vertically on the glass or sides of their enclosure. The weight of their tail causes it to bend forward or to the side and eventually this causes the pelvic bone to become bent. This condition does not have any effect on the overall health of the Gecko and is not really a disease at all, it is more an effect of them living in captivity.

In nature the Crested Gecko has no glass walls to climb on and spends most of its time on thin branches in an upright position. Adult Crestie's in the wild don't usually have their tails, by that time they have usually been lost escaping from predators or from fighting. So the Crested Gecko's pelvis is probably not designed to support the weight of a long tail through to adult hood.

In captivity, without dense decor, Crestie's tend to spend the majority of their time on the vertical walls of their enclosure, which causes the tail to droop from its weight.

To prevent FTS from happening provide your Crestie's with ample and varied climbing surfaces throughout their enclosure, so that they spend less time on the vertical walls.

M.B.D. - Metabolic Bone Disease

This occurs when the Crestie is not getting enough Calcium and/or vitamin D3. Calcium and Vitamin D3 work sort of hand in hand. Without enough Vitamin D3 your Geckos are unable to process the Calcium even if they are getting plenty of it.

This disease is most likely to appear in hatchlings, juveniles and breeding females as these need the most Calcium. Breeding females need more because the Calcium is used in egg production.

MBD can be seen as a loss of muscle control or twitching, a flexible jaw, an inability to move around without difficulty, curvature of the spine and a lack of appetite. Any or all of these could be signs of MBD.

Calcium deficiency is a very serious problem but can easily be avoided by providing the correct diet and adding the proper supplements.

If you can get your Crestie to open its mouth (try stroking round its mouth) you will be able to see the Calcium sac's at either side of the roof of its mouth. They appear as whitish bumps.

The Calcium sac's are a good way of checking that your Crestie is getting enough Calcium and vitamin D3. They should be whitish and filled out.

If your breeder females lay eggs that are weak and under calcified then they are not getting enough Calcium/Vitamin D3 either and you should increase their Calcium/Vitamin supplementation. On the other hand, too much Calcium can lead to over calcified eggs that are so hard the hatchlings cannot break out of them, so please do not overdose your Calcium/Vitamin supplementation either.

If your Crestie is suffering from MBD then you need to seek specialist veterinary treatment.

Pneumonia

When we hear Crestie's being referred to as having 'respiratory' problems it is usually Pneumonia. This is usually caused by too wet an enclosure, poor air circulation and/or low temperatures, although poor nutrition and lack of correct sanitation will also contribute to the problem too.

This can be easily avoided by providing the correct environment and diet for your Crestie's and by cleaning their enclosure correctly.

If your Crestie is suffering from Pneumonia then you need to seek specialist veterinary treatment.

Entamoeba Invadens

This parasite is the only known cause of mortalities in otherwise healthy Crested Geckos. It is believed to come from cross contamination of water or feeder insects where the water/insects are used for amphibians (frogs, turtles, etc.).

The parasite seems to have no effect on the amphibians but is deadly for the Crestie's.

So if you keep amphibians as well as Crestie's then do keep their water and feeder insects well separated.

If the condition is caught early enough it can be treated by a specialist veterinarian.

Written by Mark Alcock (Mark.A on the Reptile Room forum)

Number of visits since the 28th of July 2006