My Crestie Rescues from this fall

I rescued a group of 6 crested geckos this fall from a man that contacted my crested gecko ad on Craig's List. (My ad says that I will take in cresties if they are unwanted). There were 2 babies, and 4 adults. Three of the adults were 8 years old, and one was a bit younger.

At the previous owners house, they had two tanks set up for them, a 20
gallon for the babies, and a 25-29 gallon for the 4 adults.
The geckos used to belong to the son, but he moved away, across country,
and couldn't take them with him, so his parents have been taking care
of them. The son was back home for a visit, and contacted me to see if I
wanted them.

They used to feed Repashy crested gecko diet, but it's been discontinued
at the local pet shops, so they've been trying to feed the geckos other
things. They had an "all cricket diet" for a while, then they tried
other brands of crested gecko diet (flukers, etc) but the geckos aren't
favoring them, and have started to loose a lot of weight.

These are the pictures from the first day I got them, these geckos are all really emaciated and neglected:


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Smallest baby, tailless, weighs 3 grams

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Largest baby, tailless, weighs 6 grams
I was worried that there could be an issue with scoliosis with
this gecko, but he was able to straighten his back when I picked him up.

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Adult male, approx 8 years old, tailless, 24 grams, I named him "Wiley" - for good reason too, he is a very busy boy as soon as you pick him up, he just wants to go, go, go!

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Adult male, approx 8 years old, 27 grams. I haven't quite decided what to name him yet, but I want it to be something to do will bulls or the Taurus zodiac symbol. like "El-Toro" or "Taurus" or "Tauron". In this picture he just reminds me of the bulls that fight the matadors in Spain (which is cruel), but he just looks like he's gonna go gore somebody.


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Adult Female, approx 8 years old, 28 grams
Had a necrotic tail tip. The tail looked like there may have been some infection started, it was too red, and she's an olive buckskin, so I knew that it shouldn't have been that color. I made this pretty little girl drop her tail, and I had an awful time trying to get her to do that. She was NOT giving it up. I spent an hour and a half trying to get her to drop it. I tried everything I could think of, Repashy, crickets, my cat, picking her up by her tail (yes I know that it's wrong to do that). She spent an hour with my BF heaviest textbook sitting on her tail, and she still wasn't ready to let it drop!
I had just finished cleaning some of the tank decor that I had gotten with these guys, and I had a small Exoterra Hide. I placed that about a centimeter away from her nose. Well BOY OH BOY did she ever want that! The next thing I knew, POOF! the tail was off and she was all tucked in underneath her hide.


Fresh little stubby butt on her I decided to name her Stella. Where I work, there used to be someone there that was named Stella, and this Stella person was a hoarder. She kept everything, used placemats, newspapers, random buttons, etc... nothing was to be thrown away! My little gecko not wanting to give up her tail reminded me of her, so that's what I named her.

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Adult female, less then 8 years old (5-7 years old?), 21 grams, I was going to named her "Pink", but I think I'm going to call her Rose instead. Her color is very unique to me, I've never seen one quite like her before. I spent an hour removing most of the stuck shed that was on this poor girl. She had so much junk stuck and hardened on her toes, she sounded like a tap dancer. She still has issues climbing and holding on to stuff. It's much better from what it was though.
This little girl nearly broke my moms heart. My BF and I were going on holiday about 2 weeks after I got them, and my mom was going to pet sit for me. My mom is not really into exotic anything. They have 2 dogs, and that's about as crazy as it gets for them. She hand fed this little girl and the two babies every day while I was gone. She fed all my geckos everyday, but these 3 got hand fed.

I know that the two babies, don't look that bad in the picture, but if you seen them next to babies that are supposed to be 3 grams, it would make you sick. They also walk like ducks, they have their stubs pointing up when they walk. I think that's from loosing their tails at such a young age.


Well, all the rescue geckos are going great. They have all put on weight, my little "Rose" I weighed her recently and she is now 28 grams (from 21), the other 3 adults are over 30 grams, and the two babies, one is now 5 grams (from 3) and the other is 8 grams (from 6). The weight gain has been slow, but that is what I wanted, I was worried if they put weight on too quickly, that they could end up with more dietary problems.
I don't have any more recent pictures, so I'll have to get on that soon. But they are all out of their quarantine tubs, and are set up in various terrariums. These geckos all have great dispositions on them, and I hope that they are happy here with me.

Glad to hear they have a good home now and are all doing well

Congrats on rescuing them!

They are beautiful! I'm glad they've found such a great home with you!

If you ever need to find any of them a new home, I'd be happy to take one or more in. I love cresties, and I love rescues.

Good luck with them!!

wow they are beautiful
and you are so great for taking them in!! I want to rescue geckos one day!

@kathstew
I will keep you in mind should I ever need to get rid of my collection (I have 20+cresties), but there are no plans of that so far.

@gothicgurrrl
You should! It is a very rewarding experience (when they are savable at least, and when they are not - at least you gave them a good home while they were here), and you end up learning a lot about their health care very quickly.

My BF might be home early from school tonight, so I will see if he has time to take some pictures of my geckos later

Wow! You have a lot of them! They are adorable, I love cresties! Do you breed them? I'm currently looking for a female for my male. If you ever do breed them, let me know!

Yes I just started to breed them this summer, I currently have 10 babies from "Junk" (Male Chocolate Harley) and "Trash" (Female Lavender Harley w. Dalmatian Spots). The babies are adorable, and they are so mellow. Not at all flighty like the cresties from the pet shops.
All the eggs hatched around the 60 day mark (usually 60-120 days is normal), and were less then a gram when they hatched.
They are taking a long time to grow though, and I'm not really sure why, but I'm thinking it has something to do with the earlier hatch time and this being the first years clutches. I feed them Repashy, and they ate crickets a couple of times, but they are still only 4 grams, and some of them should be more like 8 grams I think? At least according to an age/weight chart I've found, they should be a little bit bigger. I know that that chart is just a guideline, and everyone’s results are different.

This is a picture of the mom "Trash" from last summer.
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Aw! She's gorgeous, I'm sure her babies are just as stunning!
I'm hoping to breed my male, Chester, sometime. I'm looking for a girlfriend for him right now :P

I'd love to see pictures of the babies next time you get around to taking some pictures!