Crested Gecko Care Sheet

The caresheet I have posted was given to me by a breeder of these lovely geckos.

Crested Gecko (Rhacodactylus Ciliatus) - Care Sheet
Heat
Crested geckos are one of the few reptiles that can thrive at temperatures that typically exist within a human home. Crested geckos prefer room temperature, so you should not provide any type of artificial heating if they will be kept in a normal centrally heated home. In fact, heat is far more dangerous than cold. Even brief exposure to temperatures above 85-90F can kill a crested gecko. Ideally, keep them where they have daytime gradients between 72F and 80F. At night time, they will be fine with temperature drops into the 50's. Take care not to situate their vivarium or faunarium in direct sunlight, as this can cause severe peaks of heat. At temperatures above 82-85F, crested geckos will begin to go off their food, become highly stressed and their health will deteriorate.
Humidity
Humidity isn't a huge issue with crested geckos, but allowing them to dry out is unwise, so you should generally try to keep the humidity around 40%. This is very easy to maintain in most homes by a quick misting every day. We advise you to mist in the late evening, shortly before their active period (after darkness falls), so that they can drink droplets from the leaves more easily should they want to. Some geckos will drink from a shallow bowl, so we always recommend providing one. However, not all animals like to drink this way, so don't panic if you don't see your gecko drinking.
Housing - In our experience, geckos are happy in a wide range of different home types. These are the fundamentals:
• They are arboreal, so always ensure they have sufficient height for climbing. Depending on the size of the animal, different sized faunariums or vivariums can be used, but it's better to give more space than less, with the exception of very small babies who may find it difficult to hunt live food in a space which is too large. We have found no difference in effectiveness between glass and plastic enclosures, although wooden vivarium can suffer from the degree of moisture they will be exposed to.
• Always provide copious amounts of artificial foliage and "vine" or "branch" walkways for them to climb on. Try as much as possible to simulate the branches they would climb and sit on in their natural habitat. Take care when using branches or wood not purchased through reputable reptile accessory suppliers, since some woods can be harmful to the animal.
• Ensure the habitat is well ventilated.
• Use shallow food bowls which will not easily flip over, to avoid mess.
Lighting
These geckos are nocturnal and from a forest habitat, so we do not recommend the use of any kind of artificial light.
In the wild, crested geckos seek out dark hiding places during daylight hours. We think geckos are happiest with just the ambient light in the room.Whatever else anyone might tell you, UVB light is NOT necessary.
We do not provide, nor have we ever provided, artificial UV light to our geckos. We are also friendly with a number of people who have successfully kept and bred crested geckos for many years. None of them use UV. Geckos are just fine without it. Feeding the correct diet to your gecko is much more important to its health than the amount of UV light it receives. Remember, they are a nocturnal species. If you want to use UV, and some people do, that is fine. It is NOT however a prerequisite.
Diet
We have developed a feeding routine which seems to work well for our animals. We feed on a rotation of4 days.
Day 1&2 - Complete Diet
Day 3 - Fast (give no food)
Day 4 - Live food.
Repeat from Day I
We recommend Clarks Complete Crested Gecko Diet. Our animals all take to this diet very readily, and we believe that it provides complete nutrition and promotes health and growth. Although many people use pure fruit puree and baby foods, we do not recommend their use, because they can often be high in sugar, contain added ingredients which may not be of benefit to the animal, and fundamentally lack some of the key nutrients which the complete diet contains.
Handling
Of all reptiles, crested geckos are among the easiest species to handle. We practice gentle handling from a very early age, and we believe this helps the geckos as they grow to be more confident and accepting of handling. You may find your gecko a little excitable when you initiate handling, but with care and confidence it will soon settle down. A 'hand ladder' walk is a great way to keep your gecko under close control while handling. In other words, let the gecko jump or walk from one hand to another like climbing stairs. This will allow the animal to feel less stressed than trying to hold him steady in your hand. Note that crested geckos are far more likely to jump than run, so always sit on the floor rather than standing or walking around when you're handling your gecko. Remember if it decides to jump, it may hurt itself from a height.
We recommend handling your gecko for a maximum of 15 or 20 minutes, perhaps every other day, or even twice per week. Your gecko will have a unique personality. Some like handling a lot, others less so. It will be up to you to determine the frequency based on your interaction with the gecko. Always remember, the less stressed, and calmer your gecko is, the better for its health. This rule applies to everything you do, handling included.
We hope that you enjoy your gecko, and find the information in this sheet useful. If you have any doubts about the health or wellbeing of your gecko at any time, consult professional veterinary advice.
NB: The advice given in this care sheet is not intended to be authoritative, and simply relates the basic care guidelines for
the animal which we have ascertained through our experience. If in doubt about any aspect of the care of your animal,
always consult professional veterinary advice.[/font][/b]

wow this is great I think I could easily keep a crestie after reading this. I'm just interested in the crested gecko complete food stuff? I have seen it before.. but would they eat it? do they just lick at it? and would it just be better to give them livefoods everytime?

thats why i use that care sheet because it explains everything well and is understandable.
With my cresties i mainly feed them on Clarks gecko diet(for more info on it visit www.oxfordgeckos.co.uk they are the main supplyier in the uk, i have all 4flavours that they do and Dave is so chubby because he loves the diet as much as he loves live food, you mix the diet up 1part diet to 2parts water and put it into a shallow bowl for them to come down and lick up.
mine apart from blaze are on mainly gecko diet once everyother or every 3days with live food every fortnight and blaze is the opposite as she/he would rather have live food.
dave, stumpy & rhubarb will only eat mealworms & waxworms where as blaze will eat mealworms, waxworms and locust

The Komodo Crested Gecko Diet (often referred to as CGD) is what i use, for cresties and mournings. When mixed with water, its just sort of daft brown substance, it works a lot better mixed in with some baby food.

baby food? thats bad for them though...?

and thankyou if i ever manage to get a crestie in the next couple of years.. I will buy those two types of complete diet. I know what it is now.. i've seen the complete tortoise diets that you mix with water.

no friut flavour baby food is ok for them.

i might have some baby cresties yet this season as rhubarb is a female and she has been in with stumpy the male

aww cute ^^
and oh okay didnt know that.. i thought it was too high in sugar or something.. vitamin A is it?

i dont know about sugar content and vitamin as i personally dont use baby food because mine wont eat baby food

gothicgurrrl wrote:aww cute ^^
and oh okay didnt know that.. i thought it was too high in sugar or something.. vitamin A is it?

Yeah vitamin A is toxic to a lot of reptiles i believe but not in small doses.

Baby food is vitimin fortified, higher levels of vitimins than you'd find in the food naturally, so hypervitaminosis is a very real possibility and is usually only recomended for ill or debilitated herps. Also baby food is loaded with sodium.

Baby foods are used by a lot of people for a lot of herps. So it must be safe?
i know i've used it for a while and never had any problems.

Most of the time when I see people resorting to using baby food it's a sick or young leo that needs a boost. It generally isn't recommended for healthy animals from my reading.

i used baby food for are water dragon(poor freddie) after his jaw opperation because he couldn't eat his bugs but normally i wouldn't use it for the reptiles

I have just done an assignment on hypovitaminosis. It's sad I wouldn't risk feeding baby food unless the lizard was ill and needed more vitamins.

Do you mean hyper (excessive) vitaminosis or hypo (shortage of) vitaminosis?

i said hypovitaminosis.. when they are not getting enough vitamin A in their diet.. and they get all those swellings in their glands and ducts.

Quick question about housing. Would mesh or glass be better? I've found large exoterras in both and plan on getting an older gecko.

i personally use wood vivs or plastic tubs but Charlie & Becca both use exoterras so glass will be fine, not sure about mesh as never seen cresties kept in mesh

Thanks!

And for the baby food diet, I read that a little is okay, but a strict diet of it could be deadly. Here's a link to what I read: http://www.dragontownreptiles.com/meetbubba.htm

i love this caresheet

some people use a diet of just Crested gecko diet either Clarkes or Repashly, some mix baby food into the gecko diet and others use live food.

I currenty use a mix of livefood(mealworms,locust & occasional waxworm) and clarkes gecko diet.

Glad you like the caresheet Sarah

This is a really good caresheet !! I feed mine crested geckos mainly livefood (dusted) because they have never taken to the CGD (I still offer it tho) but they are growing to be very healthy

thanks sam how much does it cost to get all the stuff for crested geckos? I have a big tank.. that I could turn on it's side and then build like a wooden box with a mesh door and then slide the tank into it what substrate do I use? and do i use a moist hide or is the tank like a giant moist hide when I spray it?

shouldn't cost more than £30 hun, will prob be alot less as you would already have tank, moss, bark & plants left over from your leo's. all you need is some eco earth loose coconut fibre for the floor and cover it with moss is how i've seen most setups done. personally i use kitchen roll and have a tub with moss in for blaze

ohhh cool
I really want a crested gecko next year, when I have enough money for one of those gerbilariums (half metal cage, half tank for gerbils/hamsters) from pets at home for my jird, I will have a spare tank I'm going to sell my other spare tank

Can you keep them on tile as substrate? with a tub of moss and a tub of eco earth in?