UPDATED 17/1/11

Our NEW crested gecko website has now been published:

WWW.GECKOCHAMBER.CO.UK




Crested Geckos are a new project for Hissnhers from summer 2010


As female geckos have to be about 14m old - and 35g+ - before breeding can take place, we would hope to have 1st clutches in 2011/12.   Unlike snakes, they usually only lay 2 eggs per clutch but can continue to lay for a number of months during the same season


Cresties can only be sexed from about 4-6m onwards, so we bought in a range of beautiful patterns/colours in order to select 3/4 males and a ratio of females



CRESTED GECKO CARE INFORMATION

WWW.GECKOCHAMBER.CO.UK

Please also Google for more information - this is not exclusive!!!


HOUSING
Cresties can be housed singly, as a breeding pair or as a breeding colony ie 1 male to 3-5 females.  Unless you're going to breed on a big commercial scale, Exo Terra vivariums are generally considered to be the best option for housing these cute creatures.  Different sizes are available - depending on size & number of animals - but, as usual, especially when they're full grown, the bigger the better.  As babies/juveniles, plastic faunariums are fine but make sure there's height for them to climb about.  Move it/them into bigger vivs as they grow - especially if you've more than one as you don't want potentially sexually active boys and girls together before the female is about 14m old and 35g+ in weight - see below


TEMPERATURE

Cresties are pretty hardy animals and can survive at room temperature - as long as your room is about 75-80 as a norm.   Night time temps can drop to about 60 without much stress but, if it's constantly outside of these then you will need to think about a heat source - a low watt lamp or heat mat at one side will usually suffice.


HUMIDITY

To help shedding - especially with babies - it's important for the viv to be reasonably humid - at least 50%.  This can usually be achieved with mist-spraying the leaves each evening and this doubles up as a water source as they will lick droplets off the glass and/or leaves.  However, don't over-spray - leave it to dry out before respraying


DECORATION

Most people opt for a naturalistic option - branches/silk plants etc - in order to mimic their natural surroundings.  They're arboreal by nature so it's important to have branches etc to climb and places to hide/sleep


SUBSTRATE

Babies/juveniles - kitchen roll is best.  This is so they don't ingest anything else whilst trying to catch their food.  Larger/adult cresties can have something like ECO EARTH which won't need cleaning out as any excreted matter will degrade and the earth just need stirring up from time to time


FOOD & WATER

As with humans, the 1st few months are very important for growth/development and 2/3 small crickets each night (dusted with calcium powder) will be relished.  In addition, a commercial preparation of Crested Gecko Diet (CGD) can be mixed up (GGD powder + water) and a small amount put  into a milk bottle-type top.  This can be left in the viv for 2/3 days before renewing it and many people wean their cresties off live food so that they're ONLY feeding CGD.  CGD can also be mixed with fresh fruit puree - anything but NOT citrus fruit - mango/papaya/pear/melon mixes etc  A little bottle top with fresh water needs to be left in too 


cricket/locust size 

It's a general rule of thumb to feed food that's no larger than the width of the cresties head and/or length from eyes to mouth

HANDLING

After you've let your new friend settle in for a couple of weeks - to minimise stress - you can start handling.  Just a few minutes a day at first and then build up as you go.  Be warned - LITTLE CRESTIES JUMP!!!  Gently put your hand in the viv and put a finger under your crestie - with a bit of luck it'll crawl onto you.  Gently close your hand around it to lift it out and then sit down somewhere so that, if it jumps off you, it's not quite so far to the floor!!  Some cresties are naturally more laid back than others and will simply start crawling over your hands/arm etc.  Others will be a bit more skittish and it's sometimes best to try putting 1 hand in front of the other and encourage it to crawl from one to the other - rather than leaping onto your chest or the floor etc!!


SEXING

If you're keeping more than 1 together, it is very important to distinguish males and females as soon as possible in order to remove the possibility  males fighting over potential mates.  From as early as 4-6 months, with the aide of a magnifying glass/jewellers loupe, you can spot the early signs of male development - some pores in the region just anterior to the vent will develop darker spots in their centres.  A little later on (usually between about 5-9 months) males will develop a fairly prominent hemipenal bulge at the top of the tail - under where these darker spots appeared.


Females can be kept together as a group until they're big enough to have their male introduced to the colony.


There are differing opinions on keeping males together.   It would appear that, as long as they've not been in contact with a female, males can also be housed together  but, if 1 or more have been with a female, then fights are likely to break out and it's more generally accepted that they need to be housed either individually or as the only male in a breeding colony


BREEDING

Females usually only lay 2 eggs at a time but can continue to lay these throughout the season - 6/7 times.  Hatching is similar to snakes - put in vermiculite and keep at a warm temp either in an incubator or, as many people have, simply on a shelf in your room. 


There is plenty more on the care, sexing and breeding of cresties on the web - written by people FAR more experienced than me -

so, if you're interested in keeping these lovely reptiles,

please do your homework!!


WWW.GECKOCHAMBER.CO.UK


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