Crested Gecko Care Sheet

Introduction

Crested Geckos are found on the southern tip of New Caledonia, a large island northeast of Australia. Crested geckos were thought to be extinct until their rediscovery in 1994. They are now one of the most commonly kept geckos in the world and export from their native New Caledonia is prohibited.
Crested geckos are arboreal (they live in trees, high above the ground for the most part) and grow to a total body length of 8 to 10 inches including the tail.

Selection

Signs of a healthy gecko will include clear eyes, mouth and vent. They should be relatively active and not sluggish. Avoid geckos that tremble, cannot close their mouth, have rubber-looking limbs, and appear to be off-balance or have trouble climbing or sticking (unless they are shedding). The geckos should be stocky, not thin and not have protruding ribs or hips.

Nutrition

In the wild, crested geckos eat soft, rotting fruit and any small invertebrates they can catch. One reason crested geckos make great pets is that they do not need a steady diet of crickets and other bugs to flourish and can be fed premade powdered diets (ex. Clark’s Gecko diet). However, crested geckos eagerly pouncing on crickets are certainly a joy to watch and one can alternate between dusted crickets, fruit and premade diets.

An example of a feeding regiment for your crestie is:

This schedule is basically for the juvies and sub-adults. When they are adults I usually rotate premade diet one night, crickets the next night, third night off.

Water

You should give your crestie cage a fine misting each morning and a heavier misting each night. If the tank is wet for the next misting you are spraying too much as there should be a drying out time in between sprayings.

Housing

Your enclosure should have plenty of hiding spaces and things for climbing provided by numerous plants, cork bark pieces and other cage décor.
If is was up to the individual they would prefer a simple enclosure or a planted vivarium tank. Keep in mind that cresties love height more than width so a higher tank is better. For an adult an optimal size is 18×18x24 and for juvies a 12×12x18 or 18×18x18 is excellent. If you have 2 young cresties and find out that one is male and other is female you need to separate them at the 20 gram weight. If kept together longer they could prematurely mate and you could potentially lose your female due to egg binding, calcium crash etc as it is very hard on the female if she is breed too young. She should be at least a year old and at least 35 grams before considering mating her. I actually suggest waiting until the female is at least a year and a half for better results.

Temperatures

During the day maintain a daytime temperature not to exceed 80 degrees F. If they are subjected to temperatures over 80 degrees on a constant basis this causes stress on the gecko and they could die. For night time you should have a drop in temperature that ideally could be from 65 degrees F to 70 degrees F.

Handling

Give your pet a week to adjust to his new surroundings before holding him and you should only handle for short amounts of time. Try not to handle him by the tail as the crested could drop his tail and if that happens, the crested does not grow another tail back.

Traits

The crested is nocturnal which means that they sleep during the day and are active at night. They are easily trained with short periods of time handling. These geckos come in a variety of colours so pick one that suits you best.