The Fish Room
Crested Gecko Care
CHOOSING YOUR CRESTED GECKO
Your crested gecko must be captive bred. While all the crested geckos in the trade are captive bred, it will not hurt to ask. Captive bred lizards are healthier and free of parasites.
When you first handle your crested gecko, check its eyes – they should be bright, round, same size and not sunken. The pupil should be thin (with normal light). Crested gecko’s pupil should only dilate in the dark.
Check crested gecko’s jaws – they should not be hanging or soft. The bite should also be even. Soft or hanging jaws might indicate a Metabolic Bone Disease.
Does a crested gecko have a tail? Many crested geckos lose their tails, especially in the wild. A crested gecko might easily lose its tail if someone grabs it by a tail or makes any unexpected moves. If a crested gecko loses its tail, it won’t grow back. But it should not affect its life greatly. If you decide to buy a crested gecko without a tail, make sure that seller reduces the price.
What is more, the spine and tail should be straight, not kinky. Kinky tail or spine can indicate late-stage calcium deficiencies and a Metabolic Bone disease. These changes are often irreversible, so avoid a seller that has let its geckos suffer like this.
COMMON HEALTH PROBLEMS
Overall, Cresties are a very hardy animal and don’t regularly fall ill. Good husbandry will prevent most problems. Nutritional deficiencies, such as metabolic bone disease (see below), may be the most common ailment in crested geckos and can be avoided with a good diet.
If you don’t provide adequate ventilation, Cresties can become susceptible to respiratory infections. If kept too humid and they can get bacterial infections of the skin. Each are easily treated, but geckos can end up dying due to these easily preventable issues.
Parasites are also a concern, the biggest worry is Entamoeba, which is an amoeba that causes dramatic weight loss, lethargy, and death. Pinworm (nematodes) are usually more of a nuisance but a heavy load in an animal will cause problems. Cryptosporidium is rarely diagnosed in crested geckos but is still a possibility.
Metabolic bone disease (MBD) refers to a lack (or imbalance) of calcium in the body, leading to calcium being taken from the bones. MBD in crested geckos generally takes the form of disfigured bones, especially in the spine, hips, and tail. Weak jawbones are also a sign of MBD, as are swollen limbs.
HOUSING
Crested geckos come from a mild to warm, humid environment so they require some additional heating to thrive in the UK. Unlike other reptiles they only need a basking area of around 24℃ (75℉) and can become stressed if it gets much warmer. To prevent overheating and ensure optimal ventilation we recommend a tall glass enclosure with front and top ventilation.
As the enclosure does not retain much heat, we know that if the room it is placed in is cool, a temperature gradient will be achieved from one side of the enclosure to the other.
Crested geckos love to climb and will spend most of their time off the floor. To aid in this there should be number of hard wood decorations fitted firmly in place to provide multiple routes up and down the enclosure. Crested geckos aren't particularly shy, but it is best to provide partial cover throughout the enclosure.
Crested geckos get a lot of their hydration from dew on leaves and flowers, so it is good to ensure that there are plenty of large leaves and plants (real or artificial) to catch water when the enclosure is sprayed..
LIGHTING
Crested geckos will be in partial shade but naturally, UVB is still available throughout most of the day. UVB lighting used to be considered an optional extra, but we now know a lot more about the species and their natural habitat and understand that it should always be provided.
The terrarium has a mesh lid which will reduce the strength of UVB being put into the enclosure so we would recommend a wide covering of 5% UVB or a smaller covering of 6-7% UVB. Terrarium canopies are currently available in 2 forms, compact top canopies or T5 canopies. Compact top canopies typically hold E27 screw fit lamps and can be matched with compact UVB lamps or low wattage basking lamps. T5 canopies are a newer solution and will normally hold a single T5 UVB tube.
The effectiveness of the lamp can vary by manufacturer but in general compact lamps have a range of around 9-12 inches and must be replaced on average every 6 months or so. T5 UVB tubes have a range of around 24 inches and must be replaced once per year.
Whichever lamp you choose we would advise mounting it above the terrarium towards the front or back of the enclosure. This should provide a nice UV gradient from the back of the enclosure towards the front. In this configuration we achieve a temperature gradient along the length and a UV gradient along the width meaning that whatever the gecko’s requirements they can find the perfect position within the enclosure.
FEEDING
Crested geckos are omnivorous meaning that they will eat a varied diet of vegetation, live insects, and fruit.
For the live insect portion of this diet, we would recommend brown crickets. They are very nutritious, easy for the gecko to hunt, widely available and great value for money. If your gecko will not take them, black crickets and locust are also a brilliant alternative. Every now and again you might want to provide your gecko a treat, for this purpose you could feed: waxworms, calciworms or mealworms.
The grubs and worms tend to be quite fatty, so we normally offer these a maximum of once or twice a week.
Mealworms can be difficult to digest so we would normally only provide these to mature geckos (18 months or older) and only once or twice a week.
For the fruit and vegetable portion of the diet we recommend one of the powder mix diets by Repashy, Exo Terra or ZooMed. There are a range of diets suitable for this species including the crested gecko diet, crested gecko classic, grubs n fruit and mango diet (among others). These can be fed 3-4 times per week alongside the live food.
As a back-up we always include a small water bowl in the enclosure. You might never see the gecko drink from it, but it should be refilled daily.
Crested geckos will get most of what they need from their diet but there are some vitamins and minerals that they require in higher concentrations. These are normally provided in the form of calcium and vitamin powders which are dusted onto the live food.