Help? My crestie is very unhappy/unfriendly.

[DoYouGetzIt]

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Hi Everyone,

I am very new to the website, and new to having a gecko. I have a female juvenile crested gecko, and I think she's behaving strangely, but as I said I'm new, so maybe she's just getting used to her new home. She won't eat the CGD, but will eat any crickets I put in at night with the nutritional supplements on it. She moves a lot at night, so I'm not worried about her health so much, just about how I can make her happy. When I mixed the CGD today, I decided to try to have her taste it by dabbing some on her nose. She totally freaked out and started climbing the walls and the branch. It's fairly cold here, so I directed her toward her wall mounted hide that has a heat pad on it and is kept around 75 and then left her alone.

Because of the time of year and daylight savings she has a UV light that I turn on at 7:00 am and off at 7:00 pm, as close to sunrise and set as I can get with my schedule. In addition to the heated hide, she also has a heated corner at a natural perching spot on her branch which is also around 75.

Is it just that I need to give her space and time? Or should I try to socialize her more? I just don't want to stress her out and make her sick.

[Peasquare]

How long have you had her? It can take several weeks for them to settle in to a new home.
How is she housed, in a tank or tub? Can you provide pics?
What brand/flavor of GCD have you tried and have you tried a variety of flavors?
How was she housed before you got her and was she used to being handled?
What is the humidity level?
Is the heat pad inside the tank? That could be dangerous and may not be necessary. If your environment is on the cool side you may want to consider using a ceramic heat emitter over the tank. Keeping the temp between 75-80 during the day (a little cooler in winter is OK) and in the low 70’s or high 60’s at night is ok.
Cresties don’t need uvb light buf it won’t hurt. I use a daylight CFL just for the plants. In winter I do 12 on/12 off.
It can be a slow process for them to adjust to a new environment. Don’t try and force it, give her time to settle in.

[Peasquare]

How long have you had her? It can take several weeks for them to settle in to a new home.
How is she housed, in a tank or tub? Can you provide pics?
What brand/flavor of GCD have you tried and have you tried a variety of flavors?
How was she housed before you got her and was she used to being handled?
What is the humidity level?
Is the heat pad inside the tank? That could be dangerous and may not be necessary. If your environment is on the cool side you may want to consider using a ceramic heat emitter over the tank. Keeping the temp between 75-80 during the day (a little cooler in winter is OK) and in the low 70’s or high 60’s at night is ok.
Cresties don’t need uvb light buf it won’t hurt. I use a daylight CFL just for the plants. In winter I do 12 on/12 off.
It can be a slow process for them to adjust to a new environment. Don’t try and force it, give her time to settle in.

[Esmerelda]

I heard that mixing a little bit of honey with the CGD will help them like it better, I haven't tried this myself though. Since shes really into crickets I suggest putting some of the CGD onto the cricket and see if she will eat the cricket then. I would tong feed her, or put her into an empty enclosure without substrate if you do this, because you don't want any of the substrate sticking to the CGD on the cricket.
I hope you figure this out!

[DoYouGetzIt]

Thanks so much for the help with feeding! I don't want to give her too much sugar, so I'll probably try the cricket thing first, but if that doesn't work I'll try the honey.

[DoYouGetzIt]

I've only had her for a little over a week, but I have a cousin who I'm close with who has a crestie too and she said hers was easily settled in. However, she adopted hers from a home with young kids and mine is from a local vivarium store with dozens of cresties at any given time so I assume she wasn't used to being handled. The humidity is kept around 65, and the heating pad is outside. She likes to hang from the walls and ceiling so I thought it would be good for her to go if it got to cold for her. I think it's probably that she has to get used to the new home like you said, but if you think I should change anything to make her a little happier let me know. Thank you so much!

[Peasquare]

Give her time to settle. I would wait at least another week, maybe two, before even attempting to handle her. It would help to see pics of her enclosure before making any suggestions on changes. You should get the humidity up to about 90% in the evening then let it drop to 40-50% before spraying again. It needs to dry out a little, too much humidity can cause respiratory problems and promote mold growth.

[GeckoLeen]

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Lots of foliage and hiding places. The more they have, they better they like it. I wouldn't handle her too much at first, then start slowly. I'd also advise against tong-feeding unless absolutely necessary, because they can get dependent on that.