[Kazska]

Hey everyone!

I've been using this site for a while to chat on the leo forum, I've recently been looking into getting one or two cresties. As I had no experience with them I was hopeing I could get some info on here I'd really appreiciate any info you can give me.

How friendly are they generally, are they easy to handle?
How to heat the cage, UV light? heat mat? (I was thinking UV as they don't tend to stay on the ground?)
How warm do they need to be kept?
What kind of environment do they need? (humid, dry?)
How do they drink? (out of a bowl or dripping system?)
What do they generally eat?
Do they need calcium power/vitamin suppliment in a bowl or dusted on their food?
What kind of substrate do they need?
How old do they live to? (Do males/females live longer?)
Are they happy to be housed with others of the same/opposite sex?

Thank you for taking the time to reply and please fill me in on anything I may have forgotten

xxxXXX

[Kazska]

Oh come on guys! 29 veiws and NO replys? Don't any of you know anything about the species you keep?

I would really appreiciate some info here.

xxxXXX

[Debbie]

1 How friendly are they generally, are they easy to handle?
2 How to heat the cage, UV light? heat mat? (I was thinking UV as they don't tend to stay on the ground?)
3 How warm do they need to be kept?
4 What kind of environment do they need? (humid, dry?)
5 How do they drink? (out of a bowl or dripping system?)
6 What do they generally eat?
7 Do they need calcium power/vitamin suppliment in a bowl or dusted on their food?
8 What kind of substrate do they need?
9 How old do they live to? (Do males/females live longer?)
10 Are they happy to be housed with others of the same/opposite sex?

1:
They are easy to handle, but they are not pet's (like any other reptile, handling should be minimized). We only handle them so that we can handle them when they need medical treatment or something....

2:
They can be kept at room temps. So in the summer at 23-25 degrees at day and 21-23 at night and during winter 21-23 at day and 19-20 during the night. They are nocturnal so they won't be needing any UV.

3:
See number 2

4:
They need an average humidity from around the 70%

5:
To keep the humidity just spray once a day, and they will drink the water. We don't use any water bowls, but we know people who do...

6:
They eat insects and fruit. But it's best to keep them on Repashy Complete Crested Diet (just google it ) That's a complete diet in powder form, just add water and mix it up.

7:
When you give them insects make sure you dust them with mineralls and vitamins and calcuim. But as i said before, better to give them the CGD that's all they need....

8:
We use bark, but they can be kept om paper towels too. But that is not so fancy. If you want a show viv, then just decorate it naturalistic....So use bark or something like that, that keeps the humidity at the right level.

9:
They were believed to be extinct till 1994, then they re-discovered them.
Those cresties still live and breed. They have an estimated life-span from 30 years.

10:
You can house females together with no problem.
Also male and female can be kept together (just make sure you cool them down in the winter to prevent them from breeding all year round).
Males should not be housed together cause they will fight over any female, and usually leads to the dead of one of them....
There are people housing males together with success, but they never came into contact with females, but we wouldn't take the risk.

Hope this answers your questions
Take a look at our site, we have some caresheets on it for all the Rhacodactylus we keep and breed (hint )

[rhacoboy]

Originally Posted by Kazska

Hey everyone!

I've been using this site for a while to chat on the leo forum, I've recently been looking into getting one or two cresties. As I had no experience with them I was hopeing I could get some info on here I'd really appreiciate any info you can give me.

How friendly are they generally, are they easy to handle?
How to heat the cage, UV light? heat mat? (I was thinking UV as they don't tend to stay on the ground?)
How warm do they need to be kept?
What kind of environment do they need? (humid, dry?)
How do they drink? (out of a bowl or dripping system?)
What do they generally eat?
Do they need calcium power/vitamin suppliment in a bowl or dusted on their food?
What kind of substrate do they need?
How old do they live to? (Do males/females live longer?)
Are they happy to be housed with others of the same/opposite sex?

Thank you for taking the time to reply and please fill me in on anything I may have forgotten

xxxXXX

1.) They are very friendly assuming they are regularly held. THey are also very easy to handle.
2.) They do not require any extra heating or lighting. They are a nocturnal lizard.
3.) I keep mine between 68-75 degrees F. During cooling the temps are around 65 or 64-73 degrees F.
4.) I keep mine in very simple set ups because I have so many cages to maintain. In each cage, I have stacked egg cartons, paper towel as a substrate, a few fake leaves/vines, and a paper towel roll {cut up for the small ones} They are misted once to twice a day.
5.) I do not use a bowl. THey drink from the leaves or the cage side when I mist them.
6.) Every other day, mine are fed CGD mixed with Rep-Cal
7.) Just dusted on their food. In my breeders cages I keep a small dish of calcium for them to just eat.
8.) Paper towel is a good substrate.
9.) No one knows exactly how old they live as there are still some specimins still living that were origionally collected from New Caledonia. I assume that breeder females will have a shorter lifespan because they are producing eggs all their life But i could be wrong.
10.) Males CAN NOT be housed with males. You'll end up with a dead gecko or seriously injured. Females can usually be housed with females, but if you see cuts/scars seperate them. I keep my pairs/groups together from Feb. or March- November. Then i take the males out and re-into them in Feb. or March.

good luck and i deffinitly advise you to get some cresties!

[Kazska]

Thank you so much for your replys! I'll definatly be looking into getting a couple of cresties preferably females. I'll be sure to post photos if and when I get them

Thanks again!

xxxXX

[jfitz]

Originally Posted by Kazska

Thank you so much for your replys! I'll definatly be looking into getting a couple of cresties preferably females. I'll be sure to post photos if and when I get them

Thanks again!

xxxXX

sweet , too bad the females are almost double the price of males
and to add on debbies comment...

you said in #2 room temp is fine, room temp isnt always fine. I don't know how cold it gets in Britain but if room temp gets too cold (under 72 F is too cold IMO) some cheap infrared lights are very good to use, 50 watts is what i use. I use them during the day and it keeps it at a constant 75 F. The good thing about infrared is that it doesnt disturb their day time sleeping methods because they are nocturnal.

Debbie also said in # 5, that you only have to spray once daily... this often is NOT the case. Depending on the type of terrarium that you have (screen or glass) certain types hold humidity better. Also do you have a regular terrarium but flipped over to make it taller so now it has a screen front instead of top? if so this will literally drain the humidity out of the terrarium. When trying to keep high humidity, AIR FLOW IS THE ENEMY. A good solution to this is simply blocking off the screen with plexiglass, but leaving a bit open for the heat lamp. Also a substrate like bark or mulch holds humidity better then paper towels, you might want to keep that into account.

Lastly Debbie said in #7 to mix the CDG with water, this is great advice but... it may take a while to get them on the Crested Gecko Diet (What CGD stands for). So what i do is i start on baby food, yes just pure baby food, for like 2-3 days. Then i simply start adding the CGD to the baby food so that it gets its essential nutrients. After a week or two, depending on how stubborn it is, add a BIT of water to a bottle cap, And keep adding the CGD until it makes a pasty kind of thing which should be the same thickness as the baby food. And for the Crickets, if they do eat them, make sure to either gut load them by feeding them that special cricket food at the pet store, of covering their body in the Powdery CGD.

Anyways hopes this helps you

[Kazska]

Originally Posted by jfitz

sweet , too bad the females are almost double the price of males
and to add on debbies comment...

you said in #2 room temp is fine, room temp isnt always fine. I don't know how cold it gets in Britain but if room temp gets too cold (under 72 F is too cold IMO) some cheap infrared lights are very good to use, 50 watts is what i use. I use them during the day and it keeps it at a constant 75 F. The good thing about infrared is that it doesnt disturb their day time sleeping methods because they are nocturnal.

Debbie also said in # 5, that you only have to spray once daily... this often is NOT the case. Depending on the type of terrarium that you have (screen or glass) certain types hold humidity better. Also do you have a regular terrarium but flipped over to make it taller so now it has a screen front instead of top? if so this will literally drain the humidity out of the terrarium. When trying to keep high humidity, AIR FLOW IS THE ENEMY. A good solution to this is simply blocking off the screen with plexiglass, but leaving a bit open for the heat lamp. Also a substrate like bark or mulch holds humidity better then paper towels, you might want to keep that into account.

Lastly Debbie said in #7 to mix the CDG with water, this is great advice but... it may take a while to get them on the Crested Gecko Diet (What CGD stands for). So what i do is i start on baby food, yes just pure baby food, for like 2-3 days. Then i simply start adding the CGD to the baby food so that it gets its essential nutrients. After a week or two, depending on how stubborn it is, add a BIT of water to a bottle cap, And keep adding the CGD until it makes a pasty kind of thing which should be the same thickness as the baby food. And for the Crickets, if they do eat them, make sure to either gut load them by feeding them that special cricket food at the pet store, of covering their body in the Powdery CGD.

Anyways hopes this helps you

Thanks for the info

xxxXXX

[springtech]

One thing said above that you shouldnt do is dust your crickets with CGD, you should only ever give the CGD mixed with water as it dehydrates in raw form if ingested. Good luck with your rhac's

[Debbie]

Originally Posted by jfitz

sweet , too bad the females are almost double the price of males
and to add on debbies comment...

you said in #2 room temp is fine, room temp isnt always fine. I don't know how cold it gets in Britain but if room temp gets too cold (under 72 F is too cold IMO) some cheap infrared lights are very good to use, 50 watts is what i use. I use them during the day and it keeps it at a constant 75 F. The good thing about infrared is that it doesnt disturb their day time sleeping methods because they are nocturnal.

Debbie also said in # 5, that you only have to spray once daily... this often is NOT the case. Depending on the type of terrarium that you have (screen or glass) certain types hold humidity better. Also do you have a regular terrarium but flipped over to make it taller so now it has a screen front instead of top? if so this will literally drain the humidity out of the terrarium. When trying to keep high humidity, AIR FLOW IS THE ENEMY. A good solution to this is simply blocking off the screen with plexiglass, but leaving a bit open for the heat lamp. Also a substrate like bark or mulch holds humidity better then paper towels, you might want to keep that into account.

Lastly Debbie said in #7 to mix the CDG with water, this is great advice but... it may take a while to get them on the Crested Gecko Diet (What CGD stands for). So what i do is i start on baby food, yes just pure baby food, for like 2-3 days. Then i simply start adding the CGD to the baby food so that it gets its essential nutrients. After a week or two, depending on how stubborn it is, add a BIT of water to a bottle cap, And keep adding the CGD until it makes a pasty kind of thing which should be the same thickness as the baby food. And for the Crickets, if they do eat them, make sure to either gut load them by feeding them that special cricket food at the pet store, of covering their body in the Powdery CGD.

Anyways hopes this helps you

Okay you have a point there lol.
The temps we gave is room temp over here in Holland, din't knew it gets a lot colder in Briatin, but thats why there are temps giggen in my awnser.....
But don;'t make it to hot, they will die it temps are over 28 degrees for a longer period of time....

Do not give your crested baby food!
It's all sugar, and just nog good for their bone structure (just look it up at Repashy forums).
There is a two flavour dieet from Repashy, that tastes like fruit. Your cresties will eat it!

And at last, screen cages are not good to keep cresteds in, you can't keep the humidity up.
Always use glass vivs. And if you use exo terra, you will have to cover the top, just like jfitz said

[Kazska]

Originally Posted by Debbie

Okay you have a point there lol.
The temps we gave is room temp over here in Holland, din't knew it gets a lot colder in Briatin, but thats why there are temps giggen in my awnser.....
But don;'t make it to hot, they will die it temps are over 28 degrees for a longer period of time....

lol actually the temps about the same over here, Shouldn't be a problem keeping them at the right temp Thanks for the info!

xxxXXX