question about crested geckos

[buggygirl65]

hello, my name is stephanie, I have had a female crested gecko for about a year now and a few days ago i bought a male, i am hoping to breed them but before i do i was woundering if there was any advice that could be given. I have looked it up on several sites but i would rather get advice from people who are experianced or maybe know a little more =-) alot of the sites said different things so i'm a little confused as what to go by. Also is there any fast way for them to gain weight? because Ive noticed that my female is under weight. i have been starting to feed them twice a day instead of once but is ther any supliment that i could add to their food to help this? and one other thing, i now have a 55 gallon tank they are lving in, how many can like in that together? and i know i can onl have 1 male per tank.Thank you

 

[thorrshamri]

I think your viv could safely be the home of one male and 2 or 3 females as long as there is enough height (2' and up ).

Breeding should occur from the ages of the 15-18 months ,they are sexually mature long before but too young individuals mating would cause problems .

I breed them regularly and there is little to do to get eggs .Brumation is not even necessary ,but a female should not be allowed more than 5 or 6 clutches per year.

Just make sure all adults are healthy and handle them only when necessary .The more often you will handle them ,the less likely they will mate.

A layer of 3-4 inches of slightly moist ,but in no way damp ,substrate (coconut mould obtained from bricks sold in pet stores is by far my favorite ) should be provided ,and the females bury the clutches without any visible sign ,so you should check your whole substrate regularly for eggs every week or every other week .So cage furnishing has to be quite simple to move .

To trigger mating ,just mist the cage more intensely and leave them undisturbed ,I see no reason why it wouldn't work

As for your female's weight ,it does not sound a good idea at all to feed a near adult specimen every day and even less twice a day.

Try small snakes occasionally and a baby mice twice per month ,not more .This will give your female extra proteins and calcium .More could be harmful as baby mice hold a lot of fat .I would also leave a small dish with powdered calcium in the cage ,or ground sepia crushed

 

[lessthantito]

what are you feeding her now ? before I start breeding my girls I try and fatten them up w/ a little extra babyfood mixed into their crested gecko diet and maybe a few wax worms or Phoenix worms (some cresteds will take the worms others will not it's all on the individual animal) but most of mine eat them really that is it. Thorr got it right just once you see that they have mated start looking around 3-4 weeks make sure she has at least one good spot to lay eggs and just check every day or so you don't want them to dry out and after the 1st clutch the 2nd will follow in another 3-4 weeks mine usually bury them all in the same spot but sometimes they move their eggs so just make sure to look anywhere they could be buried

 

[buggygirl65]

Just make sure all adults are healthy and handle them only when necessary .The more often you will handle them ,the less likely they will mate.


Try small snakes occasionally and a baby mice twice per month ,not more .This will give your female extra proteins and calcium .More could be harmful as baby mice hold a lot of fat .I would also leave a small dish with powdered calcium in the cage ,or ground sepia crushed

They are my pets so i would like to handle them, thats the main reason for me getting them, and also i'm alittle confused about what you are saying to feed them, as for the other post I am feeding her Crested gecko diet, by T-Rex, at the moment, i could try those wax/phoenix worms ou were saying, but where would i get them?

 

[Royal-City-Reptiles]

Try small snakes occasionally

I personally have never heard of feeding small snakes to cresties... what kind of snakes are you talking about?

-Deb
Royal City Reptiles

 

[thorrshamri]

@ Buggygirl :here in Europe CGD is not often used ,we usually feed cresties live insects like brown or black crickets of the right size ,some silkworms too ,silkworms are a balanced and well-adapted diet for any insectivorous lizard .You can get silkworm eggs (which you have to manage to get hatched yourself and then feed with a special silkworm food )from specialized breeders or live silkworms from petshops which sell reptile food .Alongside with this basic insect diet ,we sometimes give baby mice (all cresties won't accept them though) ,and at least once a week ,fruit-based baby food ,peach ,banana and apricot are usually their favorites.

Waxworms are too fat and your geckos can become addicted to them and refuse to eat anything else ,so waxworms can be offered only once or twice per month .They can cause liver diseases if you feed your geckos too much with these prey.

I have never heard of Phoenix worms or butter worms ,so I can't help you on those.

To me ,feeding CGD makes not much sense if you only use this product .I doubt cresties find much CGD in the wild :biggrin: .It seems to me that you could provide the best artificial diet ever ,this will never be as good as live and natural food items .CGD doesn't exist for many years ,and we don't have any idea about long-term effects on the geckos health .I also think your geckos can get weary one day or another if they are only fed with this .Live crickets or other insects enable the cresties to hunt and spend a bit of energy ,which is obviously good for them .

As for snails ,only small snails will be accepted ,live snails of course .One has to be careful not to collect snails in an area where pesticides or other chemicals are employed .My females LOVE snails ,they'd kill for some lol. Snails are eaten with the shell ,which is an excellent and natural source of calcium .Snail species include Cepaea hortensis ,very young Helix pomatia and Helix aspersa .

Or maybe just French cresties love snails ,I dunno .:lol:

 

[Royal-City-Reptiles]

Oh SNAILS... you typed "snakes"
so I was rather confused by that. Lol

 

[thorrshamri]

Oops sorry ,blame the New Year's booze

 

[thorrshamri]

Though it is likely that wild cresties prey on a terrestrial New caledonian Typhlopidae snake ,especially the youngs ,Ramphotyphlops willeyi. Cresties are quite opportunists as regards their diet .

 

[Royal-City-Reptiles]

I've heard that in some areas of Caledoina... small children have been consumed by large packs of rabid ciliatus aswell...


Buggygirl65:
to your 1st question, If your female is underweight, there is absolutely no problem with feeding her every day. I feed my cresties every day, alternating with dusted crickets and my fruit mixture mixed with vitamins (I'll send you the recipe in PM) And alternating between pure calcium, calcium with D3, multi vitamins and a day with no vitamins. The key to putting healthy weight on your cresties is to gutload their live food well. And the yogourt in their fruit mixture also puts weight on

In regards to your tank, is it more vertical than horizontal? If it is at least 2 feet tall then you're good! I would say that you could fit from 1.1 to 1.3 in a 55 gallon. As long as there are a lot of vertical climbing surfaces and hiding spots (The silk or plastic plants from pet stores which suction onto the glass work perfectly for high hides), and lots of vertical and diagonal branches like maple, grapevine, willow, oak, birch, mopani, dragonwood, corkbark... etc (**avoid soft woods, such as pine, cedar... etc.**) They also enjoy live plants such as pothos, sansevieria(snake plant), monstera(swiss cheese plant), dracenia... etc.
I use paper towel as a substrate for my cresties, as I find it easiest to keep clean and also easiest for finding eggs ;-)

Make a lay box out of a large margarine container, a rubbermaid sandwich box, or similar... and cut a hole in the lid, big enough for your cresties to comfortable go through. make sure that the container is tall enough so that you can put approx. 3 inches of substrate as well as enough room in height for the crestie to move around and dig. I've found that the ideal substrate is moist coco-fibre... (moist enough so that when you squeeze a handful, it will loosely stay together, but is not at all *wet*)
Just as lessthantito says, begin checking the lay box about 3 weeks after putting the females in with the male, by gently digging through the substrate.

When I find eggs, I keep them in a sealed container with a small hole in the top for a tiny bit of airflow, in a room with the most constant temperature possible. I use pure vermiculite (moistened basically the same as the laying substrate) for the egg substrate. The eggs will hatch anywhere from 60 - 90 days, (70 - 75 being most common). Checking the moisture content of your substrate is important, you can check by weight how much water has evaporated, in order to know how much to replace. Just be sure not to get the eggs wet while doing this.
using a marker, i usually put a dot in the middle of the upright side of each egg, so that if the egg gets moved for what ever reason, i know how to re set it.

We may have over-answered your questions a little, but if you have anything else, feel free to ask!!

-Deb
Royal City Reptiles

 

[thorrshamri]

I have given up the "laying box" with cresties long ago ,as they lay eggs everywhere in the tank except in the box you made for them :lol:

They love to lay eggs in plant pots ,or anywhere the female finds it adequate for the eggs .Eggs which are not buried are usually not fertile.

As for snakes ,the species I am talking about grows not bigger than 12-16 inches as adults so it is not as stupid as it seems to think juvenile snakes may be eaten .Remember the works of Henkel & Schmidt ,in which there are records of baby rodents ,smaller geckos even from their own species and small nesting birds found in the stomach of these geckos .They are quite opportunists .

 

[Royal-City-Reptiles]

My cresties substrates are all paper towel... I have never had any problems with them laying their eggs on the paper towel when there is a lay box present.

I don't doubt that in the wild, cresties may try to anything small and moving, but the point I'm making is that they may lap at a bowl of chocolate pudding if you set it infront of them, but that doesnt make it a good thing.

Do you have pics of the cresties Buggygirl?