best starter gecko?

[Wind Dancer]

Hey, I have a question, and this seemed like one of the best forums to ask on, because there seems to be a large amount of people on here, not biased one way or the other on gecko species.
so my question is-which do you think is the best starter gecko, leopard or crested(or some thing else?). leos were my first gecko lovelol, but my friend had a crestie and those caught my fancy, i ignored that for a while, i thought their care was much harder than it is. my mom is not a herp girl, i've asked about a leo and she's not that trilled about the heat mat or live mealies. but she's willing to discuss the idea with me in a few months when things around our house settle down. i guess what i'm saying is, for those of you who have kept both(or been around both), which one do you think scores the highest on-
ease of keeping, ease of feeding, ease of handling and most interesting to watch?
I would really, really appreciate any one who's willing to take the time to answer. if i can ever get mom to let me get a gecko, i want to get it right:biggrin:

 

[acpart]

I'm primarily a leopard gecko breeder although I do have a crested gecko as well and each has its advantages and disadvantages to a new keeper. You just have to decide which set works best for you. In general though, without knowing about a person, I'd probably say a leopard gecko, primarily because they are easier to handle. Crested geckos are very jumpy. I can put my leopard gecko on the couch and watch it and just move it if it gets too close to a bad place, but the crested gecko will jump from place to place, so if being able to handle the gecko is important to you, go with a leo.

Theoretically crested geckos could be maintained only on the fruit diet, but my crestie sure loves his crickets and the juveniles, as I understand it, often eat more crickets than fruit.

The crested gecko environment has an advantage in not needing to be heated and once you set it up it can maintain itself, but you do have to mist it daily or so. The under tank heater is an issue with the leo tank and does require a rheostat or thermostat usually but the electricity is not very expensive, the UTH's are safe and overall I feel the leo enclosure has fewer "moving parts" than the crested gecko enclosure.

I hope this is helpful in your decision making. If your mom wants another mom-aged person to discuss this with, send me a PM and I'll let you have my email address.

Aliza

 

[PassPort]

leos are the way to go for ultimate basics

 

[fickle]

leos are fun easy but get expensive over time

cresties are fun easy and are expensive when ya puchase it

 

[PassPort]

I think Oedura are great starter geckos, but hard to find sometimes

 

[Wind Dancer]

I think Oedura are great starter geckos, but hard to find sometimes

yeah, price is a bit of an issue.......as i'm guessing hard to find = a tad expensive?
i actually have priced out leos and cresties and the start up, not counting the gecko is about the same. food for a month is $3 more for cresties.

 

[Knobtailman]

Hello, me personally, I would go for a Oedura. You don't have to go for a 400 dollar species. You could get a male Oedura monilis at roughly 50 dollars. By the way are you sure you did your math right? If we are talking about babies of each species, I'd say they would be equally priced as far as food goes. Also, as adults, I think the leos would be more pricey for food than Cresteds. Then, Cresties are totally handleable, when handling babies, I thought it was cool how it would jump from hand to hand. Why don't you just you by both or all three species?

 

[gbhil]

Depends. Really hot where you live? If so, you'll have to invest in something to cool down some geckos, while others will love it. Same goes for humidity.

In general, heat is very easy to provide, while cooling is more difficult.

High humidity is easy to provide, while lowering the humidity is more difficult.

Determine what conditions you can recreate easily, then find the species that matches them. For example, I have a hell of a time keeping conditions right for geckos from hot dry deserts, but I spend lots of money to do it. On the other hand, I could keep cresteds or other Rhac species in a rubbermaid and with nothing added temps and humidity requirements are just fine.

The easier it is to get your temps and moisture levels right for the gecko, the more you're going to enjoy this hobby.

 

[Wind Dancer]

By the way are you sure you did your math right? If we are talking about babies of each species, I'd say they would be equally priced as far as food goes. Also, as adults, I think the leos would be more pricey for food than Cresteds. Then, Cresties are totally handleable, when handling babies, I thought it was cool how it would jump from hand to hand. Why don't you just you by both or all three species?

i'm pretty sure i got it right.....$3 a month for leos, $6 for cresties.
yeah, i thought handling the cresties looked like fun. getting more than one is not going to be an option, firstly mom would totally not go for any more than one. and second of all....i'm running out of places in my room to put things:lol:
and i live in central florida, so humidity is no problem:roll:

 

[cliff_f]

Lepidodactylus lugubris would be a good starter gecko.

 

[phantom08]

Starter Gecko

I love my leopard Geckos so I am going to say start with one of them.
There is so many morphs out there to choose from my First leo was a High yellow male he was on his own for some time and he thrived.
Give him or her all there basic needs and you cannot go wrong.
Hope you find what you are looking for and good luck.

 

[Wind Dancer]

what about a gargoyle? i really like the racs, the more i see of them, the better i like them(cresties are my fave, gargs a close 2nd and saras come in 3. the others i'm not to crazy about). i'm just musing out loud here......

 

[makeitandskateit]

Lepidodactylus lugubris would be a good starter gecko.

Hi I'm new to this forum so some of the language is a little unfamiliar but can't we just use the common names? Very few people use the sientific names when speaking in a normal conversation:roll:

now I have to go and google it!!!

 

[Animal34343]

Hi I'm new to this forum so some of the language is a little unfamiliar but can't we just use the common names? Very few people use the sientific names when speaking in a normal conversation:roll:

now I have to go and google it!!!

The problem with that is several species can have the same common name and one common name can refer to several species. I use scientific names frequently when talking to people.​

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

I think Oedura castelnaui (northern velvet geckos) make excellent starter geckos!! Make sure you can get crickets for their meals.

E-mail me at: Elizabeth.B.Freer@gmail.com for habitat recs. Search GU for photos of these wonderful animals. They max out at 7 inches total. Adults range in weight from 15-30 grams. Although a bit jumpy at first, they calm down easily. Good gecko for holding.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Lepidodactylus lugubris = mourning gecko

Check in title line!

Hi I'm new to this forum so some of the language is a little unfamiliar but can't we just use the common names? Very few people use the sientific names when speaking in a normal conversation:roll:

now I have to go and google it!!!

 

[cliff_f]

Hi I'm new to this forum so some of the language is a little unfamiliar but can't we just use the common names? Very few people use the sientific names when speaking in a normal conversation:roll:

now I have to go and google it!!!

The people I hang out with uses the latin names, we don't use the common names. Maybe you should try and learn them, it really isn't that hard and a lot less confusion.

 

[sschind]

There are a lot of things to consider when deciding what is the best starter gecko. Certainly Cresteds and Leopards have to be at or near the top of the list for obvious reasons that many have pointed out. Also, what may be best for me might not be best for you. One factor that usually gets overlooked in threads such as this is a simple one, and a rather selfish one at that, which is perhaps the reason most people ignore it or don't even think about it. I think one of the most important factors in determining what is the best starter gecko is what do you want. Now I am not saying that just because you want it doesn't make it the best, but if it is an animal that you want you may be willing to go the extra step to make sure it is the best for you. If you settle for something you don't really want just because someone else talked you into it because it was a better "starter" gecko than the one you truly wanted the chance for neglect is much higher.

For example, I don't see day geckos on many "best Starter gecko" lists and the reasons may be obvious to some. They are flighty, impossible to handle, can crap the heck out of the glass walls of their cage, have more stringent temp and humidity needs etc etc. On the other hand, if someone really wants a Geico Gecko how happy will they be with a leopard gecko. If a big, bright green gecko is what you want all those other things might not matter.

As long as a person realizes that what they want may mean they will have to work a bit harder to keep it alive and they are willing and able to do what it takes the list of "best starter geckos" suddenly becomes much longer. There are many geckos out there that are very hardy and easy to keep as long as certain needs are met. If a person is willing to do these things and these geckos are really what they want wouldn't this make them a better choice than an "easier" gecko that he or she really does not want.

 

[Nickoli93]

I would say that leopard geckos are easiest and cheapest to buy and maintain. Adults only need 3-4 crickets every couple days.

And you can get some amazing morphs.
If you look around you can get them quite cheap, mine were only £50 a pair.

Not sure what that is in dollars :biggrin:

 

[geckoling]

I'd be interested in seeing the calculations for how much it costs to maintain a crested vs a leopard for a month...