Housing More Than 1 Crested Gecko

[mommagoose4]

So I have a boy crested gecko. I got him about 2 weeks ago. I want to get him some tank mates. I understand that it's not recommended to put more than 1 male in a tank. So females are my option. I realize with females breeding will occur & what not. This is something I am okay with & set up for. Though I have never breed geckos before. My boy isn't a year yet,

So I ask..
Would a trio be better than a pair? 2 girls - 1 boy - would this cause less aggression?
What is recommended?
They aren't old enough to breed yet but if I put them together will there be a problem?
I am new with crested geckos but I love them - their constant smile just makes me smile.
Any help would be great.

At the moment he is a 15 gallon TALL tank with automatic heating cycle & we are working on an automatic spritzer. I realize with full grown I will need to upgrade the tank but that is not a problem.

 

[jmrisnear]

I ended up in the same situation and i got 1 female about 3 weeks later and they haven't been aggressive at all. They just sit down on top of each other and sleep all day.

 

[mommagoose4]

Thank you so much for reply. I have wanted tank mates but was worried. But you reassured me that I can have a lovely terrarium, with my new found friend.

 

[LSeelt]

I currently house my two not yet juveniles together. I'm pretty sure one is male and one is female. Right now they just cuddle together.

However, I don't plan on keeping them housed together as juveniles and will separate them in the next couple of months. There are so many risks with housing them together, and you have to ensure that they have enough space too.

Geckos don't really "need" company, and I don't think one would get lonely on his own, BUT you could house them together right now since they sound really small. However, I would separate to prevent early mating. If a female crestie gets gecko "knocked up" when she is too small/young then it increases risks of complications.

Also, make sure you have a backup tank/enclosure in case they fight or harass each other or one of them gets sick or injured.

I firmly believe that each animal you own should have the ability to have it's own space. Even if it doesn't always use it.

 

[jmrisnear]

I fully agree with you I had a back up tank in case if there were any conflicts but it seems like they love each other and there has been no conflict for the 6 months I've had them

 

[mommagoose4]

perfect thank you I do plan on upgrading my 15 gallon tall to accommodate so the 15 will become my back up

 

[Aimless]

I personally think it's a big mistake to keep subadults together.

it takes an enormous amount of energy for a female reptile to produce healthy eggs and embryos. they will be physically sexually mature before she is really ready to handle this sort of metabolic burden. consider that an 11-year-old girl who is menstruating can get pregnant...but it's not good for her body and can also be bad for the baby.

your female gecko(s) needs to be devoting energy to healthy growth and to building her own bones, etc. rather than producing babies. if you wait until she is fully mature before pairing, your geckos and their babies will do better.

 

[brooksylc]

I had my adult pair together only briefly and they produced 8 eggs with only one going bad. This means going from 2 geckos to 9 in about 9months. This is something to really think about before. And breeding aged/in good health females still need to VW separated to recuperate as they also retain sperm.
I also have a female gecko who has gotten severe MBD from being over bred previous to me taking the breeding pair in. This means me hand feeding her daily.
These are just some of the things to consider for full grown breeding geckos.
I would focus your love of crested geckos into getting another set up started then finding your next crestie to fill in and enjoy them from separate tanks. Then in a couple years if you have interest in breeding you will have more experience and know the health of your breeding pair or trio.

 

[CrestieEquestrian]

I don't think you'll have a problem. I have a male and female together with no aggression. They just sleep together and climb around at night. Sometimes they are more vocal when they are together though, mine chatter to each other lol. A tip for introducing two new geckos is to take both of them out of the tank, rearrange all the plants and things, then put them in at the same time. That way the one that was there first doesn't become territorial. Hope this helps!

 

[mikew1234]

How large is your current gecko? What size tank do you intend to use?

It is better to keep a trio over a pair if possible, as the male will constantly attempt to breed. I have geckos which were in my mind too small to breed do so. I couldn't tell you an exact weight anymore as I have not worked with them in years. Both instances they were kept with each other for less than a week as a temporary situation. Both instances, the females did not fare well as breeders anymore. They gained size and weight much slower, and one had calcium issues for the remainder of it's life. One of only a handful of adult cresties I lost over the years.

You will get eggs, no matter what you feel is happening. Cresties are very prolific breeders. (crestieEquestrian, you should think of getting a lay box ready. The chattering is the male calling to mate, and the female calling back)

My friend recently got into crested geckos (5 months), which he had a good basic knowledge, but not the best advanced. He listened to my advice on purchasing a trio. I pulled one of the females out because she looked very robust. Within 3 days of me telling him she's got eggs in her, she laid. A week later, the female I did not check laid a clutch too. There will be 3-4 more clutches for each of them, putting him at around 16-20 eggs when all is said and done.

 

[cassicat4]

I don't think you'll have a problem. I have a male and female together with no aggression. They just sleep together and climb around at night. Sometimes they are more vocal when they are together though, mine chatter to each other lol. A tip for introducing two new geckos is to take both of them out of the tank, rearrange all the plants and things, then put them in at the same time. That way the one that was there first doesn't become territorial. Hope this helps!

This is advice I simply don't agree with. You don't know that the OP won't have a problem. It's very presumptuous, as there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, to say that because it works for you and your geckos that it will work for someone else. There are so many factors and variables that can affect their behavior towards one another - size of enclosure, number of hides/hiding places, size of geckos, sex of geckos, personalities and temperaments of the geckos, potential husbandry issues, type and source of food and water provided, etc. etc. etc.

There are also many instances of geckos that have been housed together without issues for months or years to suddenly turn on each other, and you wake up one day with one hiding tailless and wounded in the corner, and the other displaying active signs of aggression. This is always a risk when housing two geckos together, and for anyone who plans to do so, it's imperative you have done your research in advance so you know the signs to watch for that will indicate the geckos need to be separated immediately.

Personally, I would never house two geckos together except for breeding purposes, and it would only be temporarily. The inherent risks are not worth it. However, there are those who do house their geckos together successfully. While I won't advise the OP as to what to do, I do feel it's important they are aware of the risks involved so they can make an informed choice. Others have mentioned some of these risks as well, and they are not as uncommon as some people would have you believe.

 

[cricket4u]

and they are not as uncommon as some people would have you believe.

Not uncommon at all. Some people just keep quiet about the incidents out of shame.;-)

 

[WildWildMidwest]

This is really a great discussion, and relevant to our home situation. We have two juvenile crested geckos, Ziggy and Manila, neither definitely sexed. I believe Manila is probably female, though at 20 grams this is far from certain. Ziggy is 8 grams. After four weeks separate quarantine, I built a screen separator and put Ziggy on the right and Manila on the left side of the screen in a 20 gallon long terrarium. Everything was fine until the second day, when I found Ziggy on the left size and Manila on the right. As tight as the separator is to the glass, the geckos figured how to push up the top screen up and slither over the divider. So far, nobody lost a tail or shows any sign of aggression, but I learned my lesson that a tank divider does not make effective contraception.

I like the simplicity of a single tank with single humidity and temperature controls. Perhaps I'll try putting Ziggy's old 5 gallon terrarium inside Manila's 20 gallon tank. That should keep them apart while maintaining proper temperature and humidity levels. Maybe the geckos won't be able to slither over the divider when they are bigger, but I doubt I will ever have 100% certainty except using glass to keep them apart.

 

[mikew1234]

I do not necessarily agree with you cass on the thought that geckos can not be left together at all times. I do it with many species. Though I like to do 1:2 or 1:3 if possible. I of course have extra room god forbid the pairing does not go well. Cricket, if anyone says they never had a bad experience, they're lying. Geckos are choosier than say ball pythons. It's just rare for it to happen with most species.

Finally, midwest, at 20 grams, it should not be too hard to sex a crestie. Also, although your effort was a decent one, keep them in two separate enclosures for a while. Don't place the one's tank within the other etc. It would be safer for your geckos, and less of a hassle for you in terms of maintenance. You could even get away with retiring the 20 gallon for the time being, and use two 10 gallons, or the 10 and 5 gallon. You can also look into the screen enclosures which are sold with pull down dividers. Usually run pretty cheap.

 

[WildWildMidwest]

Mike, I don't know what you have in mind for "screen enclosures which are sold with pull down dividers." I searched the web for screen dividers before deciding to build my own out of a bent coathanger fitted to the zig-zags of our terrarium, brazing the coathanger ends to form a loop around which I hot-glued metal screen. I can probably achieve a tighter fit against the top screen by hot-gluing a weather stripping brush to the divider like what you find on a screen door sweep.

It's not critical to keep our geckos 100% separate yet as Ziggy is nowhere near sexual maturity. Eventually we will want truly reliable separation. For now a removable separator gives us flexibility in how we divide our tank to suit the changing needs of geckos and their furnishings. Manila is fussy about how she wants roaches presented to her, whereas Ziggy doesn't care. A movable divider lets us experiment with different strategies for roach presentation. The terrarium has separate plants and suction cup ledges forming two distinct territories.

 

[mikew1234]

I'm just nervous of that size difference. The enclosures which I described are sold at a local show. I know he has a site, but i can't find his business card. They're screen enclosures with a thin plastic divider that is held in place by a track on all sides. It looks like penn plax also makes one for glass enclosures. Though I have never used it.

 

[WildWildMidwest]

I looked at the Penn Plax dividers before building my own. They all suffer the same design problem as mine, namely the ability of geckos to slither over the top. Mine is a tighter fit than the Penn Plax, but obviously not tight enough to prevent conjugal visits.

 

[mikew1234]

Yea.. I've never used them, just suggested you look into it. I still stand with my thought of keeping them in two different enclosures all together. I used to get real nice babies for 15 a piece at petco when a bigger tank mate chomped on it's tail. They don't like to keep frog butt cresties obviously.

 

[Aimless]

it would probably be good to ensure they can't see each other, too. sometimes that's not enough.

I keep my male crested in a viv next to my young Tokay (until she gets her upgrade, which I'm planting up today). within a few minutes of placing them next to each other, my crestie got all upset, barked, and was very agitated against the glass next to the adjacent gecko. I put up an opaque divider between them. he still knew she was there and was acting very agitated. I ended up moving him to another part of the shelf to keep him from getting stressed.

 

[WildWildMidwest]

It's the opposite situation with our geckos. Manila was too passive / shy to the point of seldom eating. Once she caught sight of Ziggy she began perking up, exploring her surroundings and eating more regularly. She takes inch long dubia nymphs every third to fourth day and CGD nightly. I find her poops and urine every day now. Cohabitation seems to be the cure for her listlessness, and a divider provides some security for Ziggy while providing stimulation for Manila.

Perhaps we will move Ziggy to a separate tank in a few weeks. I wonder if Manila will revert to passivity afterward.