Considering cresties

[Brent Strande]

Well, I think that I am finally caving in!

I have been strictly snakes (other than an iguana a long time ago - before I really knew anything about herps!) and have continually been checking out cresties and reading about them.

I am almost convinced on 3 or 4 from Alex Hue right now and had a couple more questions for you guys.

1. Until I can determine their sex I plan to house them in rubbermaids... once I can determine sex and set up a colony I will create a nice, larger setup for display as well. The question, what do you house your single cresties in when using rubbermaids? Size, ventilation, etc would be great to hear!

2. I plan on a diet consisting mostly of baby food and crested gecko diet. Will it be beneficial if I feed crickets once a week or once every couple weeks? I would like to do it on occasion, but not consistently as I don't have any desire to keep crickets on hand (the reason I havent added any lizards to the collection!!!) but rather pick them up as a treat every so often from the petshop. The question, is it beneficial or possibly even detrimental to only offer on occasion? Should it be all or nothing?

3. I plan on using cypress mulch eventually, but will originally keep them on papertowel or newspaper (in the rubbermaids) but will the cypress mulch be alright? Remember: I plan on a non-live diet mostly. If I do occasionally feed crickets, is it a bad idea to do so with cypress mulch in the terarrium?

I have a million more questions, but have been reading TONS of info online and getting most of them answered there! Thanks for any help or input, and if I seem to be missing or overlooking something, please feel more than welcome to let me know!

-Brent Strande

[Ptindy]

Hey Brent! Good choice. I recently got a male a couple days ago and he's been an awesome addition to my collection. I had a small collection of snakes (ball, carpet and corn) and was thinking about getting another carpet. Then I started reading about leopards and figured they were easy to keep and pretty cool. More reading led me to cresties which are easy to keep and cooler. Glad I picked him up. I'm looking forward to people answering your questions haha since I'm still on the fence for most of them myself. Take care.

Mike

[Bartman]

I picked up two from the show today and they are just awesome.

My buddy works with these and is breeding tons of them. He told me he barely ever uses crickets if any. The only thing he has noticed is that they grow slower. Im not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but he has bred and kept these for a while now.

Im planning on going only baby food and cresty diet, unless someone can tell me the reasons why it is not good to feed only that.

[CDN-Cresties]

1) It all depends on the size of the cresties. I keep any crestie under 12 grams in a large critter keeper, than I move them to a 21 Gallon Rubbermaid for their permanent enclosure. Then I drill some holes on the sides near the top but make sure they arent large enough for crickets to escape. Just make sure there is some height for these geckos because they are aboreal geckos.

2) Im a strong believer in feeding crix. If you use CGD then you shouldnt have to worry about any detrimental effects to the health of your geckos because it has every essential nutrient for your gecko. I usually feed mostly crix but I also throw in some CGD mixed with some babyfood. Cresties will definitely grow slower on a diet only consisting of CGD but im not sure if it stunts their overall growth. I would at least offer crix once a week, offer as many crix the gecko will eat in feeding.

3)I only use paper towel/newpaper so I cant really answer this question for you. It also doesn't mention cypress mulch in the rhac book but it does mention potting soil or coconut fiber. The only problem is that finding eggs might be a challenge.

Feel free to post more questions if you like :)

[Brent Strande]

I most likely will add crickets on occasion. As far as the number of crickets, any averages, I was thinking of picking up 2 dozen every week or so to feed to 4 cresties, that would be 6 ea... is that way too many or not even close to enough? I would guess that that would be more than enough, but can't really say forsure.

I have also heard that w/o proper ventilation, they can really start to stink, do you put TONS of holes in your rubbermaid or is the ventilation issue noted just to make sure that someone doesn't poke only 3-4 holes?

Thanks for the great replies!

[CDN-Cresties]

It all depends on age of the gecko and the individual. Baby and juvi cresties eat a ton, i cant even put a number on it. I feed my adults 5-6 crix per feeding but I also have a male that can eat 8.

I drill 20+ holes in my rubbermaids. Hope this helps. :D

[geckogirl]

I have a crestie but didn't want live crickets in my house so I feed canned crickets (Can o' Cricket brand) and she loves them. She will eat them from my fingers or tweezers or right from a dish. I just keep the can in the fridge and they last a few weeks. I also feed baby food and CGD. It seems to be working out well.

[CDN-Cresties]

Thats interesting, I never heard of cresties eating dead prey. How did you get your crestie to accept them?

[geckogirl]

The first one I just offered with tweezer and she attacked it. Then I left a couple in a dish and they were gone when I checked back. She must smell them cause when I drop one in she'll come out of the hide to eat it. I even dust them in CGD sometimes. She's crazy for them.