# My difficult start to Crested Gecko keeping.



## joydivision (Feb 5, 2014)

Well, my start in repile care came only 9 months ago. I had always had a keen interest in snakes but never thought of actually keeping one. That all changed when I visited a pet store and asked to see one of their Creamsicle corns. As soon as the worm like snake came out, I was hooked.

It took a couple of months to persuade my good lady to let me have a pet that she was worried abut having in the house. I did two months of research and showed her why and how snakes make great pets. Nine months down the down line I have a happy and healthy young corn snake.

After upgrading his vivarium, the snake had a small viv left that I wanted to put to use. After getting away with owning one snake and for the sake of our relationship I didn't want to push for another :lol2:

I saw a Leopard Gecko on a visit to a store and started researching these wonderful lizards but every time I saw a Crested Gecko I was moving over to wanting to own one of these instead.

After loads of Crestie research I saw one for sale online on the Pets4homes site.

I made a call to the owner who informed me that his kids had lost interest in him and he was being sold with the complete set up.

After seeing the little guy, thought that he looked happy and healthy and only had some retained shed on his toes which I helped him with.

Three days in I was thinking he seemed a lot more lethargic than I expected. I had put in some eco earth in for him as he had been living on the bare glass bottom of the viv. I got him some repashy and calcium powder, plus a few waxworms. 

On day four my good lady called me upstairs to check on him as he seemed not right.

His mouth was full of eco earth and would not close. I cleaned his mouth out with a damp cotton bud and covered the eco earth with a sheet of repti carpet to stop him swallowing it.

I then took him the vets the next day as his mouth kept gaping and i'd read that this could be MBD.

The vet confirmed that this was indeed a bad case of MBD and prescribed Zolcal D and told me to get a light as my gecko had never had one and also was used with an unstated heat mat by the previous owners.

I have paid for the little fella's vets bill, new food, new lighting equipment and am more than willing to put in the care to aid my gecko but just wanted to start a blog to warn people about issues can arise when buying a crestie like I did. 

In all honesty, the money does not bother me, yes it could go on meals out, nights at the pub, clothes but that is all irrelevant as thsi gecko's life is now in the hands of someone who cares and is not afraid to ask and research what is needed. 

If it was not for a forum member on here I would have not known what MBD was. I posted a photo of my gecko and the forum member said that he may have MBD and this could have saved his life and will ensure he is getting the best treatment possible from now on.

I will post photos of my lad and blog about his treatment and progress and hope this goes to helping others out there. :2thumb:


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## pumpkinjack (Aug 17, 2014)

I absolutely hate people who buy any pet on a whim. I have two geckos now, one a leo and one a crestie and thoroughly know the needs of each. Why.....I researched!

I have one of each as I fell in love with geckos full stop, found a leo I wanted, but then because of the research I'd done knew I could also look after a crestie.

Simple, you are taking on a life, you look after it....rant over!

Makes me mad though that people can neglect animals this way...what are they like with humans?


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