# Sudden death of my Crested Gecko



## lightning75 (Mar 24, 2017)

First of all, hello everyone. As a newbie to Crested Geckos , but not tropical pets, I thought I would ask you all for your thoughts to the sudden death of my Crested Gecko, which I have only owned for 2 weeks. 

I will post pictures of the set up of his tank, and the readings on the temperature, and humidity once i upload them from my camera, and whn i figure out how to post them.... 

He seemed fine last night, misted his tank like normal ( which I did every evening ) and he seemed fine this morning when I left for work,although his was on the floor of his tank , and he is usually hanging out in his foliage and not at floor level..

However when I got home I found him at the bottom of his tank dead. He appears to have some of the substrate round his mouth. I am guessing he tried to eat some and choked ?? What ever the reason, I am gutted .......

Is this a common problem ? Anyone else had this experience ?


----------



## Debbie1962 (Dec 5, 2008)

What were your temps? I know cresties don't like it too warm. And sorry for your loss.


----------



## lightning75 (Mar 24, 2017)

Here are the temperature and humidity readings


----------



## lightning75 (Mar 24, 2017)

This was the setup


----------



## vgorst (Sep 27, 2011)

You're unlikely to find out the cause of death without a post mortem. It could be anything from temperature extremes (although cresties can tolerate more than you think), disease, contaminants, starvation, dehydration and parasites. Although you can't say for sure, at 2 weeks it's less likely something you did. 

If you're thinking of getting another, make sure you disinfect the tank and decor first in case of disease. Honestly I would also look at improving the tank (digital thermometer/hygrometer, more decor, heat, UV etc) and changing the diet as the jelly pots are not a good diet for them.


----------



## lightning75 (Mar 24, 2017)

Thanks for your reply, yes I have cleaned the tank and bits inside , and am using paper towels currently instead of the substrate I used before. The new Crested Gecko seems much more energetic and active compared to the previous one. I've added a few more bits to the environment too.. thanks again for your reply and advice


----------



## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

lightning75 said:


> Thanks for your reply, yes I have cleaned the tank and bits inside , and am using paper towels currently instead of the substrate I used before. The new Crested Gecko seems much more energetic and active compared to the previous one. I've added a few more bits to the environment too.. thanks again for your reply and advice


Use the original substrate again- they aren't found on paper towel in the wild, nor does their natural substrate kill them. Yours might want to climb down & dig, & it can't with paper towel.


----------



## Sky7ine (Jan 30, 2012)

How are you keeping the geckos and whats your temps and humidity through the day? the reason i ask is that lately people are keeping geckos at a constant high humidity and that is not good for them as it leads to lesions and bacterial infections but as commented without a pm is impossible to tell.

Looking at your enclosure you need to make some changes, give the gecko plenty of horizontal perches with cover so it gives the gecko somewhere to perch and this helps reduce the risk of FTS (floppy tail syndrome) and please dump that jelly pot, its one of the worst things you can feed to a gecko, you want a cgd like pangea or repashy which you can get from geckodiet.co.uk and offer live food twice a week, and if using substrate you want a drainage layer underneath as well to stop it getting boggy and stagnating.

i'd recommend having a read of this caresheet as well http://howtocrestie2.weebly.com/careguide-101.html


----------

