# newbie with a crested gecko



## thebigred (Jun 25, 2012)

Hey 

After a while of deciding I finally made up my mind on my first venture in reptiles and found a lovely crested gecko who was real cute and happily sat on the lad who worked in the shops hands before leaping onto his shoulder and sticking his tounge out - I fell for him! (The gecko that is )

So the setup I have is 

30x30x50 (Small but I will upgrade as he gets bigger, and maybe put an addition to the family in this viv)

3 X Fake plants (2 Ficus and a random one)

Water/Food bowls

Temp / Humidity Guage

Plantation soil and some bark chippings (the same the shop had been using, I checked)

An Exo vine thing

Moonlight lamp (25w)

Temp wise it's about 21-25oc throughout the day - it depends if the sun is coming through the window (no direct sunlight, I have a blind pointed down so it's more that it heats the room

At night it didn't go below 20.8

Humidity wise it's 80%

So I put it all together, left it to settle for a bit and got the humidity and temp up and then moved him in - he jumped instantly from the tub onto a leaf and hid for the rest of the day!

In the evening he came out and stood in his reptile jam and CGD I'd put down :2thumb: which was a good start....

Left him overnight, checked him in the morning and he was sort of half laying on a vine and half on a leaf with his tail kinda wraped around the vine? it looked like he had eyelids and they were closed :gasp: (tho I know they don't have them). So being a worrier and thinking that his first night in my care had ended in his death :lol2: I panicked and opened the viv and just slowly put my hand near him to see if he was still alive, well he was lol he got up (a bit slowly) and then jumped back into his original hiding place under a leaf.

He seems OK I guess, just very quiet - in the shop he was jumping around all over the place, tasting the air and jumped straight on the lads hand when he put it in! he won't even come out from under the leaf when I go near him, and earlier I went to the side to check on him and he looked at me and opened his mouth really wide then closed it :blush: I guessed that meant that he wanted me to go away and so I buggered off lol.

So I guess questions are:

1) How long do these little guys "usually" take to settle in? - Should I totally just go hands off, put food in spray and clean etc?

2) Does my setup look OK? - Temprature ranges seem to really vary depending on who you talk to! Some people say 20's is better, some say warmer? - Are the changes too big?

3) Should I move him away from the window he's opposite? Like I say I have venetien blinds so I angle the sun downward - i'd like to keep him in his current spot as I can easily keep an eye on him

4) Is there anything dodgy about how I found him this morning?

Btw his name is Mettle http://marvel.com/universe/Mettle_(Ken_Mack) one of my favourite Marvel characters :2thumb:

And I'm Big Red or Oli :2thumb:

Hoping you lot can teach me a thing or two about all this!


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## PaulioG (Nov 28, 2011)

Hello there! I hope you are finding your little crestie fun 

When I first got my crestie I was told to allow it about a week for it to settle in. After the week has past to tame them you will need to do give him the option to walk about on you. So hand-walking for example.

The set-up looks okay, for a young crestie I would use kitchen roll as substrate in order to reduce risk of impaction. Also the temperatures look fine as in most cases, room temperature should be fine for a crested gecko. As long as the temperature stays in between 21-26 degrees Celsius. Temperatures over 28 degrees Celsius can be dangerous for them, which brings me onto the next point about the position of your tank. Having the gecko's vivarium there should be okay as long as the temperature doesn't rise past 28 degrees. I would suggest keeping a digital thermometer in there at all times, and regularly checking temperatures just to assure the temperatures do not exceed the 28 degrees.

Also this behavior is normal as I find mine regularly finds itself in awkward sleeping positions!

Good luck


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## GECKO MICK (Jun 6, 2012)

*Cresties*

I keep my cresties in this size enclosure till they are around 5 months/15g ish,then i move them to there adult enclousure 45x45x60.I like to keep mine at a constant temperture of 24 in the day dropping to 20 at night they seem to thrive at this.I give them a good misting when its lights out and let this dry out through the following day before misting again.As substrate i use either kichen towel or some vinyl flooring.You didnt mention feeding live food either i offer mine both live food and repashy everyday,when they have this choice they thrive and grow much quicker than just on CGD alone.Also just give them 2-3 days to settle in before handling.Hope this helps cheers. :welcome:


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## thebigred (Jun 25, 2012)

Hey,

Thanks very much for the advice so far! He's been with me for little over a week now and I'm really concerned, but will raise a seperate post about that!

Ol.


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