Creastie tips

[Monza geckos]

Hey I have just started with my male Dalmatian tailess adult creastie and was wondering if anyone knew some good tips and tricks of the trade like what to do in the case of a bad shed or what fruit they can eat a healthy weight etc

[Truffs1178]

Did you do a full clean out of the tank before putting him in it? That baby frag could have had a disease and that may be why it died. It may not have but you should keep close eye on the new gecko I case it picks anything up.

[Monza geckos]

Yer I cleaned out the tank

[COOCOpUcHoo]

I always wondered why people sell tailless animals. Did they intentionally take it off, are they defects, is it the ones hurt by accident?

[Lija]

I always wondered why people sell tailless animals. Did they intentionally take it off, are they defects, is it the ones hurt by accident?

there is absolutely nothing wrong with tailless gecko, in a wild none of them have tails and in fact some with tails develop issues like floppy tail syndrome(FTS) in captivity.

it is natural process for all geckos to drop their tails when somebody is trying to catch it ( or gecko thinks this way), it is always better to loose tails then ones life sometimes they drop their tail with no apparent reason, however i personally think it is very much related to the amount of stress a gecko experiences, such as keeping geckos in groups, especially babies, in small tanks with not enough foliage. most geckos are able to regrow tails, but not crested geckos.
sometimes when FTS is becoming an issue people might opt out to help a gecko to drop its tail, it is still a debatable topic and idea is going around that genetics might play certain role in developing FTS and none of the breeders, that i know of, won't risk and use such a gecko for breeding.

congrats on getting a crestie, it looks a bit skinny though from that angle, what is his age/weight?

feel free to ask questions, there are quite a bit of us who know cresties too

[Truffs1178]

What do you mean by no wild cresteds have tails?

[Lija]

they drop them real soon after hatching, try to live in a real world

[Truffs1178]

Why do they do that? It seems pointless to just drop their tail for no reason if it may come in handy later. Also what do you mean by try to live in a real world?

[Lija]

Also what do you mean by try to live in a real world?

in a big real world full of scary noises, shadows, movements and predators, where everyone wants to eat you. A lot of them are being eaten by somebody either way. that world is nothing like nice quiet little tanks where food is coming like a clock, lots of hiding places and nobody would ever dream of eating you with the exception of my cats probably.... and leachie.... and frogs, and skink probably too... gosh... at least they have no clue about it lol

[Helios]

Hi Monza,

I keep a Crested, and while I don't have years of experience yet I think I can give you some pointers. Oh but first: In terms of the tail quesitons: Like Lija's saying, they just are prone to dropping their tails easily like many lizards. They happen to be one species that doesn't regenerate a shed tail. In the wild most specimens observed are without tails due to the state of their habit--like Lija said haha.

As far as food/frust: Do you have Rephashy Crested Gecko Diet available in the UK? In the past I know people have said it's hard to come by, not sure if that's still the case. That is considered the staple diet for cresteds as it meets their calcium/phosphorous needs. If you want to feed fruit, Papya rates as being the healthiest... I searched and found one of the lists I'd mentioned before editing this: From what I've read, it's not recommended you stick only to fruit. When you offer it, if you puree it that tends to be better than whole--unless it's over ripe.Crested Gecko Fruits High in Calcium | moonvalleyreptiles.com that is a pretty good breakdown as far as fruit goes. Honestly I'd stick with the papya and figs instead of going beyond that.
You can feed crickets. If you do, make sure to dust them every other feeding or so and don't rely on them as the staple diet. I haven't had to deal with any poor sheds. If you humidity stays between 50% and 60% in the day and 70% to 80% at night you shouldn't have any trouble with that.

[Monza geckos]

Thanks and yes we do have repashy in the uk but I use komodo diet it's proven to add more nutrition and a more naturalistic diet

[Lija]

I don't feed naturalistic diet, don't know much about Komodo diet, it is not available here. It is hard to provide proper nutrition feeding mashed fruits, etc.
I feed m/w/fr repashy or any other compete diet, Sundays is a dusted cricket day. Each gecko has it's own preference for flavour, say none of mine like fig or papaya, leachie is dying for it, most like mango, some peach.. And if I add to repashy some of pangea fruit mix every single bowl is gonna be empty, going to try their complete diet next.

Some geckos don't care and would eat anything, have one of those too.

[Monza geckos]

Mine adores the jelly and komodo cgd and he ate blueberries mashed up with a lil calcium and multi vit and he is so aggressive if you give him a cricket nearly took my fingers off lol I've called him Darwin and found out he's only 8months so he's not skinny and is about 4 1/2 inches thanks all and I know all about their tails that's one of the reason I didn't care much about his frog bottom

[Truffs1178]

Thanks and yes we do have repashy in the uk but I use komodo diet it's proven to add more nutrition and a more naturalistic diet

Do you have any evidence to support this?

[poison]

When people first started captive keeping cresties it was said that they had no tails until they started being produced in captivity.

Just thought Id say that. One of the few things I know about geckos

[Monza geckos]

They were also thought to be extinct until the 90's when they were found by a expedition team after a hurricane or a storm i can't quite remember but they were all yellow and all without tails and then their cousins were found along side: leachieanous, rough snouted, gargoyle and finally sarisons. i only own a crestie but i had a baby garg for one night his cause of death still unknown but he was sooo cute i was devastated. future geckos im keeping and breeding: leopard,helmeted,tokay,all rhactdodaclyus,mossy,satanic and fish scaled. also some other reps i hope to keep:jacksons chameleons, anoles,lacerta's,common english lizards, king snakes, bosc monitor, blue nose tegu, skinks: croc,berbers, pink and blue tongues. and various amphibians definatley a bull frog and cane toad. and various inverts some t's scorpions and beetles.

[reptitat]

Incase of a bad shed, I place mine in a plastic box, such as a cricket box with a warm, wet towel. I leave it in there for about a day. This really helps when the Crestie is having trouble with shedding.

[SweetApples]

I have two cresties and I'm hoping they get to keep their tails. I've set up a 40 gal terrarium for when they get larger, but for now they live in separate critter keepers in the bathroom. Crossing fingers they are both girls.