Overview

Crested geckos (Correlophus ciliatus) are small arboreal lizards native to southern New Caledonia, a chain of islands east of Australia. They are extremely common in the pet trade due to being extremely easy to keep and breed, yet despite their high numbers in captivity, they were thought to be completely extinct in the wild until they were rediscovered in 1994 following a tropical storm. Crested geckos can be extremely docile and their care is fairly simple and straightforward, making them one of the best beginner lizards for new reptile owners. They stay relatively small, reaching adult sizes of 7-9 inches including their tail, weighing in around 35-55 grams, and living 15-20 years in captivity. Unfortunately they can drop their tails if frightened or trapped and will become “frog butts” as they do not regenerate their tails; luckily this does not seem to affect them in any way besides visually.

Crested geckos come in many different colors and patterns ranging from nearly white to nearly black, as well as many shades of creams and reds. They can be a solid color, or be heavily mottled, striped, or spotted. In the wild, crested geckos are a yellowish brown color with little to no pattern and are rarely seen with their tails past juvenile age. Wild specimens have also been observed to have a maroon colored spot on their side. 

Your New Gecko:

Upon bringing home any animal you should have a quarantine set up; a basic setup that is easy to clean and sterilize that is kept away from current animals in the home to avoid bringing in potential disease. Paper towels are a good substrate for a quarantine set up so you can quickly see any abnormalities in feces and urate. Plastic plants, hide boxes, and water/food dishes are ideal as they are easy to clean, cheap, and can be disposed of after quarantine is over or thoroughly sanitized. Ideally you will quarantine an animal in separate rooms/areas of your home for at least 30 days after bringing them home, 60 days is more ideal, and 90 days is optimal. Typically any ailments will arise in the first couple of weeks of having your new pet home, but some can take longer to present themselves. Since this setup is temporary, many keepers opt to use bin setups for quarantine and move the animal to their enclosure once they are sure they are healthy. A 6 quart tub (shoe box size) or a medium/large critter keeper are an ideal size for a quarantine for a baby/young crested gecko, larger tubs (such as a 27qt) for larger geckos. This ensures the gecko will have a greater chance of finding his food and starting to eat for you. Your gecko may take several days up to a week to become comfortable enough to eat once being put into a new enclosure, this is normal.

Housing:

Baby crested geckos can be very tiny and some may have more trouble than others finding their food. A medium critter keeper or 6 qt tub with added ventilation screen and holes are both ideal for hatchling crested geckos to increase the chance of them finding their food and growing at an optimal rate. A ten gallon tank flipped so it stands tall, a 12” x 12” x 18” terrarium, or similarly sized tub is ideal for a young gecko (10+ grams) after quarantine. Observe your gecko and ensure they are eating their food in their enclosure. Keep an eye out for defecation, if they are pooping regularly, that is a good sign they are eating. If they are not eating, you can temporarily put them in a smaller enclosure like a medium or large sized critter keeper or plastic shoebox sized tub so they can learn to find their food more adequately. Adult crested geckos should be kept in no smaller than a 12” x 12” x 18” enclosure, but ideally in a 20 gallon long tank flipped so it stands tall or an 18” x 18” x 24” terrarium. Some individual animals may not do well in larger sized enclosures, though most tend to adjust well after a few weeks. Crested geckos are solitary and should not be housed with other crested geckos unless they are being bred. Experienced keepers and breeders may house female geckos together, but there is no benefit to the animal so we advise against cohabitation to avoid unnecessary stress.  If they are housed with other geckos they can become aggressive with each other or stressed, which can lead to injury, decreased quality of life, or even death in some cases. Crested geckos should never be cohabitated with any other species.

Enrichment: 

Crested geckos require lots of vertical coverage and climbing areas to thrive. Being a mostly arboreal species, they will benefit more from things towards the top ⅔ of their enclosure more than they will from enrichment in the lower ⅓. Suction cup plants can be used to provide coverage and security on the sides of the enclosure and serve as a place for your gecko to retreat and rest. Sticks, wood, and cork rounds are great climbing options for your gecko and should be large enough for your gecko’s body to climb efficiently and rest comfortably on them. If you are using sticks from the outdoors, make sure they are cleaned and sanitized before adding them to your gecko’s enclosure to avoid bringing pests into your geckos enclosure. If you choose to do a bioactive enclosure for your gecko (self-sustaining ecosystem containing a cleanup crew to break down waste and live plant matter) then live plants will likely be the main source of enrichment for your gecko. Plants that are tall with sturdy leaves are perfect climbing and resting places for a crested gecko. Snake plants are a favorite of our geckos for climbing, and dracena “Janet Craig” is the best plant I’ve found for resting places for crested geckos. Organic all-natural potting soil mixed with play sand is a good choice for a substrate, you can also use commercially bioactive blends. I do not recommend coconut fiber/EcoEarth as it tends to be extremely dusty if not kept saturated and can become rather acidic as it breaks down over time and make the environment less than ideal for your plants and clean up crew. You can also simply use paper towel as a substrate if you prefer. We use paper towel for our growout geckos (>25 grams) and a mixture of organic top soil, play sand, and peat moss for our adult’s bioactive setups.

Temperature, Lighting, and Humidity:

Part of the reason crested geckos are so easy is because they do not require a heat source to survive. Crested geckos do well at temperatures between 72-78ºF, they can tolerate higher temperatures into the low 80’s for short periods of time but temperatures should not exceed 85ºF for any period of time. The temperature can comfortably drop to the mid-upper 60’s at night. Unless your temperatures are consistently below 72ºF your gecko will not need a heat source. If you do find that you need to add supplemental heat, a low watt ceramic heat emitter will be the best choice as it can be kept on 24/7 and does not give off light that will disturb your gecko’s sleep cycle. If you are only looking to raise the temperature a few degrees, we recommend using an LED or UVB light on the top of the enclosure, which will naturally bring the temperature at the top of the enclosure up a few degrees without having to add a heat source. Avoid using red heat bulbs, as your gecko can still see the light given off and it will disturb their sleep cycle. Any time you use a heat source it should be hooked to a thermostat to ensure the temperatures do not get too hot inside the enclosure. When used correctly, the thermostat can be a lifesaving tool to keep your reptile safe and at ideal temperatures. Never use an unregulated heat source.

Humidity levels should be kept around 60-70%. You can achieve ideal humidity levels by misting the enclosure or using a fogger/misting system. We typically do a large misting at night to raise the humidity to 90+% and then allow a dip in humidity during the day to around 50% before misting again the following night. Keeping your gecko too saturated or too dry can both lead to shedding issues therefore the humidity spike and dry out period are important for geckos to properly shed. You can monitor the humidity and ambient temperature using a digital probe combo thermometer/hygrometer. Analog thermometers/hygrometers are often inaccurate and should be avoided. If you are having a difficult time maintaining humidity levels, you can cover the screen top with tin foil, seran wrap, or a piece of cut plexiglass to help keep humidity inside of the enclosure. Enclosures kept too wet can lead to mold, shedding problems, and fungal issues. Enclosures kept too dry can lead to shedding issues and dehydration. Crested geckos do not require UVB lighting to survive, however some will enjoy coming out and basking in the UVB. Read the recommended UVB distance on the bulb you are looking into, and remember that UVB will not travel through glass or acrylic and is less powerful if being mounted on the outside and shining through wire mesh. Arcadia Shade Dweller UVB bulbs are what we use for our crested geckos. Although crested geckos do not require UVB, they should be given a day/night light cycle, even if it is just light coming in through a window or an artificially lit room. 

Diet:

In the wild, crested geckos feed on insects, small invertebrates (nestling birds and even their own young), pollen, soft seeds, and soft rotting fruits such as figs. In captivity, their diet is quite similar. However instead of rotting fruit, they eat a fruit powder mix rehydrated with water. Several complete crested gecko diets are commercially available, but Pangea and Repashy seem to be two abundantly available favorites. Crested geckos also eat a variety of small insects- crickets and dubia roaches make great staples; wax worms, black soldier fly larvae, and small hornworms can be offered as a treat. Insects should be gutloaded for a minimum of 24-48 hours before offering them to your gecko. Gut Loading ensures the insects you are feeding them are as nutritious as possible. Super Load by Repashy is the gut loading formula we use and recommend, as well as fresh leafy vegetables. Insects should be dusted with a high quality calcium and vitamin supplement. If your gecko is given UVB, you do not need to use calcium with D3 when feeding insects. If your gecko is not given UVB, your calcium should contain D3. Repashy Calcium Plus and Arcadia Earth Pro A are our go to calcium dusting supplements. Pangea complete crested gecko diet, Repashy gecko diet, and Repashy Calcium plus can be found on our website (celestialexotics.net) for same day free shipping in the USA and minimum prices.

Baby crested geckos should have food available at all times, replace the powered food every day - every other day. Some geckos will prefer food on the second day so we prefer to leave the diet in for 2 days before changing. Live insects should be offered 1-2 times a week and dusted with a calcium powder. Some young crested geckos may refuse to eat powder diets, adding a bit of powdered bee pollen on top of the food can act as an appetite stimulant. Rubbing a bit of the food on the tip of their nose or offering it to them on a popsicle stick/spoon may entice them to try the food but try to avoid hand feeding unless necessary as they can become very dependant on you to feed them and refuse eating from a dish. If your gecko is refusing crested gecko diet, do not offer insects, baby food, or any other sort of treat. The vitamins and minerals that make up the crested gecko diet are essential for proper growth and nutrition, which is vitally important, especially for young growing geckos. Continue to offer powdered food mix at all times even if you do not think they are eating it. Oftentimes they will eat when you are not looking and it can seem like they never touched it. Only adding a small bit to the bowl so you can see lick marks is a good way to tell if they are eating their food. Young crested geckos will come around to eating the powder food mix if you are persistent in offering it to them. If you are seeing poop they are eating! If you are having issues with your gecko eating, check the “Gecko Troubleshooting” page for more information. 

Adult crested geckos should be fed 2-3 times per week. Provided your gecko is not overweight, you can continue to have powder mix be available at all times and offer insects 1-2 times per week. For our geckos we follow a feed, sit, starve schedule for crested gecko diet. Feed day one, let sit out day two, and remove day 3. We will also feed insects in addition to our 3 day complete diet feeding schedule on the third day.

Crested geckos drink water from licking droplets, thus misting their enclosure is usually the best way to offer your gecko water while also increasing the humidity. It is also recommended that you keep a small water dish available at all times for your gecko as crested geckos are known to use a water dish. 

We start our geckos on Pangea crested gecko diet and we rotate/mix flavors every feeding. All of our geckos are reliably eating meal replacement diets before they are sold.

Sexing:

When a gecko is around 9 grams, or typically 7-12 months old, they can be sexed. Males will form a hemipenal bulge at the base of their tail and small waxy, overlapping scales with visible pores along their inner legs that are often apparent before a bulge is present. Pores are usually the first way you can sex a gecko. Females will not have these waxy pores or a bulge. Females possess “pseudo pores” which are rounder scales with slight indents, but they are not waxy or overlapping like male geckos. A loupe is the best way to sex small geckos, but pore sexing is not always 100% accurate and geckos thought to be females have been known to drop “cresticles” at 25-30 grams in some cases.