Care Sheet

Common Name: Crested Gecko
Latin name: Correlophus ciliatus
Region: Oceania
Sub Region: Melanesia

A mostly arboreal species of gecko found in southern new Caledonia, this species of gecko is highly suited to climbing with a prehensile tail and toes that are covered in small hairs called setae, the crested gecko jumps extremely well too and is a crepuscular gecko(active during dusk and dawn) feeding on a variety of fruit and insects.

This gecko is one of the easiest to keep in captivity as there care is fairly simple please use the guide below to help you understand their basic needs, but please read as many care sheets as you can so you get a very good understanding if the crested gecko is the pet for your home.

Setting up your Gecko

Housing:

Housing is your first consideration, and we recommend the following for a single gecko. Hatchling to juvenile in a tall terrarium up to 20x20x30, juvenile to adult in a tall terrarium up to 30x30x45 finally adult in a tall terrarium up to 45x45x60 the only thing we will mention here is that smaller geckos may find it harder to find food in a larger enclosure.

Substrate:

We advise paper towels for young geckos as it’s easy to replace and almost impossible for them to ingest, you can continue to use paper towels for adults too. If you want to go for a more naturalistic look then a coconut fibre soil-based substrate is a great choice not only does it look good but also keeps humidity levels high reducing the amount of spraying needed. We advise using leaf litter and moss over the top to help reduce ingestion of the soil when the geckos are hunting their live food. Some of the substrates that should be avoided are sand, wood chips and walnut husks, reptile carpets, animal litter etc.

Habitat:

There should be plenty of available cover in you geckos enclosure as they need visual barriers to feel safe, there are plenty of options from live plants to plastic and we work on the basis of minimum 40% of the terrarium is covered. There should also be plenty of climbing branches/vines to help with enrichment for your gecko. We also add a cork tube to all our enclosures which gives our geckos a safe hiding place that is totally enclosed.

Heating and Lighting:

The Crested Geckos natural environment is warm with a varied humidity, Caledonia temperatures range from 19-30°c depending on the time of year and time of day with a relative humidity level of around 70% for the year. We keep our geckos at around 24°c and an average of 70% humidity during the day dropping to 22°c and 85% humidity at night during the summer months. We allow a natural fall in temperatures through the colder months making sure the temp doesn't go below 18°c with humidity levels staying the same.

We control our temps in the gecko room and not the individual terrariums but if you need to use any form of heating then do so with an appropriate thermostat and heat source.

UVB is not absolutely necessary for a crested gecko but would be an added bonus as they have been know to bask in the wild, it will also help aid digestion. A 6% T5 UVB light would be sufficient.

Humidity can be controlled via spraying your terrariums at certain points in the day, with geckos kept on paper towel we would recommend a light misting in the morning with a heavier misting in the evening and geckos kept in naturalistic set ups that misting would be reduced to once in the evening as the sun starts to set.
A must is a digital thermo/humidity gauge this will enable you to dial in you temps and humidity as close to their natural environment.

Dietary Requirements

Water:

Crested geckos will happily drink from water sitting on leaves or on the sides of glass terrariums so spraying your geckos will help give them options for water, but you must provide a water dish with clean fresh water everyday as geckos will readily drink from a bowl, in fact most of our collection do. Crested geckos live in a naturally very humid part of world an is thus more important for the hydration.

Food:

Your gecko will need a mixture of pre prepared food and live insects, Crested geckos are omnivorous but also considered frugivorous so will readily eat fallen fruit and insects in the wild.

There are many pre prepared foods on the market with the main brands such as Pangea, Repashy providing the correct nutrients for you gecko. We tend to feed this 2-3 times a week.

When feeding insects please make sure they are gut loaded and dusted in calcium and vitamins with added D3. We feed our collection 1-2 times per week.

Don't be alarmed if your gecko won’t eat feeder insects as we have one in our collection that refuses consistently but she’s a healthy happy gecko none the less.

Handling

Getting Started:

Crested geckos are a species that are easy to handle but I’m not sure they actually enjoy it, if you get a hatchling then your journey with handling will likely be harder but don’t be put off by their initial skittish behaviour. Crested geckos like to jump a lot so be prepared; we tend to start handling them all low down to the ground so if they do jump off your hands they do not fall to far. They can be quick as hatchlings but slow down as they get older.

When you first bring your new Crested gecko home, we advise putting him/her into the ready setup terrarium right away and leaving him/her be for at least the first 7 days. Your new gecko will need to get acclimatised to its new surroundings and home. Handling can begin once you are through this initial period.

First Session:

Picking up a crested gecko is best done but using two fingers under the chin they will instinctively either climb on to your fingers or walk backwards pop your other hand behind them so they can only go forwards.

A tip for making your life easier would be to handle them during the day as they tend be more lethargic during their sleeping hours.

Start with handling sessions every 2-3 days for around 10 minutes for each session that should give you a rough idea if your gecko is coping ok with the handling.

Please never grab at your gecko by the tail as their natural defence is to drop them.

Subsequent Sessions:

You can now start to increase the duration and sessions as your gecko begins to get more comfortable with handling

Heavy breathing is a good indicator to stress levels so keep an eye out for the mid body moving in and out faster than usual. This is a good time to put them back and try again in a few days.

Tail Dropping

Crested geckos use the dropping of their tail as defence mechanism to predation, it’s very common and can be caused by a range of things, like grabbing your gecko by the tail, loud bangs in close proximity to the terrarium etc. That said your crested gecko will live fine without its tail with no ill effects, for most it is just the aesthetic look of the gecko.

When considering getting a Crested gecko please be aware that you will be responsible for looking after an animal that could potentially live for 20+ years so if you're not ready for that commitment please re consider your choice of pet.

We hope you found this helpful and we hope you enjoy your new Crested Gecko as much as we do ours.