Crested Geckos - great pet for the disabled

A few weekends ago at the Austin Reptile Expo, I had the opportunity to meet a really neat woman who breeds and sells Crested Geckos. Since I have lizards as pets and have written before about how great they are as pets for disabled folks, I thought I'd write about the Crested Gecko in particular.

The woman I speak of is Kati of Kati's Crested's. She's here in Austin, TX.

I had never held a crested gecko before this Expo, but I had seen them in a tank at a local reptile store. They are very kewl lizards! Soft to the touch, almost like suede. The one I held jumped from one hand to the other and held on with it's prehensile tail!

The crested gecko originates from New Caledonia (an island east of Australia). Adults range from 6-9" in total length. In the wild, they are nocturnal, arboreal animals living in the forests. Most wild specimens are tail-less, presumably because they dropped their tails while escaping from a predator. All of Kati's cresteds are captive born and bred, so their tails are intact. Good thing, because those tails are the coolest thing about these beauties!

The reason I like them for disabled folks is their ease of care, housing, and feeding. They require a 20-gallon "tall" aquarium, so they can climb. Put a few pieces of wood and some fake ivy from Garden Ridge, along with plain old paper towels for substrate*, and you have a great enclosure for them. They do NOT require any special UV lighting or heating as long as the room temperature is between 72 (night) and 82 (day) degrees.

They do require a daily misting of water to provide the proper humidity. This helps facilitate their shedding. A few squirts from a plant mister will do the trick.

Feeding is easy easy easy! They eat freakin' baby food! Apricot, peach, mango baby food or yogurt in very small amounts. Reptile calcium supplement does need to be added, and a few days a week they do enjoy small crickets for the protein. I feed my leopard geckos small mealworms, which are a bit easier than crickets, and may also be appropriate for the cresteds.

For more info on the caring of cresteds, see Kati's caresheet.

Cresteds can be kept in pairs, as long as you have 2 females or one male and one female. Two males housed together, as in most lizard species, will fight.

Crested Geckos are sweet, comical pets, and they thrive in captivity. They can leap long distances, jumping from one hand to the other. They do need to be handled gently, so they may not be best suited for small children.

But they would make a wonderful pet for disabled folks. I hope to someday add a pair to my collection! But first I'd have to convince the hubby of this, since we are practically becoming the WillaZoo!



* (NOTE: I have since learned that crested geckos are somewhat clumsy hunters. It appears that the best choice of substrate is paper towels, which they have no chance to accidentally ingest. Click here for the Google search I used on this topic for more info.)