Introduction
Crested & Gargoyle geckos are quickly becoming some of the most popular
pet reptiles on the market today. These species are extremely easy to
care for, and they have arguably the most friendly temperament of any
reptile species we've worked with. Both species are native only to New
Caledonia (as all Rhacodactylus species are) and just about every specimen
available in the United States currently is captive bred. They are
both members of the same genus, and care for each species is nearly
identical. Rhacodactylus geckos are personally our favorite animals
we've ever had the pleasure of breeding at NE Herpetoculture.
Appearance & Behavior
Crested geckos are slim, muscular, and have a crown like crest starting
above their eyes that extends all the way to the base of their tails.
From our experience Crested Geckos are a bit more flighty than Gargoyles,
and also have the ability to climb flat, smooth surfaces (like glass) unlike
their chubbier cousin who's unable to. Both species of gecko can drop
it's tail if startled, but Gargoyles possess the ability to regenerate the
tail over the course of a couple months. If a Crested Gecko loses it's
tail - it's permanent. Gargoyles are more on the chunky & stocky side
of things. In place of the crest they possess a pair of bumps on their
head (earning the name Gargoyle) which begin to develop as subadults.
Both species are extremely friendly and will almost never become aggressive.
Both species come in a variety of color morphs, with prices ranging from
$19/ea to $500+/ea! They are nocturnal animals, but seem to remain out
in the open, occasionally rearranging themselves during the day.
Caring For Hatchling Geckos
Geckos younger than 5 months require special care. Try keeping
handling to a minimum until they have settled into their new homes. We
house every hatchling in it's own home to reduce the risk of tail loss, and
we suggest you do the same! Small and simple homes are what we
recommend to start with. Smaller homes are not only inexpensive, but
they make finding food easier for the little geckos and prevent any high
falls. We use small size (not mini!) herp havens until they are about
4 months old. Substrate should consist of paper towels, and cage
furniture should be solid, easy to climb, and most importantly not something
they can accidentally ingest! It sounds ugly (and admittedly, it is)
but younger Rhacodactylus love paper towel rolls! Mist the cage with
dechlorinated water twice daily, and offer gecko MRP as food (more on that
later) every other day. We suggest offering about a dime sized blob to
start, and increase the size as the gecko gets older and eats more of it.
Younger geckos eat a tiny amount of food, so don't get nervous if you only
see a little bit missing from the blob of food offered overnight. If
you are concerned they aren't eating (or if you'd just like to bond w/your
gecko) consider hand feeding it some MRP. Dab a little bit of MRP on
your finger tip and touch a little food to the tip of their nose. Then
just wait for them to lick it off, which usually happens in just a few
seconds. When they do, offer a bit more and the gecko should readily
lap it off your finger. Cages should be cleaned at least twice per
week until the gecko is 4 months of age. After they reach 4 months you
can place them in a more permanent style enclosure.
Housing
We suggest a bare minimum of 10 gallons of overall space per
adult gecko, with a bare minimum height of 16" for an adult.
Bigger is much better. All of our Rhacodactylus have a minimum of
about 15 gallons of space per gecko to stretch their legs. Both screen or
glass cages work, but glass is significantly easier to clean, and it holds
humidity much better. Before you decide on a physical cage, you should
decide which build style best suits your needs.
There are three basic styles of enclosure you can build:
Breeder Terrariums:
Breeder
terrariums are the simplest and cheapest option with paper towel (or
newspaper, packing paper, etc) substrate, artificial plants, simple decor,
no background, and an overall simplistic approach. Cages are able to
be easily torn down, sterilized, and rebuilt whenever necessary.
Common decor options include PVC piping, cut dry bamboo, paper towel tubes,
tupperware containers, and other easy to sterilize items. These are
most commonly used on breeding racks with inexpensive "tote" containers.
Pros:
Inexpensive, quick & easy to build, easy to sterilize, extremely easy to
find eggs
Cons:
Hideous, medium amount of upkeep, least natural environment
Naturalistic Terrariums:
These are standard terrariums which commonly use either eco earth (coconut
fiber) or repti bark as substrate, and have a good amount of realistic decor
and/or potted live plants. These are the least expensive way to get a
realistic looking home built for a gecko. Common decor options include
cut dry bamboo, artificial vines, live (potted) & artificial plants, cork or
faux rock backgrounds, and realistic hiding spots. These can be built
in screen cages, glass cages, or acrylic atrium cages.
Pros:
Medium expense, looks far better than breeder terrariums, realistic looking
environment
Cons:
Medium expense, a bit more difficult to find eggs, a good amount of upkeep
needed
True Live Vivariums:
These are completely natural environments with live plants, active
microfauna, and are by far the best looking option. These require
significantly more work to set up, and plenty of research should be done
before attempting a live vivarium. Active microfauna can keep cleaning
& upkeep down to a bare minimum, and these can be completely automated.
Check out our Vivarium Construction 101 sheet
here for more info. These must be built in
glass or acrylic cages that can hold water.
Pros:
The best looking option by far, virtually no upkeep if done correctly, 100%
natural
Cons:
High expense, can be difficult to find eggs
Regardless of which style you choose to go with, we suggest a front
opening enclosure for ease of use. These geckos are arboreal, so
height is more important that width. Never house two males together.
(We cover how to sex your geckos later)
We personally only utilize the naturalistic & live vivarium styles for
all of our geckos.
We feel that they really appreciate the nice environments we build for them.
That's not to say the breeder style is "bad", but we've never used them as a
matter of preference.
To each his own!
Temperature & Lighting
These geckos do very well between 65-80 Fahrenheit. Anything over
80F can case stress, so try and keep temps below that at all times.
Breeding geckos should be kept between 70-80, but that's all covered in our
Crested & Gargoyle Breeding article
here. Most situations won't need a
heat light of any kind, but one can be added if temps often dip below 65F in
your home. They are heat sensitive, and it's better to be a little too
cool than a little too hot if ideal temps can't be achieved. Our day
lighting of choice is usually 6500K plant florescent lighting for it's
ability to grow plants. UVB lighting is not necessary for this
primarily nocturnal species. The day lighting source should cycle on
and off every 12 hours. Inexpensive timers are available just for this
purpose.
Misting & Humidity
We keep humidity a bit higher than a few other breeders; around 70-85%
at night with drops to about 65% during the day. Depending on the type
of terrarium, this usually means misting once or twice per day.
Misting is extremely important, since these geckos usually won't drink
water from a bowl. Instead they'll lick droplets off of plants & other
cage furniture as their only source of water. We use
automated misting & fogging systems in our breeding rooms and we've had
excellent luck with them. Always use
dechlorinated water. Reverse osmosis filtered water is an excellent
choice, since it won't leave water marks on the glass.
Feeding
We suggest feeding Repashy Crested Gecko Diet exclusively. (It's called
Crested Gecko diet, but it's fine for Gargoyles and many other species, as
well) This food is loaded with protein as well as every vitamin &
mineral a gecko needs to thrive. It's made as a complete meal
replacement solution, and our geckos absolutely love it. We feed our
hatchlings every other day, and juveniles & adults are fed three times per
week.
Never feed your gecko baby food. I've seen people suggesting this
and it's really not a good practice. It can become addicting, and it
does not offer the proper nutrition a gecko needs to survive. If your
gecko takes a liking to baby food, it can begin to refuse the correct food,
and then you've got issues. If that happens, you can mix in some
Repashy food with baby food and gradually reduce the amount of baby food
'till it's 100% MRP. Alternatively, you can try different flavors of
MRP to see if your gecko takes a liking to a specific flavor. (We've
had especially good luck with strawberry & mango!)
If you choose to feed insects, we highly suggest avoiding crickets.
Crickets are common carriers of pinworm as well as other parasites that are
all too common in the reptile hobby. Baby (captive bred) Dubia roaches
dusted with Repashy's Calcium Plus powder are a much more suitable snack for
crested geckos. If you are feeding insects in a naturalistic setting
or live vivarium, consider offering the prey items in an open tupperware
container inside the vivarium temporarily to reduce the risk of impaction
due to the gecko eating substrate along with the insects. They'll lick the droplets off of plants & other
cage furniture to hydrate themselves.
Sexing Geckos
Both Crested & Gargoyle geckos are easily sexed at around 5 months of age.
The males have an apparent hemipenal bulge which the females lack. The
pictures below illustrate this on a Crested Gecko, and it'll look about the
same on a Gargoyle Gecko. Another way to sex these geckos is by
looking for a small row of pores above the vent that usually (but not
always) develops on males in the first few months of life. A decent
magnifying glass is required to see the pores as they develop.
Honestly we've had mixed success with that method, and we usually wait and
look for the hemipenal bulge as evidence of sex.
Tips & Tricks
• Never house two males together. Also never house two geckos of
significantly different sizes together.
• Common lingo: "CGD" = Crested Gecko Diet / "MRP" = Meal
Replacement Powder (Both the same thing)
• A quarantine period is always a good practice to follow for all newly
introduced animals. Especially when purchasing a gecko that's been fed
crickets as part of their diet in the past.
• Repashy gecko food once mixed can be refrigerated and held for up to one
week.
• Limit handling to 15-20 minutes for adults unless they seem very
comfortable being held.
• If you have a nervous (jumpy & flighty) gecko, consider hand feeding it a
touch of MRP or honey. It will eventually associate you with being
happy (eating) and should begin to chill out in time.
• Try and avoid handling "new" geckos until they've had at least a week to
settle in to their new environment.
• Handle them gently. Pick them up by gently placing a finger under a
gecko's chin and slowly lift upwards. The gecko will reach up and
climb on your finger. Never grab or squeeze a gecko.
• Housing hatchlings separately can greatly reduce the risk of having them
lose a tail.
• Don't mix juvenile males & females. If the female becomes pregnant
too young, she can become eggbound & die.
• Although this caresheet pertains to both Crested & Gargoyle geckos, both
species should be housed separately.
A Red Female Gargoyle Gecko
A Customer Hand Feeding His New
Gecko
Two Of Our Breeding Racks
A Naturalistic Gargoyle Enclosure
A Crested Gecko Vivarium
Goofy Crested Gecko Juvenile
Mature Crested Gecko Male
My, What Beautiful Eyes You Have!
Juvenile Gargoyle & Tillandsia Plant
Gargoyle &
Crested Gecko Caresheet
Rhacodactylus Auriculatus & Rhacodactylus Ciliatus
This care sheet is downloadable for easy printing!
Click to download.
Halloween Harlequin Crested Gecko (Colored Down)
High Red Crested Gecko 'Gus'
High Red Gargoyle Gecko 'Enrique'
Hopefully this article helped you understand how to properly take care of a
Crested or Gargoyle gecko. As always if you have any questions at all we're happy to help! Email us at meikmail@gmail.com
Think you are almost ready to breed? Click
HERE to
check out our Crested & Gargoyle breeding sheet.
If you have any questions at all we're always happy to help! Email us at
meikmail@gmail.com
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