Crested Gecko Minus One Tail

Back in September of 2011, I wrote about how our gecko lost its tail. I finally added a photo to that post of what she looks like without one. I thought I'd add a couple here as well.

She's nearly two years old here and about five inches long. She's resting on a pot holder. This gecko has great color which is one of the reason's I chose her. We use the plastic container to feed her crickets. I used to put them in her vivarium, but would later find a dead cricket here and another there so I started removing her to this container where we could watch her eat. I think she had a hard time chasing them in the vivarium. She never learned these things from her own mama so I had to make it easier for her. Plus, this way we know how much she's eating and that she's getting her calcium from the dusted crickets. Also, it's kind of fun to watch. 





The Best Spray Mister Bottle

In 2010, I needed to provide my new crested gecko with a fine mist on a daily basis so I ordered what I thought would be an appropriate spray bottle made by a reputable reptile supply manufacturer. In the mean time, I was using this tiny spray bottle that my husband pulled from the Wiper Wonder kit he’d received as a gift. It’s basically a tool to clean the inside of a car windshield. The little bottle probably held only two or three ounces of water, but the mist it delivered was perfect so I made it my own until I could find something similar, but bigger.  

I was excited to receive my new mister in the mail, but was just as quickly disappointed. The pump handle was on the top of the bottle and had to be pressed more than a two dozen times before I felt any pressure. Then, when I depressed the trigger, a heavy spray came out along with lots of dripping. This is not what I would consider a fine mist and the dripping was messy and annoying. I tried filling the bottle more, filling the bottle less and then I just got irritated with everything having to do with the bottle. It was too big. It was cumbersome. It was hard to pump. It was ugly. It would be a pain to send back. I let my favorite reptile supplier, Pangea, know it wasn’t what I was hoping for and they said to just send it back and they would pay shipping. Awesome.

I went back to the little tiny spray bottle I’d been using, but had to refill it every other day. It also took quite a bit of effort to get out the amount of mist I needed.  When I went to clean my girlfriend’s bird boarding room, which I do every couple of months, I shared my dilemma with her. She didn’t hesitate. She reached into a cabinet and handed me a bottle saying, “Try this.”

I did try it and it was perfect. It’s called Mist’r Wizard and it’s made by Pet Bird Xpress. It can be found on several Internet sites, but the cheapest price I found was at www.birdalog.com. You simply fill it, pump the bottom plunger just three or four times and press down on the trigger on top. The fine mist sprays continually for a good 10 to 15 seconds. This bottle was designed with birds in mind, but it’s great for anything that needs a fine, gentle mist. It’s the perfect product for our needs so I hope it works for you too.

Reptile in the House

Up until two years ago, I had no interest in keeping a reptile. My pet store and veterinary hospital experience taught me how much was involved in caring for a cold-blooded animal. I would need a heat lamp or heat pad or both. I would have to make a salad for the pet every day or provide live or killed food like crickets, mice goldfish or rats. Although I have no problem with snakes and I like watching them, I wasn't interested in having one and I really didn't like watching them eat. I liked the idea of keeping a box turtle or tortoise, but again, wasn't sure if I could provide the best environment. So I stayed away from reptiles even though they were offered to me free numerous times. In fact, most of my animals were acquired free of charge from customers or clients who had to give them up for one reason or another.

In 2007, I was writing a story about the Midwest Museum of Natural History in Sycamore, Illinois. Jack Hanna was to appear and I was given the awesome opportunity of covering the event. At that time, the museum had a special exhibit of live reptiles and I notice a cool looking lizard which I learned was a crested gecko (Rhacodactylus ciliatus). I'd never seen anything like it before and, as far as care and such, was only familiar with leopard geckos. The young man who owned the display said these lizards were fairly new to the pet scene, but were easy to care for because they do fine at room temperature. I made a mental note of this little lizard and decided someday I just might like to have one. I started looking for them in pet stores when I would go in for supplies, but didn't find any until 2010.

Under the guise of a birthday gift for our then 9 year-old son, I made arrangements to purchase one from a breeder. I had seen a crested at Petco, but it had already lost its tail and in this species the tail does not grow back. However, the price was right because it was marked down to $35 from $75.

In my search to find a breeder, I stumbled upon a link for Scott Smith’s All Animal Expo, held twice a month just about a one hour drive from my home. The website had a list of vendors that would take part in the event. I started talking to a breeder on the list by e-mail and made arrangements to buy a young “crestie” from her for $50. She was very knowledgeable and helpful. She raises her geckos on Repashy crested gecko diet which is just a powder that mixes with water and gets set out in a dish. No salad making or cricket feeding necessary. All the nutrition the crested needs, aside from that provided from natural sunlight, is in this diet. That little lizard was handed to us in a small, round, plastic container that measured about 4 inches wide and a little over an inch high. He barely filled the middle of it and a year and a half later he would never fit since he’s more than doubled in length and height.

We started housing him in the largest plastic Kritter Keeper we could buy. There were several nice reptile enclosures for sale at the expo, but I liked the lightweight plastic and secure lid (and the $20 price) of the one we chose. We put some nice driftwood logs in and a bunch of fake foliage. The breeder recommended only paper towels for the bottom of the enclosure so we complied. For one, it makes it easy to see if your lizard is giving off wastes, but it also prevents the gecko from ingesting other types of substrates like sand, soil, bark or litter.

We fed our cute baby gecko the Repashy mix in a tiny food dish from my daughter’s Littlest Pet Shop playset. This worked for a while, but I felt like he preferred to be up high so I looked for something better. I liked the fake rock feeding shelf I found at Pangea Reptile Supplies. It has two spaces for water and food cups and it sticks to the side of any cage with strong magnets. While we’ve observed our lizard on the feeding shelf and have noticed the food level go down in his dish, oddly enough, the whole time we’ve had him, we’ve never once seen him eat the Repashy. We buy him crickets once every 4 to 6 weeks, but he’s so fast, sometimes we can’t see him eat these either. That’s okay because I’m just so proud that he’s doing well and seems to be thriving. I took him to the veterinarian around his one year birthday and he weighed 13 grams. That was an interesting vet visit, but I’d like to talk more about that later, along with the one mistake I made that cost him his tail. Thanks for listening and feel free to ask questions. Here are a few pictures.