Noob.

[Adinar]

So I've aquired 2 adorable little crestie hatchlings... and I don't know very much about them other than

- They don't require a heat source
- Mist their enclosure twice a day
- They can eat crickets and some fruit mix type stuff (already got it, just waiting to see if they eat anything)
- They're semi-aboreal.

That's pretty much it.

So here's some noob questions so I can make sure these little ones stay happy and healthy.

Is coconut fiber mix okay to use as a subrtrate, or is it like with leo/afts that it could cause impactation? If it isn't safe, what are some other things to use rather than papertowel?

I also read online that mealies may cause impactation as well, is this true?


Go figure that's all I can think of at the moment, any other additional info on them...please feel free to speak up.

 

[darkridder]

Hatchlings do best on paper towels to min risk of impactions. Adults can be kept on it, but something like eco earth is hard to keep clean and not mold, requires either a clean up crew, or alot of cleaning weekly. You could do reptile carpet, but then you would have to cut it down to size to fit the tank. Honestly I would just get past the paper towel issue and use them, they honestly work the best.

When feeding them you want to offer Crested Gecko diet daily, and crickets 1-2 times a week. Often you can change the CGD every other day if you fill the bowl up high. With little ones I personally use pop bottle lids, or gatoraid lids, these work great for food and water dishes. I would stick with either crickets or roache nymphs as feeder insects over mealworms, in general they are a bit more nutritional, and with hatchlings there will be little chance of imactions.

Also with hatchlings, you dont want to start with huge tanks, using kk's are a better choice and upgrade them into something larger at around 6g, into a 10 gallon.

 

[Adinar]

Hatchlings do best on paper towels to min risk of impactions. Adults can be kept on it, but something like eco earth is hard to keep clean and not mold, requires either a clean up crew, or alot of cleaning weekly. You could do reptile carpet, but then you would have to cut it down to size to fit the tank. Honestly I would just get past the paper towel issue and use them, they honestly work the best.

When feeding them you want to offer Crested Gecko diet daily, and crickets 1-2 times a week. Often you can change the CGD every other day if you fill the bowl up high. With little ones I personally use pop bottle lids, or gatoraid lids, these work great for food and water dishes. I would stick with either crickets or roache nymphs as feeder insects over mealworms, in general they are a bit more nutritional, and with hatchlings there will be little chance of imactions.

Also with hatchlings, you dont want to start with huge tanks, using kk's are a better choice and upgrade them into something larger at around 6g, into a 10 gallon.

They're currently on paper towel, and actually were when they were in the pet store (I was a little surprised). I'm assuming the owner had a little too much water in there tho, because the container reaked and was a little moldy. I had a spare kk here, so I moved them, and didn't soak down the papertowels like they were in the original container. There was actually water setteling on the bottom, not very high, but I wanted to get them out of there. So right now they're in a large kirtter keeper with some foliage, a half log hide, gatorade cap for a water dish, and kidney dish for their food. I will pick thru the foliage and get the small crickets out that the pet store person tossed in there. It was a nice gesture, but having them run around all the time for days just seems like it'd bug the babies.

I'll probably wait on upgrading them to a reptile carpet until they get a little bigger.

Thanks for your input!