I wish I could've brought this little guy home...

[M2788]

I just got back from a trip to WA last Tuesday; I had a great time and it looks like I am going to be moving there. The only hard part of my trip was this little Crested Gecko. I was out with a friend of mine who lives in the area and we went into a local Petsmart.

Overall I was very impressed by how their animals were kept; clean cages, species-appropriate enclosures, healthy looking animals with no more than two or three reptiles per set-up, etc. I was talking to a girl that was working there, and she said that they had been worried about a little ‘Eyelash’ Gecko that they had in the back, and I figured that she was talking about a Crestie and asked if I could see it. I followed her to this little ten gallon with close to zero humidity, HUGE crickets scattered around in it (some dead), and 80 degree temperatures in the enclosure. I reached in and practically hanging off of the water dish was one of the sorriest looking Cresties I have ever seen in person. Way underweight, shed stuck on all of his toes, on his back, and on his face, and lethargic. Apparently they were only feeding him too big crickets, and his shed had apparently been stuck for quite a while; his back toe fell off on my hand. With much difficulty I put him back in his terrarium (he tried to climb up my arm, and it literally took two minutes to convince him to get off my hand once in the enclosure).

I immediately went with the girl who was working there to the reptile department and started handing her things to make the cage more appropriate, instructed her to lower the cage temperature by several degrees, and told her how to get the shed off of him without hurting him. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find any CGD for sale, so I told her some of the fruits that they can eat and she said she would see if she could come up with some smaller crickets. The only reason why I didn’t bring him back to the hotel room with me and haul him back to California was that I didn’t want to risk getting caught going through airplane security on the way home and having him get hurt in the process.

Over the next couple of days I was going crazy thinking about the poor thing, so when I was visiting Tacoma with my Aunt, Cousin, Uncle, Mom, and my Cousin’s girlfriend, I asked if we could go to the Petsmart there, and sure enough I found some CGD and bought it for the Gecko.

The next day my Mom (who wanted to meet the Gecko after hearing me talking about him so much) and I drove to the Petsmart that had the Crestie and brought the food in. The manager was very appreciative, and when I asked to see the Gecko, he was looking SO much better. They had followed the advice and the cage was a much better set-up for him. He is still very skinny, but the shed was off, no dead crickets in the cage, cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and he was much more alert. I held him, my mom pet him and took some pictures (and after meeting him she immediately saw why I got so attached to the little creature so quickly). It was very hard to leave him, but I am glad that they truly cared about what was best for the little guy and were willing to do whatever was necessary to get him healthy. If he is still there when I move up there in late September I am going to get him.

Here are a few pictures of him. As you can see, despite him being underweight he is a very pretty little guy. As cute as he is now, I can’t imagine how adorable he is going to be once he gets a few grams on him.


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Sorry for the blurriness of this one:

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Thanks for looking!

[Icicle]

Cute little guy.
I wish I would of known you coming up this way, I would of like to met you.

What petsmart, maybe someone up here can buy him for you.

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[nitram]

thats an awesome story. and that crestie looks very cute!
good job =D

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[Sakara]

awwwww. poor little guy! I'm glad they are taking better care if him now though. hope you can get him!

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[_Sam_]

awww he's a cutie for sure glad he's getting a little better care now and I hope you can get him!

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[HERPHAPPY]

That's great work getting him proper treatment! and educating them without alienating them too! Kudos!!!! I hope he gets a good home, maybe yours?

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[M2788]

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond on this, it has been… hectic… around here to put it nicely so I haven't had much spare computer time. On top of that I’ve had the flu.

Originally Posted by Icicle

Cute little guy.

I wish I would of known you coming up this way, I would of like to met you.

What petsmart, maybe someone up here can buy him for you.

To be honest I was so excited about visiting my relatives (and meeting my cousin for the first time) and visiting a good friend of mine that I haven’t seen in four years that I completely forgot that there would be forum members in WA that I could visit too. Next time I am in that area I will try to get the word out a bit better.

It was the Petsmart in Silverdale. Hmm, that is a definitely a good idea regarding having someone get him for a period of time, though I think I will wait until everything is set in stone regarding my moving before seeing if anyone would be willing to help me out with that.

Originally Posted by nitram

thats an awesome story. and that crestie looks very cute!
good job =D

Thanks! He was definitely very cute, and such a sweetheart too.

Originally Posted by Sakara

awwwww. poor little guy! I'm glad they are taking better care if him now though. hope you can get him!

I am very glad, too. It is great to see a pet store that honestly seemed to genuinely care. I have never seen a Crestie his age so thin that his ribs were that easily visible; it ends up that their workers were seriously misinformed on how to keep them properly and thought that caring for Cresties was similar to caring for Leos with slightly lower temperatures and a bit of fruit every once and a while, so they had no idea why he wasn’t thriving.

Originally Posted by _Sam_

awww he's a cutie for sure glad he's getting a little better care now and I hope you can get him!

Thanks! I hope I can get him, too. I actually went out and bought a second Exo-Terra 24x18x18 terrarium for him and have been setting it up, just in case. I just need to figure out a way to solve a substrate dilemma that I’ve been trying to find a solution for and get a couple more plants, vines, etc for it and it will be ready to go for him.

Originally Posted by HERPHAPPY

That's great work getting him proper treatment! and educating them without alienating them too! Kudos!!!! I hope he gets a good home, maybe yours?

Awww, thank you! I found that the people at both of the Petsmarts I visited when I was in WA were REALLY receptive to learning more about the reptiles in their care, which was a nice contrast to some of the chain pet stores in CA. Interestingly enough, both of the Petsmarts I visited ended up offering me jobs for when I move up there, LOL.

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[HERPHAPPY]

You can't have too many job offers! (unless you're retired like me, lol) They would be lucky to have you!

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