Gargoyle and Crested Gecko Questions.

M2788 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-21-2010, 10:20 AM

Hello all of you Crested and/or Gargoyle Gecko keepers, I have a couple of questions to ask you. I have been in the process of setting up two ‘adult’ cages; one for a Crestie, and one for a Garg. So far the stats are as follows:

Gargoyle terrarium:

Exo-terra 24Hx18Dx18W Mayan Habitat kit with stand, which includes background, a canopy light, four plants, two vines, and some other little things like substrate, analog thermometer/hygrometer, and a water dish. The latter two items I didn’t put in the cage.

I also added:

1 digital hygrometer/thermometer combo

1 Pangea mushroom ledge water/food dish

1 Magnaturals medium mushroom ledge

2 Magnaturals hanging plants

3 Pieces of cork bark (one ‘tube’, two flats)

I am considering one more cork tube and/or something else for a hide, but I am not sure if it is necessary.

Crested terrarium:

Exo-terra 24Hx18Dx18W Medium Rainforest Habitat kit with stand, which includes almost everything in the Mayan kit, except one less ground plant. Again, I didn’t put the analog thermometer/hygrometer or the water dish that came with it in the cage.

Thus far, I’ve added:

1 digital hygrometer/thermometer combo

1 Pangea mushroom ledge water/food dish

1 Magnaturals small earth rock ledge

1 Magnaturals medium earth hideaway

1 little faux tortoiseshell hide/decoration

1 extra Exo-Terra bendy-vine

I am planning on adding one or two cork tubes, possibly another ledge, and two hanging Magnaturals plants.

Here are pictures of both, sorry about the poor quality, my camera has been a bit off recently.

Gargoyle set-up:

Crestie set-up:

With both terrariums I am planning on putting a fitted piece of plexiglass with holes drilled in it on top in order to make them more feline-proof and help to keep humidity in.

So now on to the questions:

For starters, is there anything you guys can think that I should add, is there something to subtract, or do differently?

Second, I am coming up blank on a substrate dilemma I’ve been having. I am reluctant to use a loose substrate (especially if I happen to get a juvenile, though if I did it would of course not be put in the adult terrarium until it was big enough) for fear of impaction, but living in an extremely dry, desert region I would have to keep the terrarium practically soaked in order to get the proper levels of humidity when using paper towels or something similar as substrate. I’m planning on feeding CGD with feeder insects in a separate feeding container weekly or as needed. Is there some kind of humidity holding substrate that I can use that has a low risk of causing impaction, or some other solution to the problem that has yet to spring to mind? I read about using Eco-earth with large chunks of Cypress mulch or another not-so-easy to swallow substrate on top of it, and/or using sphagnum or peat moss as substrate. Do any of those sound like relatively safe options, or should I keep searching for alternatives? Any suggestions?

Thanks so much in advance guys, I just really want to do the best I can for them when I get these two.

_Sam_ · #2 (**permalink**) 07-24-2010, 10:03 PM

those cages look really great!
I am really reluctant to use Eco Earth because I had an adult gecko die due to impaction from it. That being said, at one point I housed smaller geckos on larger bark pieces and didn't have any issues... though It was less than a year, so I don't know if that's really enough time to be confident that it would work all the time.
I have seen people use moss as a substrate and have no issues, so that may be your best bet? I don't think a gecko would accidentally eat moss as easily as a dirt-like substrate.

I personally use paper towel (i think you already knew that lol)

As far as keeping the humidity up, have you thought of a small fogger or mist system for the two tanks?

Sinthia · #3 (**permalink**) 07-24-2010, 10:14 PM

I think it looks excellent!! But might be a pita to clean! It seems mine is constantly peeing and pooping lol

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