Basic Care for Crested Geckos

Crested geckos are a large arboreal species of gecko, native to the island nation of New Caledonia. They’ve become incredibly popular pet reptiles for their relative ease of care, beautiful appearances, and goofy personalities. They make great pets, and many keepers recommend them as fantastic first pet reptiles as well!

If you’re getting a crested gecko and want to learn the ins and outs of what they need to thrive, you’ve come to the right place! Pangea Reptile has been breeding crested geckos since the company was founded over two decades ago. Plus, our well-established crested gecko diet is renowned worldwide for helping thousands of geckos grow happily and healthily. So, all-in-all, we know a thing or two about these incredible creatures.

This care sheet is a crash course in everything you need to get started with a crested gecko. We also cover this information in video form on the following YouTube video!

Let's begin with a brief description of crested geckos' natural habitat and behaviors. As we mentioned earlier, crested geckos are native to the semi-tropical nation of New Caledonia. Specifically, they live in the forests of Southern Grand Terre, and the Isle of Pines

Temperatures in New Caledonia tend to hover around the mid to upper 70s (°F), and the high 60s in the Winter with Humidity levels as high as 90%. These conditions are relatively easy to replicate, which is a major reason Crested Geckos thrive in captivity, and have grown so popular!

Current conditions in New Caledonia:

Enclosure

 For this guide, we're basing our minimum enclosure sizes on the Federation of British Herpetologist's Code of Practice for Minimum Enclosure Sizes. They've developed some great guidelines for a variety of species to help keepers provide the minimum amount of space for a reptile to thrive. 

The enclosure size your gecko will need depends on the stage of life it is in. Juvenile crested geckos can do well in a 12"x12"x18" enclosure. If you are getting a juvenile crested gecko, our complete kit comes with an enclosure of that size, along with everything you need to decorate it!

Our complete crested gecko kits come with everything a juvenile gecko needs to get started!

Keep in mind though, that a crested gecko cannot comfortably live in one of these enclosures forever. Once the gecko grows to approximately 30-40 grams, they should be transitioned to a terrarium no smaller than 18"x18"x24". This is the most accessible size in line with FBH code for an average sized crested gecko, but you can always go bigger if you have the means to do so! In fact, some keepers are even recommending 18"x18"x36" as their minimums to give their geckos extra climbing space.

Regardless of the size you choose, you will want to ensure there is plenty of vertical space to climb, so your gecko has the opportunity to climb! 

Also, while screen enclosures may be more affordable, at these sizes, they are not suitable for crested geckos since they cannot maintain the humidity needed without humidifying the whole room the enclosure is located in. We'd recommend sticking with an enclosure made of a non-permeable material like glass or PVC.

Substrate, Hardscape, and Decor

Once you have picked out an enclosure for your gecko, you'll want to plan out what's going to go inside of it. The following suggestions include items for a naturalistic terrarium using synthetic plants. You can also choose to build a bioactive terrarium with live plants and a clean up crew. Building a bioactive enclosure can be very rewarding, and oftentimes results in less cleaning and maintenance in the long run. If you are interested in building a bioactive enclosure, we have a blog post discussing things to consider for a bioactive build, as well as a YouTube playlist all about bioactive enclosures. 

Substrate

For your substrate, you will want one that can retain humidity well. Coco coir, peat moss, sphagnum moss, or a combination of these are great choices! We also like topping natural substrates like these with leaf litter and moss to aid the natural forest floor look, and help prevent the gecko from ingesting any substrate.

For best results, natural substrates like these should also have a drainage layer, made from a substrate barrier, and Aqua Balls. Natural substrates should be layered 2-4" thick, and should be spot cleaned daily, and replaced entirely after a month or so.

You can also raise a gecko on paper towels. These are great for monitoring health, and there is no risk of a gecko ingesting them. However, they aren't very aesthetically pleasing, and they need to be replaced weekly.

 Hardscape

Think of the hardscape of the enclosure as its skeleton. The hardscape is sturdy, solid decor pieces that provide stable climbing structures for your gecko, and that can be used as scaffolding for other decor. Some hardscaping options we recommend are Cork Bark Backgrounds, Cork bark flats and rounds, ghost wood, drift wood, jungle wood, and other wood branches.

Cork Bark is a fantastic hardscaping material for crested geckos!

Decor

Once you have your hardscape chosen, you can choose the rest of your decor! We highly recommend choosing a variety of hanging plants that can be mounted in the upper portions of your gecko's enclosure. Crested Geckos will oftentimes climb higher and hide in foliage to feel secure, so giving them plenty of plants and vines to facilitate this behavior is a good idea. These plants also trap humidity, creating humid zones, and act as a surface for water droplets to accumulate for your gecko to drink from. Aside from hanging plants, other elevated hides, such as hanging coconuts can be good for them as well! 

Our Super Inkblot Crested Gecko, Rorschach's favorite napping spot is his hanging orchid!

As you arrange your hardscape and decor, ensure your gecko has different zones of light, temperature, and humidity, and that they have multiple places to hide. This will let it have options in choosing where it needs to be depending on it's needs at the time.

Finally, we recommend including an elevated feeding ledge as some geckos feel more secure eating from an elevated position.

Our small acrylic feeding ledges are strong enough to safely support crested geckos! 

Heat, Humidity, and Lighting

 As we mentioned earlier, the conditions in New Caledonia are relatively easy to replicate in an enclosure! The target range for your enclosure is about 70-78°F, though overnight dips to the mid to high 60s are okay. In most cases, your home's room temperature is perfect. To gauge if your terrarium is in the right temperature range, we recommend a digital thermometer/hygrometer combo meter so you can monitor both temperature and humidity simultaneously!

Use a digital combo meter to keep your parameters in the correct range!

If you find you need to add heat to keep your temperature in an appropriate range, we recommend setting up a ceramic heat emitter above the enclosure, and limiting it with a thermostat to prevent overheating. Crested geckos can rapidly overheat at temperatures above 80°F, so monitoring your temperature is crucial!

You'll need to provide spikes of 80-95% humidity for a few hours each day by misting the enclosure once or twice each day, depending on your local humidity. We recommend always misting at night so your gecko can stay hydrated by drinking water droplets, and again in the morning if you find it is needed to maintain humidity levels. Between mistings, we recommend letting the enclosure to "dry out" to about 50-60%. This discourages the growth of mold and bacteria to reduce the risk of respiratory infections.

Crested Geckos are considered crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dusk and dawn, but they are also very active throughout the night, and occasionally during the day. To encourage a natural cycle of behavior, you need to provide a day/night light cycle. This can be achieved with LEDor UVB lighting on top of the enclosure, room light, indirect sunlight, or a combination of these methods. To keep the cycle consistent, we recommend using a day/night timer, with 10 hours of light in the winter, 14 in the summer, and 12 in between.

Crested Gecko don't typically exhibit basking behaviors like other reptiles would, however, some keepers have observed cryptic basking behaviors, and they are likely to benefit from low levels of UVB light. We like using Reptile Systems' Zone 1 T5 Kits.

Food and Water

Crested Geckos are fruit eating omnivores, so to meet their dietary needs, they should primarily be fed Pangea Complete Crested Gecko Diets. Each of these diets have been carefully developed with nutritionists to ensure your gecko gets all the nutrients it needs to thrive! We recommend starting with our Pangea Gecko Diet Sample Pack to see which flavors your gecko prefers. For more information on mixing and portioning our diets, check out the following video!

Juvenile Crested Geckos should typically be fed daily, alternating between Pangea and live insects. Adults should be eating every other day on the same rotation. New geckos don't always eat right away, so don't panic; just continue to offer gecko diet so it has food when it feels safe enough to eat. Once you see tongue marks in the food, and regular pooping, you know they are eating properly.

We recommend feeding a variety of live insects such as crickets and dubia roaches alongside Pangea diets. This provides variety in your geckos diet, as well as enrichment in the form of hunting. Regardless of the insects provided, they should be gut-loaded with Pangea Roach and Cricket food, and dusted with a calcium powder before feeding. Be sure to use calcium with D3if you are not using UVB lights, and calcium without D3 if you are using UVB

Aside from food, we also recommend providing a clean water dish for them to drink from. In the wild, and captivity crested geckos have been observed drinking the water that collects on leaves, but it doesn't hurt to also include a water dish so they can continue to have water once the droplets dry up!

That covers the basics of crested gecko care! Keep an eye on our YouTube Channel  and blog page as we will be releasing more videos and blog posts covering specific aspects of care. And of course, if you have any questions about crested gecko care, feel free to reach out to us through our "contact us" page, or through our DMs on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok!