So, you have a new member of your family and you want to give them the best home possible, eh? Excellent! At Frog Butts N More, we are committed to supporting you through your journey from selecting the right pet, initially setting up their habitat, to ongoing pet maintenance. We’re here to help you!

Enclosure

We offer several enclosure options at the time you select your new friend. We highly recommend getting one of our enclosures with your pet as we offer housings that are very similar to what they’re currently residing in. If you choose to get your own enclosure, be mindful of size and complexity. Simple is best as your cresty is growing.

1. Dimensions: The recommended size of your enclosure depends on the weight of your cresty. As your cresty grows, so should the enclosure. A lot of new cresty parents make the mistake of putting their new friend in too large of an enclosure. Although it is fun to see your cresty exploring and playing in a large tank, it is actually dangerous for the cresty as too big of an enclosure makes it difficult for your cresty to find its food and for you to control the humidity and temperature. We recommend the below enclosure dimensions based on the weight of your cresty in grams-

a. 5 to 10 grams: 6 qt shoe box with paper towel base

b. 11 to 25 grams: lg shoe box or 12x12x18 in with paper towel base

c. 26 grams and up: 18x18x24 in with paper towel, coco, or bioactive substrate

2. Temperature- One of the great things about crested geckos is that they do not require special lighting or heat lamps. Adding a heat lamp could be dangerous for your cresty as that could make the enclosure too hot and will dry out the environment. The ideal temperature for a cresty is 72° F to 78° F. You can drop down to 70° F without concern, but anything over 78° F will do great harm to your cresty.

3. Humidity- Although you don’t want your enclosure to be sopping wet, it is important for it to be misted regularly. You want 60% to 80% humidity, which you can accomplish by misting with water using a regular squirt bottle once an evening.

4. Tank/housing- Although we do not recommend putting a juvenile cresty in a bioactive, fully planted tank as that will make it difficult for your cresty to find their food, once a cresty is over 25 grams, a tank can be your canvas! Do research online before adding plants as some can be dangerous for your cresty. We recommend adding a snake plant to your cresty’s enclosure as they enjoy sleeping in its stalks. Please note that you do not have to build a bioactive tank for your cresty. Having such an environment, though, will make it easier for you to maintain the needed humidity and looks beautiful in any room.

Feeding

At Frog Butts N More, we feed both crickets and gecko diet. For the gecko diet, we feed a mixture of Repashy and Pangea gecko diet following routine number 1 below. We do ½ Repashy and ½ Pangea so that you, the new gecko parent, can choose to feed either Repashy or Pangea and your gecko will not have to adjust.

To make your gecko’s diet food, mix about ¼ a teaspoon of diet powder with ¼ a teaspoon of water (1:1 ratio powder to water). The consistency of the diet mixture should be similar to ketchup. We feed the gecko diet mixture to our geckos in either a small water bottle cap or a contact lens cleaning case. Know that geckos have teeny-tiny tummies. The gecko could be eating, but if you feed too much, you might not be able to tell because they are only eating a small amount due to the size of their stomachs. When you take the gecko diet out, there should be some left in the cap. If there is a lot left over, cut back on the amount you’re feeding. If there is no food left, increase the amount of food you’re feeding.

Know that feeding crickets is optional. We choose to feed crickets to increase the protein in our geckos’ diets and because catching crickets seems to bring joy to geckos; also, it’s fun to watch geckos hunt!

If you choose to feed crickets, the size of the crickets you feed depends on the size of the gecko. We feed 4 to 6 crickets a feeding. 5 to 10 gram geckos get ½” crickets; 11 gram geckos and up get ¾” crickets.

Feeding schedules:

1. Feeding crickets-

a. Monday- Feed gecko diet

b. Tuesday- Feed crickets; should still be some gecko diet leftover from Monday, if not, increase Monday’s feed amount; leave gecko diet from Monday in enclosure

c. Wednesday- Gecko diet should be pretty much empty; take out any remaining diet; don’t add new food Wednesday; if there are crickets remaining, leave them

d. Thursday- Feed new gecko diet (same process as Monday)

e. Friday- Feed crickets; if they ate all of Tuesdays crickets, should still be some gecko diet leftover from Thursday, if not, increase gecko diet amount; leave food from Thursday in enclosure (same as Tuesday process)

f. Saturday- Take out all remaining gecko diet but leave crickets; do not give new food (same as Wednesday process)

g. Sunday- No food

2. Not feeding crickets-

a. Monday- Feed gecko diet

b. Tuesday- Should still be some gecko diet leftover from Monday, if not, increase Monday’s feed amount; leave food from Monday in enclosure

c. Wednesday- Food should be pretty much empty; take out any remaining food; don’t add new food Wednesday

d. Thursday- Feed new gecko diet (same process as Monday)

e. Friday- Should still be some gecko diet; leave food from Thursday in enclosure (same as Tuesday process)

f. Saturday- Take out all remaining food; do not give new food (same as Wednesday process)

g. Sunday- No food