Crested Geckocare guide

• Heat kills them. Every other species here wants a hot spot; a crested gecko above 28 °C for long is in trouble, and a viv on a sunny windowsill can kill one in an afternoon.
• The tail does not grow back. A crestie drops it once and stays tailless for life. It lives perfectly well without one.
• They jump, without looking where. Handle low, over something soft, and briefly.

Lifetime cost, vets and hygiene: handbook, Before you buy.

bask applies REPTA's Deleterious Gene Policy in full. How the three groups work is in the handbook, Morphs and welfare. These are the crested gecko rows.

Prohibited: cannot be listed on bask

Breeding guidance: healthy, but not to be paired with

This morph	Do not pair with
Lilly White	another Lilly White
Cappuccino	another Cappuccino

A single-copy Lilly White or Cappuccino is a healthy gecko with no welfare note. When you enquire about one you confirm you have read the pairing guidance.

REPTA reviews its list every six months and bask follows each change. Checked against the list published on 6 September 2026.

The general seller questions, health checks and quarantine rules are in the handbook, Buying, collection, quarantine. For a crested gecko, push harder on these.

• What it eats: which complete diet, and whether it takes it from a dish. A gecko raised on fruit or baby food may already have soft bones.
• The tail. Tailless cresties are healthy and often cheaper; just know which you are buying.
• Its genetics, if it is a Lilly White or Cappuccino.

Check the animal

A straight spine and tail with no kinks or waves, hips that hold the tail up when it hangs, all toes with no shed rings, clear eyes with intact crests, and a firm grip on glass with all four feet.

UK law

No licence; not on the Dangerous Wild Animals schedule and not CITES-listed. New Caledonia has not exported wild geckos for decades. Duty of care, business licensing and the release offence: handbook, UK law.

Tall, planted, front-opening

A front-opening glass terrarium with a mesh top holds humidity from an evening mist, breathes through the top so it dries by morning, and takes plants. A wooden viv holds too much heat and moisture and rots. Keep them singly: males fight, a male with a female breeds her constantly, and a tail lost to a cage-mate is lost for good.

Enclosure types, ventilation, locks: handbook, The enclosure.

Room temperature, with a ceiling

If the room drops below 20 °C in winter, add a low-wattage deep heat projector or halogen on a dimming stat over the mesh top, probe at the highest perch, set to 26 °C, or a small mat on the side of the glass. Never a heater the gecko can reach, never a mat under a floor it lies on. A digital thermometer at the top of the viv matters more than any heater.

UVB

Zone 1, nocturnal. A 2.4 % or 6 % T5 tube on the mesh top for a UV Index of 0.5-1.0 at the top of the viv, 12 hours, with dense planting for shade. A small LED grow light on the same timer keeps live plants alive and gives a day-night cycle. Both sit outside the mesh, so allow for it.

Thermostats, probe placement, tube replacement: handbook, Heat, light and safety.

Wet at night, dry by day, leaves everywhere

The cycle matters more than the number. Mist heavily in the evening until the glass and leaves run, so humidity peaks at 80-100 % and the gecko drinks the droplets. By the next evening it should have dried to 50-60 %. Always wet grows mould and skin infections; never wet gives stuck sheds and dehydration. If it never dries, more ventilation and less water; if it is dry by midnight, a coir floor, more plants and a light morning mist.

A bioactive tropical mix with springtails and woodlice, planted with pothos, bromeliads or ficus, holds the cycle and cleans itself. Coco fibre and artificial plants work. Nothing loose and fine a gecko could swallow lunging at an insect.

Planting is not decoration. A crestie sleeps in foliage by day and moves through it at night; a bare viv with one branch is a stressed gecko. Cork bark, vines and broad leaves at several heights, dense enough to cross the viv unseen. The food dish goes on a ledge in the upper half where the gecko lives, not on the floor.

Humidity: handbook, Humidity. Substrate compared: handbook, Substrate. Cover for tree-dwellers: handbook, Hides, cover and water.

A small ventilated tub with damp paper towel, in an insulated box at 20-25 °C, never in a hot car, straight into the planted viv. No handling for 7-10 days. Fresh diet in the dish every other evening, a heavy mist at dusk, and check the dish for tongue marks and droppings in the morning. A hatchling that has not eaten in a week needs the dish moved closer to where it sleeps.

Running the enclosure empty first, quarantine and the first fortnight for any reptile: handbook, The first weeks.

Low, brief, let it walk

• Let it step onto your hand from a leaf; do not close fingers around it. Hand over hand as it walks, low over a bed or sofa.
• Never restrain the tail. It comes off at a touch when the gecko is frightened.
• 5 minutes, a couple of times a week, in the evening when it is awake. Tolerated, not enjoyed.

Photo: Yeh Xintong on Unsplash

Powder and water, insects on the side

A complete crested gecko diet, a powder mixed with water to a ketchup consistency, is the whole diet. It carries the calcium and vitamins. Baby food and fruit purée are not substitutes and cause bone disease.

A crestie kept on insects and fruit alone has soft bones within a year. One pack of diet lasts an adult two to three months, which is why this is the cheapest reptile here to run.

Keeping live insects and supplements: handbook, Food you store or keep alive.

Overnight, eaten, check the toes

Cresties shed in one go at night and eat it. The evening mist is what makes it come off cleanly. Check toes, tail tip and the crests above the eyes after any day the gecko looked dull; skin left on the toes tightens and the toe is lost. Ten minutes in a humid tub, then a damp cotton bud. Never pull dry skin.

Treating stuck shed: handbook, Health.

What crested geckos actually get

Respiratory infection, mites, mouth rot, parasites and the same-day signs: handbook, Health. Finding a vet: handbook, Vets and insurance.