Mealworms, substrate and hiding places.

Apologies for the very broad title of this blog post!

There's no real aim of this post at all, just little bits and bobs that I want to tell you.

It's kind of just a few updates of my own geckos and not really much that will be useful for you, but there are a few cute pictures if you just want to look at those. :-)

Mealworms

Jack very kindly picked up a pot of mealworms for me at Aquator in Torquay. They were a brilliant deal at £2 for a pretty large box of at least 50 mealworms. 4p per mealworm! That's pretty good going.

I was really excited about giving them mealworms, because Rocco wasn't very fond of crickets. I know that Savannah and her fellow gecko buddies were given crickets as well as Crested Gecko Diet, although I wasn't sure how much she had really received because it was pretty obvious she hadn't got a lot of food.

We got going a little pot of about 6 mealworms, and grabbed the both of them.

After about 45 minutes of practically forcing mealworms down their throats, the most we actually got out of them was a few licks from Rocco.

I swear to God, my geckos are so spoiled. Bugs are far too gross for them. They will only be fed the finest organic baby food on silver spoons! ;-)

I really don't know what it is about Rocco and refusing to eat anything I give him.

He sure loves baby food, but he barely eats any of that compared to the amount Savannah gobbles up!

Rocco really is a little fuss-pot like his mama.

So now I've got this great big tub of mealworms that my little fuss pots aren't going to eat!
Just what I wanted!

Substrate

I know that cresties don't really start breeding until a year, but there are many cases of them breeding a lot earlier when kept in the same enclosure.

I was concerned that, because they're already pretty close and cuddling up, Savannah would become gravid very early and have nowhere to lay her eggs. I've heard from reptile specialists about eggs fusing inside the female etc.. I certainly did not want that happening to Savannah.

So, we went and purchased some Eco Earth! It came in a big delivery van today. It was a HUGE bag, sized 8.8 litres, which was actually a lot bigger than I was expecting.

(I ordered it off Amazon for about £7 with Super Saver Delivery!)

It's made mostly from coconut shell, I believe. It pretty much feels like soil or compost, but at the moment ours is dry. Once I mistify the vivarium tonight, I expect it will be far more moist.

Rocco and Savannah don't really think that much of it just yet.

Hiding Places

I just thought that I'd share with you a huge difference between Rocco and Savannah.

When I first got Rocco, I thought how amazingly clever he really was. I didn't think that a tiny little reptile could really be that smart, eg. recognising sounds, understanding time of the day, remembering where certain things are in the enclosure, knowing that the left side of the enclosure is heated etc. and I was amazed at his abilities.

However, I didn't quite realise until I got Savannah how dumb Rocco really is.

Or is Savannah just smart?

I will save other stories for another time, and I will use hiding places as an example.

We all know that crested geckos like to hide in the day. As they are nocturnal, it is important that they hide away from predators whilst sleeping and more visible in broad daylight. A crested gecko should feel safe and secure when hidden.

Any crested gecko owner should know that you should provide your crested gecko with at least 3 hiding places in the cage that all see to different needs. I myself have a warm hide, a moist hide and 2 regular hides.

Savannah is brilliant at the whole hiding thing.

You can place her on a jungle vine, and she will immediately make her way to the nearest hiding place. She will spend a long time squeezing into small spaces and covering herself with leaves until she feels she is adequately hidden. Then she will sleep.

When I try to get Savannah out, I have great difficulty finding her.

However, Rocco really doesn't get the whole hiding thing.

You can place Rocco on a jungle vine, and he will stay there for the rest of the day.

He doesn't care if he is hidden or not.

I don't know if it is because Rocco knows there are no other creatures around but me and Savannah.. Perhaps he is super, super smart!?

My brain tells me this is not the case, and he is just lazy and empty headed.

Ah well, I love him for it!

Now he's some pictures from the next couple of days.

They're kind of random so I will caption them to let you know what's going on:-)

Sorry that today's post didn't really have any direction to it.

This is a little bit blurry, sorry!

 This one is better! Here's Rocco and Savannah enjoying some apple sauce and calcium :-)

 Rocco was climbing me and Savannah was copying him! Cute!

 Me and Savannah. <3

 A picture of Rocco 'hiding'.

 Some more climbing,

Here are the mealworms we offered them! They weren't keen, to the delight of the mealworms.

This is them playing on the spare piece of cork bark whilst Jack prepared the mealworms. They like to climb and jump all over it!

Elly. x