Savannah's 'bed'!

Hi guys!
A less serious/business post now - an update on the adorable couple!

Rocco and Savannah have been doing brilliantly recently.
They've been eating very well, hunting on their own, and Savannah has shed since the last time I updated you. She's grown so much! Rocco we think is due a shed tonight, as his skin feels rough and baggy and he's a very pale white.

There's so many videos and pictures I'm desperate to show you, so I'm going to show them to you in sections.

Savannah's Bed

The geckos took a few days to find their way around the vivarium and discover the new attractions that awaited them. Now they're comfortable in their surroundings, they've once again found their favourite places in the vivarium.

Every single day when I go into the vivarium, I always struggle finding Rocco and I will find him hidden in different places. Savannah, however, I can guarantee will be in the same place. We now have a nickname for it, and call it her bed.

She found a pretty stand-up flower on the left of the vivarium I'd put there, which has two large cupped leaves. She'd climbed into the pouch, as she's so little, and hidden deep down in it towards the center of the flower. I can find her there every single day, all day.

I found one day that Rocco had joined Savannah! 

Look at them snuggled in their own little pouches. 

You can just see their little noses poking out from the front of the plant! What a brilliant hiding place. Kudos to Savannah! 

One day, I even found them upside-down! So funny! 

Here's Rocco's amazing hiding place. Haha! I always told you he was rubbish at hiding.
He looks so cool and streamlined! It's like he's about to dive. 

Here's a wet Savannah tucked in her pouch after a misting.

Drinking

The other thing I really want to show you is the videos and pictures of Rocco and Savannah drinking.

They've really got into drinking water droplets after a misting recently. I don't know if the larger vivarium gives them more things to drink the water from, and now they can climb the glass easier it is probably a lot easier for them to drink from it. They have been drinking water droplets off of the glass, leaves, wood and plants!

It's absolutely adorable, and everytime I spray they are super eager for a drink, so I try to spray them and their surroundings directly. They always end up super covered in water droplets, yet for some reason they love it. It's like watching a pig in the mud.

Maybe I should make them a little paddling pool...

These pictures are truly awesome.
I'm not going to caption them, but seriously enjoy them. They're amazing.

Ah, got some really good pictures of Rocco this morning! They are SO sweet.

I hope you really enjoyed these pictures and videos - they are amazing. You can't get much better than that, other than an action jumping shot! They're difficult to snap.

Thanks again for reading!
Elly. x

SUCCESS!!!

After about half an hour of persistence and trying different methods, finally...
SUCCESS!!

I am so excited to tell you that Savannah ate 2 meal worms! Good sized meal worms as well, especially as Savannah is so tiny!
Rocco was useless throughout the whole event. At one point he took a couple of bites at them, but other than that he really showed no interest. Dad and I decided we're not going to feed him until he eats them.

It just shows that you just need to persist. Fussy eaters will eat if you try enough.

Here's some pictures of Savannah eating the second meal worm.

I did capture a video of Savannah eating the first mealworm, but for some reason I'm struggling to upload it right now.
Keep an eye out tomorrow for it - I will update the post if I can. :-)

I hope you're as proud as Savannah as I am!

Visit us tomorrow to read about Rocco's fame, and tips on housing a new crested gecko!

Elly. x

Plans for Breeding

Crested geckos do not become sexually mature until about a year old, although there are many cases of it happening much earlier.
Rocco and Savannah are in the same enclosure, and so if they were to mature early they would be getting up to their shenanigans right away.
If it were to happen early, I need to make sure that there are plans in place for whatever might happen, and I need to know what I'm doing.

Preparing for Eggs

When female cresties lay their eggs in the wild, they will bury them into the soil or the earth and leave them in the same position until they are hatched. It could have a negative impact on the growing gecko's development if the egg is moved around too much.

We purchased some Eco Earth super early and filled it reasonably deep in our geckos' enclosure. It's a soft, soil-like material made up of shredded coconut fibres. Some come in a block for you to break up, but mine came in a ready shredded 8.8 litre bag. It can be used moist or dry in the enclosure, and I thought it would be a natural material for them which would be easy for Savannah to bury into.

Some people don't fill their enclosure with substrate in case hunting cresties consume it by accident. However, due to Rocco and Savannah's lack of hunting skills, the substrate shouldn't be a problem in this sense. If you do have concerns about your gecko consuming the substrate, you may want to read up on nesting boxes, as these can be effective for egg-laying too.

 This picture shows the substrate on the floor of my vivarium. There's lots of room around the enclosure for Savannah to lay her eggs and bury them.

This is a front view of the substrate through the vivarium glass. You can see how deep it is. We filled it about 2/3 of the way up to the front doors.

For the next few months, we will keep checking the substrate carefully for eggs about once a week. When they are definitely sexually mature, we will make sure we do this more often.

Preparing for Hatchlings

Until we find any eggs, and until we know Rocco and Savannah are sexually mature, this isn't something we have to worry greatly about.

On the other hand, I think it is important for us to know exactly how to care for the hatchlings and how their needs differ from the needs of an adult gecko.

We have a critter keeper, and I have been told that this can make a great home for hatchlings in their first month or so of life. An enclosure that is too large can make hatchlings feel intimidated and they will struggle to find their food. I want my hatchlings to be able to hunt, as I believe this is a healthier and more natural option for them.

We are keeping the critter keeper aside at the moment for the hatchlings, and we are going to use paper towels in the bottom of it. It is quite small, but we will be sure to fill it with some sort of vine for them to climb in.

At Christmas time, something that I've asked for is an explorarium. I know that explorariums are often hung outside when it is warm, and that's the main aim for them, but I'm thinking that the older hatchlings would find the explorarium a decent enclosure until we find them a home.

Here's an image I found online of a hatchling enclosure made from a cricket keeper. This is the kind of thing that I had in mind for the young hatchlings.

Selling my Crested Gecko Hatchlings

I already know of a few people who would like a hatchling or two, and I'm giving friends and family a 25% discount.

I know that crested geckos can be a lot more difficult to sell than perhaps puppies, kittens or bunnies, but I have several plans in place.

I'm going to be using the blog to advertise my hatchlings. I know that the blog is still young and I've yet to receive more views and everything, but it will be a good way to advertise them.

I'm going to let people pre-order them as soon as they want to. If you know what Savannah and Rocco look like and how tame they are etc., you will know that any hatchling of theirs will be gorgeous with a lovely temperament. I will want people to be able to come and pick them up, as it will be difficult and not very cost-effective for me to travel. The earlier people order the hatchlings, the more likely they will be able to have one, the sooner they will be able to have one and the less expensive they will  be.

I know that I'm going to be aiming for about £40 a hatchling, which was the price of Rocco and £10 under the price of Savannah. The prices could vary depending on what the hatchlings are like and my situation at the time. If anyone is already interested, you can email me on:

roccothegecko@gmail.com

elly_crook@icloud.com

pianoprincess33@gmail.com

Here are some pictures of Rocco and Savannah's markings to give you an idea on how the hatchlings may turn out.

Rocco (left) is my male. He is a 'flame'. This is him fired up when he is brown and orange, and fired down he is yellow and green. Savannah (right) is my female, and she is a harlequin. She is fired up here, and she is a brighter and lighter yellow and gold normally.

As well as advertising on the blog, I'm going to be using pets4homes, preloved and gumtree. I know a lot of people successfully sell their geckos on these websites, and I feel that my hatchlings are going to have a lot to offer compared to a lot of the other sellers'! ;-)

I'm willing to keep the hatchlings for as long as I need until they are homed :-) I will love and care for them if nobody else can.

Problems

I'm fully aware of some things that may go wrong when breeding crested geckos.

I've mentioned a couple of times before about small gravid females unable to lay their eggs, therefore the eggs fusing inside their womb. I've made sure very early I've provided lots of space and substrate in hope that Savannah can lay her eggs successfully, and I am feeding her up and providing lots of calcium and vitamins in order to make sure she grows successfully.

I'm looking out for loss of appetite and lethargic behaviour from the both of them, which could indicate stresses of breeding. This is most commonly caused by a larger and older male wanting to breed, whilst the smaller and younger female does not. Rocco and Savannah are the same age, but Rocco has been fed much better and therefore is much larger. This is something I have to keep an eye on from Savannah, but at the moment she is perfectly active and healthy, growing day by day and eating brilliantly.

The last thing I'm looking out for is Savannah becoming gravid. I don't want to miss any signs of this, because I want to start planning as soon as I'm aware of approaching hatchlings!

So that's about it for my breeding plans :-)

Other than all of that, I'm just trying to create a comfortable environment with zero competition so that my geckos get on as best as possible! They seem to be doing just fine.

I'll finish of with a couple of pictures of the pair of them this morning. They show Savannah following Rocco up the vine. So cute!

(For those interested in hatchlings, it will also show you Savannah 'fired-down'!)

Enjoy!

Elly. x

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