Am I freaking out over nothing?

[Skunkwulf]

I have juvenile crestie- I got them as a tiny baby at a big-box pet store, so I cant be positive about his/her age or sex. I'm going to guess 4 or 5 months.

I have her in a little 10 gallon setup right now, with 50/50 fake and real plants, on an ABV mix substrate. I just finished putting together her permanent home, a fully bio-active 30 gallon that I am letting settle before I move her in. I've been keeping her heat right around 70 F, lights on a proper day/night cycle, and have had her on a schedule of Pangea CGD and alternating with dusted, gut loaded crickets (waiting for my dubias to have babies).

I've had her about 2-3 months now, and have noticed her coat/patterns becoming more pronounced, especially at night when I mist and she fires up. I've also noticed she has been getting more and more of these little black "freckles".

I tried to snap a picture tonight, sorry about the phone camera quality. Is this just a natural part of her pattern coming in, or should I be concerned about these little dark spots?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Skunkwulf]

I should add that she has been acting completely healthy... Sleeps up in her special spot every day, wakes up when the lights go out, becomes active, fires up, eats pretty much every night, drinks water off of the leaves when I mist, and poops big ol' healthy poos on a regular basis, which I clean off of the plant leaves.

 

[Young Geckoboy]

I think that she is fine. Geckos in general take a little bit for their full patterns to develop. I wouldn't worry. She might just have a dalmatian gene

 

[Skunkwulf]

I think that she is fine. Geckos in general take a little bit for their full patterns to develop. I wouldn't worry. She might just have a dalmatian gene

I was kind of wondering this, but it's nice to get some reassurance. Thank you!

 

[Young Geckoboy]

You're very welcome. If you have any other questions, feel free to make a post so we can help.

 

[acpart]

Definitely Dalmatian coloring developing. The 30 gallon may eventually be too small for an adult. My crested geckos are in 18x18x24 or 18x18x36. Here's a picture of some of my Dalmatian geckos. The one without the tail is the mother and the other 2 (or what you can see of them) are daughters:

Aliza

 

[Skunkwulf]

Definitely Dalmatian coloring developing. The 30 gallon may eventually be too small for an adult. My crested geckos are in 18x18x24 or 18x18x36. Here's a picture of some of my Dalmatian geckos. The one without the tail is the mother and the other 2 (or what you can see of them) are daughters:

Aliza

So cute! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't 18x18x24 a 30 gallon? I'm pretty sure those are the dimensions of my tank, too. I may upgrade again down the line when she's full grown.

 

[Young Geckoboy]

May I ask, why do you need a 30 gallon for a reptile smaller than a normal leopard gecko that can live happily in a 10 gallon?

 

[Skunkwulf]

May I ask, why do you need a 30 gallon for a reptile smaller than a normal leopard gecko that can live happily in a 10 gallon?

Have you seen full grown crested geckos? They get a fairly decent size, easily as big or bigger than a leopard. They're also arboreal, as opposed to leopard geckos, and spend most of their time elevated in foliage. 10 gallons for an adult is too small. I wouldn't personally keep a leopard in a 10 gallon, either.

 

[Young Geckoboy]

That is true. Sorry, I don't keep cresties (yet, anyway) and I thought they only got about 7-8 inches. I agree about the ten gallon for the leopard too (I have my adult male in a 25 gallon currently). I really have been confused about a crested's full size, though. In pictures they don't look too big to me. Thank you guys.

 

[acpart]

The gecko enclosure in my picture above is actually an 18x18x36 because there are 4 geckos in there (mother and 3 daughters). They have been fine together for the last 3 years or so. I have tried keeping single adult crested geckos in a 12x12x18 enclosure (initially because I didn't know any better and one other time because I had to wait until a space became available for larger enclosure) and it's not so much their size, but their activity level that requires a larger enclosure.

Aliza

 

[Young Geckoboy]

Oh ok. Thank you