Couple minor newbie questions

[Andy_G]

I'm going to be getting a few baby cresties in a couple months time(when they hatch for a buddy of mine), and I have a couple questions.

My first question has to do with substrate. I have heard of baby cresties accidently swallowing loose substrate and choking to death while feeding, I was planning on using jungle floor bedding, is it okay to go ahead and use the forest floor bedding or should I keep the babies on paper towels until they are a bit larger in size, or should I use a seperate container for when I feed the crickets to them?

My second question is, I have noticed a lot of people use egg crates for climbing/hiding for their geckos, where can I pick up some of those?

Thanks in advance guys!

[clint545]

It would be best to keep them on paper towel, until they get bigger and better at catching crickets.
As for the cartons, by some eggs, or ask at the grocery store. They might have some empty flats out back.

[HeatherRose]

I agree, if they're babies I'd put them on some paper towel just in case. Whenever I feed crickets to my adults I often find they get a mouthful of substrate too. ( I use an ecoearth/jungle earth mix)

Better safe than sorry :D

[Andy_G]

Thanks for the responses thus far. With them, another question comes to my mind. What size/age would they have to be to be kept safely on loose substrate?

[CDN-Cresties]

Paper towels, as for an age I dont know, I keep all my cresites on papertowel or newspaper. But if I had to pick an age I would say 8-10 months old.

For egg crates, I wouldnt go to a grocery store and ask, when I posted this same question a while back, someone mentioned that they spray the eggs with some chemical while they are on the trays. Im not sure if this is true but I didn't want to take the chance. I ordered mine from a local store called Co-op. See if you can find a farming store in your area, they should be able to order them for you. Good luck!

[HeatherRose]

I agree, 8-10 months. I pretty much only have the eco/jungle earth mix in my breeding/'display' tank for asthetic purposes. Everyone else gets paper towels. It looks fine :D

Another option other than egg carton is cork bark. I love this stuff, I have to get more!

[Andy_G]

I was thinking...if I were to place the crickets in a container that they can't jump out of, and place the container in the cage...would that work?

[CDN-Cresties]

Yeah it could work, I seen a video on the net of a cresties doing this. I tried it to but for some reason I had no luck. The only worry would be when your crestie leaps to grab a cricket, he/she may crush other crickets in that area.

[noname]

I would keep them on paper towel...at least until they become better at catching the crickets. Like HeatherRose said, better safe than sorry. My boyfriend and I just put paper towel on the bottom of all of our cresty enclosures. It's obviously not the most aesthetically pleasing substrate, but it's the least risky. Secondly, if you're going to put the crickets in a cup of some sort, you have to smush their knees (icky), so they don't jump out. Also, make sure the bottom of the cup is padded in some way, as they have a tendency to leap with full force, and smash their faces.

One more thing...Mike and I just use small tropical plants, and bamboo in our enclosures. The plants are only a few dollars at Wal-Mart, and work very well. I believe there is a list in the enclosures forum, as to what plants are safe to use. If you do this, just make sure you change the soil, and wash all of the leaves before you put them in the enclosures, to make sure there aren't any pesticides/fertilizers on the plant. WOW, that was long. Anyways, best of luck!

Courtney