CASE STUDY: The Brotherhood of Geckos - Multi-housing & Colony Housing

As I have written before, most geckos DON'T need friends.  However, there are the odd occasions where groups that shouldn't get along... DO!  It's crazy!  But it just proves what I'm coming to believe more and more - that crested geckos are very social animals, despite the common belief that they aren't.

I received a group of three cresties into my rescue from a young boy who wanted to try his hand at breeding and believed that he had a male and two females "even though one of them looks male".  His vet had even told him he had a good breeding group of a male and two females.  This is why I'm very cautious about who I go to when the vet receptionist insists they see "any exotics" without asking.

I got these geckos home and gave them a couple of days to settle before checking them more thoroughly.  All three were male!  No wonder the kid never got any eggs!

Despite all of them being male, they had been together for so long and were so friendly and docile that I decided to keep them together, just to see what would happen.  Well wouldn't you know it, they got along!  They do make a ton of noise as night, but there doesn't seem to be any bullying and they even eat together without competing.  I do, however, provide ample amounts of CGD in three separate dishes just in case, as well as crickets weekly.

So does this mean that ALL geckos will get along?  I don't think so.  I think this is probably only possible due to a few factors:

1. They were housed together from a very young age.
2. They have always been housed in the absence of females.
3. They always have more food than they could ever dream of.

If a female were to be introduced I would hypothesize that they would become aggressive in the pursuit of her, although an absence of food one night didn't cause any fighting.  Perhaps if there were limited food for a significant period of time then they may start to compete for it.

I still don't advise or advocate the housing of multiple geckos outside of breeding groups, and still strongly advise against housing multiple males together in the presence of a female.

Housing Crested Geckos: Do they need friends?

This topic seems to come up a lot, so I have decided to make it the subject of my first ever blog post! Yay!

Firstly, I'm Laura, and I co-run Steel Reptiles with my husband. We are part small turtle/crested gecko breeders, part small reptile rescue. Nice to meet you!

Now moving on to the topic at hand; housing multiple cresties!

I'm going to start by saying that male crested geckos should be housed alone when not breeding during breeding season. I have heard of other people housing a male with a female or two, but I personally house all my geckos separately .

While most people say that females can be housed together, I also prefer to house them separately. I find housing multiple geckos can cause them stress, and just like people they don't always get along.

There are some sources that state crested geckos are semi-cannibalistic, so you may be taking a chance with that too. In the wild they would likely not be living in close quarters with each other, so it's not as natural for them to be social.

With that said, I do house two babies together (<10g each) and they seem to enjoy each other. They can be seen sleeping on the same leaf on opposite sides, jumping over each other, and even eating together. I plan on separating them once they get bigger or their sex can definitively be determined.

If you do choose to house your gecko with a cagemate, I would suggest getting a female, and ensuring that you have an appropriate additional enclosure to isolate the new addition for several weeks to months to ensure it is healthy before putting the health of your gecko at risk. You will also want to keep an enclosure available to set up quickly in the case that the two geckos don't get along, start to fight, or either of them becomes sick or stressed.

Some other things to consider are:

• Are you prepared if your cresties are male & female to incubate the eggs, and care for and house the resulting babies?
• The risks of egg producing complications in females that are bred too early
• The risks of injury caused by one crestie to another
• The additional space required by multiple geckos (2-3 adults need a minimum of a 30 Gallon Vertical Tank)

So does your crested gecko need friends?

My answer is no.