Jeb's Reptiles

This is the setup for Data, my gargoyle gecko baby. I would recommend a setup like this for a crested, gargoyle, or other arboreal gecko up to about 10-15 grams. I was trying to create a setup that was easy to clean and monitor my baby gecko, but without sacrificing the aesthetics. This setup was actually cheaper than the price I have listed here because a lot of the supplies were left over from Lovecraft’s old setup, and some supplies were bought on sale. Please note that if you also decide to reuse supplies that have been used by other animals, make sure you thoroughly clean them before giving them to a new gecko.

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Container

The aquarium I used holds 10 gallons and I got it at Walmart. It is waterproof and seems to hold in humidity fine with enough decoration and the right substrate. There’s really no point buying an expensive terrarium for a baby gecko, as they will only be living in this enclosure for a few months. Other inexpensive containers include critter keepers and sterilite tubs (with appropriate ventilation).

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Substrate

The best substrate for baby geckos is paper towel. I’ve tried reptile carpet, newspaper, and eco earth, but ultimately they aren’t the best option as I will explain. Paper towel is cheap, you probably already own it. It is also easy to clean, just replace it approximately once a week. The biggest advantage of paper towel is that it makes finding gecko feces very easy. Especially with babies or new arrivals, it is important to ensure they are eating regularly. With eco earth, it can be difficult to find feces to ensure they are eating properly, and it is honestly just messier to replace. I would not recommend using newspaper because there is a greater risk of it being contaminated with pathogens from the outside world. Update: I later switched this setup to reptile carpet once I was confident that Data was eating well.

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Hides

In this setup, I reused an Exo Terra skull hide from a past setup and filled it with damp sphagnum moss. I’ve never actually seen Data go inside it, but Lovecraft used to when it was in his terrarium. The moss gets sprayed regularly to keep it moist. It is important to keep a dry and humid hide for your geckos. The humid hide will aid in loosening their skin while shedding, but regularly they prefer a hide kept at a similar humidity to the rest of their enclosure.

 

The dry hide in this setup is from Magnaturals. I’m still not sure how I feel about it because I had to rinse it a few times before pieces stopped flaking off, but I see Data using it a lot, and found bits of shed skin inside while cleaning. Since one side of this hide is facing the outside of the terrarium and may leave the gecko feeling open and vulnerable, I stuck an index card between the magnet and the glass on the outside. Exo terra makes a cave hide that comes with a sticker for this purpose, but I wanted to try a different brand this time. I also included a paper towel roll cut in half, which some geckos will use as a hide, but needs to be replaced regularly because it can get soggy after being misted.

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Other

This setup has two pieces of artificial foliage that Data loves to climb on and hide in. The first one is from Exo Terra and the second larger one is from Fluker's. Aside from being good for your gecko, the fake leaves just look pretty and help create a more natural looking enclosure without all the extra work of keeping live plants. 

 

Another important piece of any enclosure is the food dishes. Although some people prefer to just use Gatorade bottle caps to put their baby geckos' food in, I prefer Pangea's small magnetic food ledge. Gargoyle and crested geckos are arboreal, and feel more comfortable feeding above the ground. You can purchase a set of 100 plastic food bowls to put on the ledge, although since I wash and reuse mine, I really don't need that many.

 

The last item in this enclosure is a Zoo Med analog thermometer and hygrometer. Keeping track of the humidity and temperature in your terrarium is very important because geckos can easily die of overheating or dehydration. Although there are definitely better options on the market and I would prefer to upgrade to digital monitoring eventually, these cheap analog ones work fine for now. I accidentally bought the glow-in-the-dark version for this setup, but it doesn't seem to bother Data because it stops glowing shortly after turning off lights.