Crested Gecko Personality – Is Crested Gecko Right For You

Crested Gecko Personality

Crested geckos make great pets for anyone and are ideal for beginners. However, before getting one, you need to research if the Crested gecko personality fits your lifestyle and if it’s what you’re looking for in a pet.

In this article we are going to cover the following topics:

  • Crested gecko personality when kept as pets
  • Male vs female Crested gecko personality and behavior
  • What can affect Crested gecko personality and behavior
  • Do Crested geckos need to be kept alone or with other geckos
  • Crested gecko behaviors every owner needs to know about

Crested Gecko Personality When Kept As Pets

Many Crested gecko owners describe the Crested gecko personality as:

  • Friendly
  • Easy to care for
  • Intelligent

Crested Geckos are known to be one of the friendlies lizard pets. They are often described as being very calm animals and not aggressive towards their owner. This makes them easy to care for and good for beginners.

In addition, Crested geckos also enjoy being handled. However, it’s important that you introduce your gecko to handling from a young age or soon after you get them.

In order to enjoy being held, the Crested gecko needs to be comfortable with it. Once they are used to it, they can become very tame pets.

Although, Crested gecko personality is not as affectionate as that of a dog, they are still fascinating animals that show their affection in different ways such as:

  • Climbing around your fingers, up your arm, shoulders etc
  • Having fun by doing “leaps” which is jumping off your hand/shoulder towards another object or your other hand

Before handling your Crested gecko, it’s essential that you learn what are the safe ways to hold them and to learn the technique “hand walking”. Read more about all of that here How To Hold A Crested Gecko: Tips On Handling Crested Gecko

What Can Affect My Crested Gecko Personality

Crested gecko personality

Your Crested gecko personality and how friendly they are depends on many factors such as:

  • Are they used to handling
  • How often they get taken out of the tank
  • Their individual personality. Owners report observing different personality traits in Crested geckos as individuals

However, there are other factors that can have an effect on your gecko’s personality and lead to change in behavior.

Sexual Maturity

Once your gecko reached sexual maturity their hormones might result in them “acting out” such as being more aggressive/territorial or just moody and not wanting to be picked up. This is behavior is especially heightened in male Crested geckos

Stress

Many things can result in your Crested gecko feeling stressed such as any trips, car rides etc, incorrect temperatures/humidity/lighting in the tank, parasites and other illnesses, incorrect handling and more. Stress can lead to a change in your Crested gecko behavior

Environment And Conditions

Another thing that can result in what it might seem as a change in your Crested gecko personality is – incorrect habitat setup (too small or too big tank/enclosure) or incorrect living conditions such as temperature and humidity levels. Read more about what your Crested gecko enclosure setup needs to be here Crested Gecko Habitat Setup: How To Build A Perfect Tank

Pregnancy And Motherhood

Gravid female geckos will be more sensitive and territorial during their pregnancy. You should avoid handling them during that period. Once the eggs are laid, the female gecko will be protective over her babies and might nip you or try to escape if you attempt to pick her up

Multiple Geckos Housed Together

Your Crested gecko personality can be largely affected if they are housed with other geckos

Male vs Female Crested Gecko

In some cases, Crested gecko personality might vary between genders.

The following is the list of differences between male and female Crested gecko personality and behaviors:

  • Some owners have reported that male Crested geckos are more relaxed compared to females that appear more “busy”
  • Important difference to remember is that female Crested geckos will lay eggs. Therefore, you need to provide them with a nesting place for them to lay their eggs
  • When the female Crested gecko is pregnant, also known as gravid female, they can present with changes in personality. The Crested gecko personality might appear more territorial and aggressive. This is them being protective over their babies
  • Male Crested gecko personality can become more aggressive or change when they reach sexual maturity. During this period, they might try to mate with your hand if you pick them up. However, this is completely harmless and even funny

Both male and female Crested gecko personality can change under different circumstances. Therefore, it’s hard to tell if male or female Crested geckos have a friendlier personality.

Housing Multiple Crested Geckos

As mentioned above, Crested gecko personality can change if you house multiple geckos.

In the wild, Crested geckos are solitary animals and will only encounter other geckos when time to breed. Therefore, when kept as pets, they will be the happiest living on their own.

If you do want to keep two or more Crested geckos in the same tank/enclosure, it’s important to know a few very important rules.

The following combinations are OK to keep in the same enclosure:

  • Crested gecko on its own
  • Multiple female Crested geckos
  • One male and multiple female Crested geckos

The following combinations are NOT OK to keep in the same enclosure:

  • Multiple male Crested geckos
  • One male and one female Crested gecko
  • Multiple males with one female Crested gecko
  • Multiple males and multiple female Crested geckos

Let’s take a closer look at the reasons why would these combinations have an effect on your Crested gecko personality.

Multiple Female Crested Geckos

Housing multiple female Crested geckos will not affect your gecko’s stress levels. Multiple female geckos are less likely to fight as they aren’t territorial.

The females will normally stay friendly and happy as long as the tank is big enough.

One Male And Multiple Females

This combination is ok and is less likely to cause stress as the male gecko will breed with more than one female. You should expect many hatchlings as a result.

Multiple Male Crested Gecko

Housing multiple males will result in them fighting to establish dominance which in turn will lead to a lot of stress, noise and injuries.

One Male And One Female Crested Gecko

Housing one male and one female Crested gecko might seem like a good idea. However, it’s not. And the reason for that is – the female gecko will become very stressed over time because of the male gecko trying to breed and even chasing your female around the enclosure.

This will cause a lot of stress to your female Crested gecko and can affect their lifespan. You should only house one male and one female when you want them to breed and not for long periods of time.

Multiple Males And Females

Keeping multiple males and females together is also not a good idea. This is because of the male’s territorial behavior. The males will end up fighting to establish dominance. This can result in stress and injury to both male and female geckos.

Multiple Males And One Female

This is a very dangerous combination for your female Crested gecko. As the males are territorial, they will compete to breed with the one female gecko. This will result in the female constantly being chased around the enclosure which in turn will cause extreme stress and injury to the female.

Crested Gecko Behaviors – What Is Normal?

Crested gecko personality

Crested gecko personality vary from gecko to gecko. However, there are some behaviors that any owner needs to know about:

  • Digging and burrowing in the substrate – This is normal behavior and your gecko usually do this when laying eggs or trying to find a cool spot in the enclosure
  • Sluggish during the day – If your Crested gecko is acting sluggish during the day, it’s because they are nocturnal and usually sleep during that time. Ensure that there isn’t anything that’s keeping them up
  • Eating skin after shedding – You might not even notice when this happens. All Crested geckos eat their skin after shedding. This is a normal behavior and the reason for it is – they get nutrients from the skin and also they don’t want to leave any trace for predators
  • Biting – Although, very rare your Crested gecko can bite if it feels scared, stressed or threatened. However, this doesn’t hurt because they have very small teeth
  • Dropping its tail – This happens if your Crested gecko is extremely stressed or frightened, especially during handling. However, once the tail has fallen, there isn’t anything that you need or can do. The gecko will get back to normal life immediately but the tail won’t regrow
  • Licking its eyeballs – another normal behavior for Crested geckos is licking their eyeballs. This is because they don’t have eyelids and is the way they moisturize their eyes
  • Making noises/sounds – Crested geckos can be very vocal, from chirping noises to hissing. They make sounds if they are feeling threatened, aggressive/territorial or as a mating call
  • Tail movements – This is the way of your Crested gecko telling you they are not comfortable and you need to put them down if you’re holding them. This is especially important if they are moving their tail in “S” formation

Final Thoughts

Crested gecko personality

The conclusion from this article is that Crested gecko personality is unique and varies from gecko to gecko.

But what factors can affect your Crested gecko personality? Is gender one of them?

Many Crested gecko owners have said that gender doesn’t play a big role. People have owned friendly females and males and others have owned nervous/jumpy females and males.

There are some factors that can affect your Crested gecko personality and how they behave. However, these factors are more to do with how you raise your gecko and the care you provide.

Some of these factors include:

  • Handling. Are you handling them correctly and often enough. Are they used to being handled from a young age
  • Stress. This can lead to your gecko being nervous and even aggressive. Many things can cause stress to your gecko such as incorrect enclosure, temperature/humidity levels, incorrect diet, etc
  • Are they housed with other geckos? Your Crested gecko will be most relaxed and happy if they are housed on their own

Other factors that affect your Crested gecko behavior include:

  • Age
  • Sexual maturity
  • Pregnancy

unusualpetsguide

My name is Iliyana and I'm a passionate animal lover and pet owner. As there is significantly less information online about unusual and exotic pets, I decided to found this website and recruit expert writers to help pet owners.

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