Possible Health Issue?

[TankDiveGirl]

Hi Everyone!

I bought an adult male (ex breeder) male at the Texas NARBC in February.  Mushu has settled in fine to his new home, is eating, resting etc.  I took him out to check him over tonight and noticed that he has what appear to be small (smaller than the tip of my pinkie, maybe about the size of a pencil eraser) raised plaques of skin on his chest and throat.  I was wondering if any of you had seen this before and what it might be?

His caging situation at the moment is a 20 tall aquarium, screen top, paper towel substrate, pieces of grapevine to climb on, small plastic melamine hide box, and a large water dish.  I mist heavily 2x a day, once first thing in the morning and once right before turning the lights off at night.  He does drink.  Basking spot is around 85, ambient temp is mid 70's to 80.  Nighttime drop is to mid 60s or slightly lower, depending on house temperature.  Current diet is mixed varieties of baby food and occasional crickets (that's what he was eating when i bought him, and he's reluctant to eat anything else).  Water is filtered as we have a well and I filter the water for all the animals just in case.

His feet and tail are still sticky, and his color is still normal.  His eyes are clear, he has not lost any weight, and his droppings are also normal.

I am in the process of making his environment more naturalistic; I realize that his caging is not perfect by any means. 

I wonder if the paper towels don't hold too much moisture, and when he's in his hidebox during the day it gets too wet against his skin?  I can change the substrate tonight to Coconut bark if you guys think that would be a good idea... I have some for my wife's hognose snake that's kept in a different room.

I'll try to get some pictures of the plaque areas, but he's a jumpy little dude and has a habit of flying into my face when i have him out. 

Anybody got a clue?
Thanks so much!
Jamie & Mushu

[KatiesCresteds]

First off, welcome to the forum!

I'm not sure about the skin issue but here are some things you should change in husbandry/feeding.

First, crested geckos aren't really basking lizards, and anything over 80 degrees can be very dangerous for them. I would keep him at room temperature with no heat source unless it is below 70-75 degrees in the house, then I would heat the cage with a heat pad and be sure to monitor the temperature to make sure the temps don't go over 78-ish degrees.

Stay away from bark, if ingested it can cause a blockage (impaction) and is very dangerous. Also you may want to let the tank dry off a little bit during the day. You want it humid, but not soggy in there.

Get him off the baby food as soon as you can. It is not nutritionally complete for crested geckos and can cause a multitude of health issues including but not limited to MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease) from calcium deficiency. You'll want to switch him over to Crested Gecko Diet (which you can find on the main site here, or several other sites) which is a complete diet for them. It may take him a while to start eating it. What I suggest is to stop feeding insects and to mix 25% CGD (crested gecko diet) with 75% baby food. The next feeding do 50% CGD and 50% baby food, then next 75% CGD and 25% baby food, and then finally completely to the CGD. This will help him acquire a taste for the CDG while slowly transitioning him to it. He still may be reluctant to not eat the plain CGD. Just keep only offering him that. If he hasn't touched it in a week, add some honey or non-citrus organic fruit juice to the CGD to sweeten it up a bit. Try to break him off that though. Don't worry about him not eating. I know it sounds horrible, but sometimes tough love is what's best. He won't starve himself.

Only after he's eating pure CGD on a regular basis should you introduce crickets (dusted!) back but only has a occasional treat, like once a week or so.

Good luck, and I hope this was helpful!

[Heather]

I Second KatiesCresteds. I don't know what it is that your describing with the skin thing either (picture?)

I have Natural setups for all my adult and sub adult Cresteds. I like it because where I live is quite dry and the natural set up keeps the humidity consistant, also planted terrariums look so pretty 

Anyway, what I use for substrate is regular pottingsoil that has no Perlite or vermiculite or anything added (because of impaction risks) and I do add some sand and a bit of cocofiber.  Really though, any natural substrate could cause impaction if a big mouthful was swallowed so I Never feed crickets (or anything but CGD) in the terrarium. (I use a separate container for treat bugs).

Natural setups are great because if done right you actually never really have to clean them and that can save you a lot of time, but it's not without it's risks. If you were to get Mites or Entamoeba Invadens or some other kind of contaminant you have a MAJOR issue on your hands.
Also if you're new to cresteds it's better to be able to monitor poop and all the rest to make sure that your little guy is healthy and on the right track.
At this stage I would recommend that you stay on paper towel and add a humid hide as per Anthony's caresheet instructions that's the best of both worlds.