When the temperature is hot in the air of the tank it can cause condensation to form on the cooler substrate. Your gecko will be drawn to this moisture if it feels it is not humid enough in its tank. This could be do to shedding link goes to my crested gecko shedding article or general comfort.
Although at first it may look worries to see your beloved pet crested gecko digging like crazy and burying itself, it generally is not something you need to worry about.
As always it is best to keep checking up on any kind of unusual behaviour to make sure nothing else worrying develops. If you do see your crestie digging try to use the above article to see if any of it applies to your pet. Make checks on the temperature and also the humidity.
Work out of your gecko could be pregnant. What is the best substrate for my crested geckos tank? Without doubt the best substrate ms for your crested gecko are Orchard bark, coco bedding or cypress mulch.
They help to promote better humidity in the tank. Steer clear of using sand as this can accidentally be swallowed when eating which can actually lead to a condition known as compaction.
How many eggs will a female crested gecko bury in the substrate? Usually when a pregnant female has buried her eggs there will either be 1 or 2.
These will normally be white and an oblong cylinder type shape. My works and articles have been shared on many online publications including The Spruce Pets. You can read more about my story by visiting the about me page. Crestied that Bury Themselves. A video of a crested gecko digging and burying itself. While the warm temperature is essential for your plants to grow, your gecko may find it to be too hot since your pet is susceptible to heatstroke.
In return, you observe your reptile avoiding the heat lamp by burying itself under the ground for a colder environment. To handle this, you might need to reorganize the tank to create a sufficient temperature gradient with a warm and a cool side. Adding supplemental moist hides on the cool side can help achieve cooler temperatures your gecko would love.
On a side note, I have noticed that my gecko only digs the soil and hides under the substrate during summer. Though I have implemented a temperature gradient in its tank, I did note high temperatures that are challenging to bring down. To solve this seasonal behavior, I turn on the air-conditioning unit in the room. This method effectively lowered the ambient temperature of the tank. However, you should be careful in setting the temperature of the unit. As you adjust the remote control, you must monitor the thermostat in the tank to avoid hitting lower than what is comfortable for your gecko.
On the other hand, your gecko may be hiding under the soil to warm itself from the cold environment. When your gecko is full after a meal on a chilly evening, it might try to warm itself up by staying under the ground for heat. Soils or sands as substrates are known to capture and store considerable heat during daytime when lights are on.
With this, the warmth under the substrate may provide relief to your reptile. If you do not like your pet to burrow itself at night, you can add a basking rock near the night lamp like this product I recently bought on Amazon. Do you have a newly adopted or purchased leopard or crested gecko? Hiding under the substrate might help it feel secure with the new environment since relocating into another home is stressful for geckos.
If this is the case, you can only give your reptile some time to adjust and get accustomed to its tank. In more or less a week, you should be able to see it roaming around and exploring its surroundings more. Though crested geckos can tolerate minimal cohabitation, it is still best that you individually tank each of your reptiles to avoid stress and further unwanted problems like fights and injuries. Do note, however, that this is not applicable to your leopard gecko because it should always be housed individually!
While the previous four possible causes focus on external factors such as tank maintenance, the last four reasons pertain to your leo or crestie and may not potentially pose adverse effects. One of my co-herpers noticed that his leos and cresties tend to bury themselves before shedding. To prevent your reptile from digging underground during this period, he suggests that you supply a shed box above the ground so it does not use the substrate. He emphasized that a 7-inch-long, a 4-inch-wide, and a 4-inch-tall box filled with a moistened, but not drenched, sphagnum moss would be most suitable to use.
As a result of the shed box, he commented that having that specific shed box inside the tank has massively reduced digging in all his geckos. Moreover, he did warrant that your reptile would surely appreciate this humid soil-filled box to properly aid its shedding process. Do you feed your leo or crestie with live food inside its enclosure? It could be the reason why it is digging and burying itself under the substrate.
Just like imitating its instinct in the wild, your gecko could be digging and hunting those escaped prey. However, if you do not feed it with mealworms and insects, there could be any critters in the substrate itself—including worms, isopods, and springtails—that it could sense, therefore, searching for those.
If you are bothered by this not uncommon behavior, you can inspect the substrate for leftover live foods you fed it. A more exhausting option would be to change the whole substrate to ensure that there would be no live critters in it. Unless you are confident that your leo or crestie is a female that has never cohabitated with a male, burying herself could indicate that your gecko is preparing to lay her unfertilized eggs. Two to three days before she deposits her eggs, you might already see her burrowing into the substrate.
If you measure the dug hole, it would be two to six inches below the top layer. She could spend and stay in the spot for a couple of hours laying the eggs. On the other hand, if you have bred her with a male, your gecko could be gravid with fertilized eggs. That is why she is burying herself.
Hence, you should pay close attention to her. Regularly check for hidden eggs in the morning. The answer is yes, the crested geckos do burrow but they have a different reason to do so. So do not get worried if your crested gecko starts digging, as it is a natural phenomenon or a natural instinct that they do so.
You just need to understand that if your crested gecko is burrowing then why they are doing that and what is the reason behind it. So that you can build a bond with crested geckos and also take care of them properly as burrowing will also help you understand your pet lizard properly.
You should know when the crested gecko is burrowing is it a natural instinct or they are having some problem or they are going through some sort of stress depending upon that you will able to take action and for that, you need to understand the reason that we will discuss regarding the burrowing of the crested gecko.
There are many reasons behind the digging or burrowing done by your crested gecko and some of the main reasons behind this are as follows:. The main reason behind the digging or the burrowing is the laying of the eggs.
This is done by the female crested gecko. You can observe that the female crested gecko will suddenly start digging through its substrate the reason behind this is that she wants a safe place for laying the eggs. You may not notice that your female crested gecko is gravid carrying eggs as they do not bulge much but when they start digging you will get a clue that they are doing burrowing in order to lay eggs. They will not dig one hole they will dig several holes so that they can store their eggs separately.
Do not worry in this case you just should know that your female crested gecko is gravid and want to lay her eggs and that is why she is burrowing and you need to take care of her at this time. The crested gecko needs appropriate temperature inside their terrarium so that they can live a happy and healthy life.
But when there are not proper temperatures and they are getting stressed inside their terrarium so you will notice they will start burrowing the substrate. The reason behind it is simple and that is they are not getting proper temperature inside their enclosure and they want to thermoregulate. In this, they will try to maintain the stable body temperature inside the dug hole so that they are comfortable and are not having any problems with the temperature.
When the crested gecko is lacking the enrichment then also you can notice that the crested gecko will start burrowing.
They get the enrichment from plants, rocks, caves, etc. As digging is also an enriching activity. Also when they will lack enrichment they will be very lazy.
So it is the responsibility of the owner of the crested gecko to provide them with everything they want and so that they do not lack the enrichment. Their basic needs should be taken care of and you should be able to understand them so that you can provide them with everything that they want. When your crested gecko is digging and the reason is quite different from the above one and you cannot resonate with the above-mentioned reasons that the crested gecko must be trying to hide something inside the holes that they are burrowing.
This is not a common reason but some crested geckos do burrow the holes in order to hide something. They are usually hiding food, pebbles, etc. They just hide things because they become habitual of hiding things.
Also do check the holes and see what they are hiding because if they are hiding food it can get spoilt and which can lead to infections in your crested gecko.
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