Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,
I'm doing some research on Rhacodactylus with the intention of getting some chahuoa and ciliatus. I don't have experience with these geckos, but have been reading a lot and feel that they are a good choice for me.
One question/problem I'm trying to work out is how to heat the cages. My understanding is that ambient temps should be in the mid 70's, and a basking area of ~80 degrees is beneficial. These temps are usually not very hard to reach and maintain, however my house gets quite cold in the winter and I worry about maintaining optimal temps, especially at night.
My thought is to use either a radiant heat panel or ceramic emitter mounted on the ceiling of the cage controlled w/ a thermostat w/ night drop. However, given the amazing climbing ability of these geckos, is it safe to have high temp elements inside the cage. Will geckos be harmed by crawling across a RHP, are surface temps dangerous; contact w/ a ceramic I'm sure would be devastating, right? I also, considered using the heaters outside the cage, but I feel that they would also heat the screen tops to dangerous levels. Would flexwatt installed behind a cork bark barrier be a better idea?
How would you set-up? Thanks for reading!

-Ethan

a low wattage bulb behind a screen or wire cage should be safe for your crested gecko. keeping any climbing materials away from the cage, such as brances, leaves etc would help prevent the gecko getting onto the protective wire cage or screen. i have't seen too many crested geckos actually climb along the ceiling of a cage [at least not in my collection, they will go right to the edge of the cage but never seem to venture onto the top of the cage to hang upside down.] mine may not do it, or i may never have noticed over the year or so of keeping crested geckos.

using a rheostat or thermastat to modulate temperatures can help keep the light or ceramic heat emitters from getting too hot, but depending on how deep your cage is they may need to be h otter on the surface to project the heat deep enough into the cage. though it's good to have the heat graduient so the geckos can retreat to the lower levels of the cage to escape heat, if they get too warm.
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PHLdyPayne