Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My wife has fallen in love with crest geckos since she first layed her hands on one at the Richmond Reptile Show. I realize I would need supplemental heating since I usually keep my house in the low 60s during winter. Because I have had a really bad experience with heat bulbs 5 years ago that caused a few hundred dollars worth of damage, I vowed never to use them ever again.

If I was to provide an uth, would a crested gecko use it?

No. Cresties are arboreal (they hang out in trees and vines). It doesn't do them any good to have the heat on the bottom. However, you could get a heat lamp with a night bulb. Make sure it is really low in wattage. Too much heat will hurt them too.

well you could use a UTH, seeing how hot air rises it will circulate throughout the tank, although the substrate will be warmer, it will still raise the temp in the tank...

you could use a under tank heater but even heating the substrate it would not heat the air inside the tank only if it was covered. depending on the size of the tank a decent red infrared light in a ceramic based fixture would do well. i have 15 gecko's and no lights on any of them. but my house stays at 72 day and night which is perfect for crestie's. i live in richmond also if you want some pointers email me back and i could come and take a look at your setup.
my email is lizardcouple@verizon.net
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5.7.3 crested gecko
1.0 amelanistic corsnake
0.0.1 Mexican Boa
2.2 ball python
2.2 bearded dragon
1.0 fiesty dog
0.1 ferret

I've only had a gecko for a small amount of time but i have an UTH. My gecko lays all stretched out on her newspaper whenever she wants to heat up and when she wants to cool down she climps up further in the tank.

>>My wife has fallen in love with crest geckos since she first layed her hands on one at the Richmond Reptile Show. I realize I would need supplemental heating since I usually keep my house in the low 60s during winter. Because I have had a really bad experience with heat bulbs 5 years ago that caused a few hundred dollars worth of damage, I vowed never to use them ever again.
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>>If I was to provide an uth, would a crested gecko use it?

I use a ceramic heater over my snake tank. My room is fairly warm, though not quite warm enough for a UTH to be enough for my snake, so I got a ceramic heater. Semi-pricey, but it's not like having a bright light on all the time.

OR, you may want to consider just heating the room you keep the crested in; that way you can keep the rest of the house in the low 60s, and the crestie can be warm in the room s/he is kept in.
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0.3 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
1.0 Creamsicle/Okeetee Cornsnake