Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I have a trio of sub-adult crested geckos in a tank aprox. 16in x 17in x 48in. This is a screen top aquarium placed on its side.

My understanding is that crested geckos do best in around 70% humidity. I am having great difficulty raising humidity to even 50%!

The substrate is green moss (dried) over perlite. The screen top has plastic wrap over all of the top half (except 2 aprox 1in x 1in spots) and over all but the lowest 1.5 inches at the bottom. Live plants are on the bottom. I used to mist the tank heavily at least 2 times daily but now have installed Zoo Med's Habba Mist system. It is set to mist every hour for 30 seconds. I did have it set for longer, but water literally runs out the bottom of the cage, along the door.

Moss inside is not just damp, it is sopping wet. Yesterday I removed the moss and replaced it. Between a pail under the edge of the cage door and using paper towels to soak up standing water, there was probably close to a quart of water in there.

At a friends urging, I put a blanket over two sides and the top of the cage. The back of the cage is against a wall. Putting the blanket over the aquarium did raise the humidity 3%, which is how it got up as hgh as 49%.The weather here has been overcast and cloudy with light rain.

The crested geckos are showing some signs of low humidity, mainly being unable to scale the glass or to 'hold on' to it. They hold onto One in particular has toes noticably curling up whenever the humidity dips to 46%.

I am out of ideas for raising humidity. Please help!
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Andrea A.

They're not pretty, but plastic cages such as rubbermaid tubs are absolutely amazing for humidity. I have approximately the same problem you do (I can go up to 60% though). I happened to have to put my male cat gecko in a little plastic tub as a hospital tank. It's got a fair number of holes in the lid. I misted him down a bit and came back a few hours later to check the humidity. 98%! That's almost TOO high (well, not for him at the time)! You can control the humidity in them by altering the number of holes in the lid, the amount of misting, and the size of the water dish. But if your cresties seem unhappy, it's worth looking into.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a number of leopard geckos in similar enclosures and sometimes feel a little guilty about it. I was feeling good about the amount of room the cresties have to move around in .. room to climb, roam, even jump. Unlike my leos, they really make use of the room. Maybe I"ll try adding a plastic box with a large hole inside their cage and see if they will use it. Anyone else have any ideas?

>>They're not pretty, but plastic cages such as rubbermaid tubs are absolutely amazing for humidity. I have approximately the same problem you do (I can go up to 60% though). I happened to have to put my male cat gecko in a little plastic tub as a hospital tank. It's got a fair number of holes in the lid. I misted him down a bit and came back a few hours later to check the humidity. 98%! That's almost TOO high (well, not for him at the time)! You can control the humidity in them by altering the number of holes in the lid, the amount of misting, and the size of the water dish. But if your cresties seem unhappy, it's worth looking into.
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>>Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
>>Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?
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Andrea A.

I used to breed cresteds quite easily, and I found that if you are looking for something that is visually stimulating and also holds humidity, the vision cages work really well. They are a little more costly, but they last practically forever. I just kept a night light on them as will for night temp. sake.

snakegirltiff