Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm new to crested geckos and have been researching different enclosures. I would like to go with a rubbermaid 92 quart container. My question is how to ventalate it. I see alot of pictures of these around the internet but never with the lids on. Most have holes around the tops, but I'm afraid it's not enough ventilation, plus the crickets will get out. Any adice is greatly appreciated. I plan to eventually house 1 male to 2-3 females.

Kellye

In most Rubbermaid containers, unless the plastic has imperfections, the crickets cannot climb the sides. In fact, I keep my crickets in a big rubbermaid container and I actually had to score up the sides with a razor to allow them to climb up the sides. I do this because when there are 1000 crickets in the bin, they have more space to crawl rather than on each other. I only score up six inches up from the bottom.

I assume you will put branches into the rubbermaid container to allow the cresties to get around and do what a crestie does best...climb. So if a cricket climbs the branch, there will b the rare case where a cricket may jump from the branch and luckily grab a hold of a hole and possibly escape...that is if he can fit through the hole. I dremel/drill my holes and sometimes use small bits that I know a cricket can't get through.

It is hard to tell you how much ventilation is enough. In the rack I just built for my ball pythons, I drilled what I thought was enough holes and gave it a test. I moved a snake into his new home and waited for her to defecate. If the feces molds, then I know that there is not enough holes. If the feces dries out in a couple days, that tells me that the ventilation is enough. Luckily on my test run, the feces dried in 2 days and she even shed all in one go. I am sure that there are other ways on how to factor what is enough ventilation like using hygrometer but do whatever works for you.

I do not understand what you mean when you say that the containers that you have seen have been w/o lids. Do you mean that they are containers held in a rack making the top of the container flush with the rack like below?

Hope this helps!

Severa

I'm not sure about size, so I can't comment on that, but as for ventilation... I just remembered a person on another board here talking about cricket containment using those same, but smaller containers.

The person cut a large hole in the top of the container, I would suggest a least some light sanding of the edges if it was for my gecko. Then took some screen from the hardware store (used to replace screened doors) snip to a size bigger than the hole in the lid and I believe he used a large amount of epoxy to both attach the screen and cover the sharp screen edges. Let me make sure I'm clear, the screen is on the top of the lid attached to the outside, not the inside. Don't know if a crested could break through the epoxy, but another option.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Thank you for the reply. I meant that the pictures that I've seen are either ones that go in rack systems or they have the lids off the top to show the inside of it. My husband was going to cut the top of the lid and attach screen to it, but I didn't think that would very good.

Kellye

i use a soldering iron to burn holes in my rubbermaids, it leaves no sharp edges and is quicker than drilling. also only small crickets could get out, but like one of the other posts said crickets can't climb in a rubbermaid. as for the lid I wouldn't put any holes in it to keep humidity up in the enclosure. also make sure you use a lot of braches or artificial plants so the cresties can climb, they normally can't climb the surface of a rubbermaid either.