I am glad to help



Crested geckos can still be kept in warm climates depending on how your home is set up. If you have a basement, the temperatures down there are likely to be as much as 20F cooler than temperatures on the main floor. If you don't have a basement, and every room has large windows, it is harder to keep rooms cool. A small room with little or no windows (or covered windows) and decent insulation is alot easier to maintain a constant temperature than a large open area. But a suitable room in your home may not be idea for a crested gecko (ie if its your laundry room, or bathroom...no fun having a pet you can only see while on the can ) Or you may be like me, living in a one bedroom apartment.



But it does take alot of power to run a 9000 BTU AC unit even in a small room...much more than a 20 or 40 watt heating pad. So getting a crested gecko may not be idea for you due to the added cost of keeping a room sufficiently cool. One thing you could do is get a digital thermometer which can record the high and low temperatures in a 24 hour period and place them in different rooms, see how much it heats up during the day on a hot day. Especially in a room that doesn't have a east or west facing wall/window.



Garter snakes I don't know a huge amount about and there are so many different kinds. I expect the common garter snake I get up here in Canada may not do so well in temperatures over 85F if it doesn't have a cool retreat to go into. But Florida garter snakes probably have a much better tolerance for heat...but should still provide a cool end of its cage to retreat to. Even a bowl of water for it to enter completely can help cool the snake. (this won't work with geckos...they don't do the soak in water thing very well). I am sure you can find out more specific information about the type of garter snake you are considering over in the garter snake forum. (or may be lumped in 'other snakes'...can't remember if we have a separate forum for garters).



There are also all kinds of other lizards that do well in warm to hot temperatures, such as bearded dragons, uromastyx, blue tongued skinks, collard lizards, and just about any other kind that is common in semi arid and desert environments. Your only real limiting factor is experience in taking care of reptiles, the space you have available for the adult animal (ie bearded dragons, uro's and Blue tongued skinks need a cage at least 4'x2' floor space (beardeds need height of 18-24", uro's and BTS's be ok with 16-18", preference in feeding insects vs vegetation, money for daily care and total animal/cage and upkeep time. Day geckos I believe are more heat tolerant too...and like their name implies, they are active during the day. Leopard geckos are also desert dwelling geckos..fairly common and easy to care for and not at all expensive to keep or house. Morphs can get a big costly but many are under the $100 range, some even as low as $50 (haven't really priced these guys so my prices may be off too...and I also only really seen Canadian prices..which often is as much as twice as more for the same type/morph than you would see in the US, even if differences in the dollar isn't considered).
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PHLdyPayne

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