Heating/Humiditity etc etc for Cresties

[littledude]

Hello all, this may be a long post so bear with me....

I have a 4 month old Crested Gecko called Dude and i need to know what lighting/heating i should have for him and a few other bits which i'll get too in a minute.

I've read they do well at room temperature and i've also read that they need heating. Which is it? I don't want to cause Dude any stress by not heating his viv correctly. I have a heat mat but haven't used it yet because i believe i need to buy a stat for it. How do they work? Do i need to wire it all up? or will it just plug together? He has a light on during the day on top of his viv but this is part of the set-up i got from the store when i picked him up. It's an Exo-terra viv with a Exo- terra 2.0 bulb in it. Apparently this is just a normal bulb and doesn't emit heat. Should i change this to a heater type bulb? If so, which one/type? I've also got a digital thermometer set up inside the viv which is currently reading 70f.

Also i've been checking on humidity and i'm having a real problem keeping the humidity right. I mist the viv when i can at least twice a day but this is not always enough. I work shifts so can't always be there to mist the viv all the time. Is there a gizmo that does it automatically for you that isn't too big for inside the viv? I'd prefer it if Dude had the room to climb about and do gecko stuff without a big thing in his viv which he could potentially hurt himself on.

Phew.....it wasn't as long as i thought it was going to be. I can't think of the other bits right now because I'm tired and i'm going to sleep I look forward to reading your advice. You guys haven't steered me wrong yet

[frenchy1979]

you dont need to heat the viv as such, if you have a house that is quite warm any way. You dont need to get a bulb to heat the viv, thats for sure. The uv bulb you already have will be fine, will give him a little uv and you could also put live plants in to help sproose things up abit.

Humidity should be around maybe 80-90% in the evning, i wouldnt say that high all day. maybe down to 50% in the day. you can buy misters that go on timers, hygro etc. you have a dig hygro anyway, you dont need you heat matt on a stat. You can out it on a timer, i set mine for 15 minute intervals throughout the coldest part of the night. as long as your cresty can get away from the heat if it gets too hot then he will be fine, equally if it gets too cold.

ideally you want the temps at around 75ish + in the day and then down to around 70 and just under, but nothing below 65. So you can try 70 as your lowest and 75-80 as your highest, nothing above 83 or you are going to kill off your cresty.

hope this helps a little

[littledude]

I've just got back in from work and checked the temps and found that the lowest was 64 and the highest was 93!!!! I can't seem to regulate the temperature in the viv. i think i'm going to need some sort of fan on a temp switch to control the high end of the scale.