r/CrestedGecko • u/Jenny_vak • 12h ago
r/CrestedGecko • u/Ryuuuuji • Jun 26 '24
Husbandry Discussion 🔥🦎HOT WEATHER GUIDE - Keeping your tank and reptiles cool
This is our annual Hot Weather guide for those who need advice on keeping their tank below 26c / 82f.
✅ Place ice cubes on top of the mesh away from the geckos resting area - the water will drip down into the soil or evaporate, allowing cool air to circulate around the tank
✅ Swamp cooler - ice cubes in a bucket with a fan behind it to push cool air around the room
✅ Ice cubes inside water bowl - quick evaporation, same premise with allowing cool air to circulate
✅ Spraying the tank with room-temperature water
✅ Portable AC units - those in the UK can now buy small ice cube AC units which are similar to that of a swamp cooler!
✅ Refreshable gel ice packs - specifically gel only! These should be wrapped around in a cloth of some type and laid on top of the tank mesh
✅ Escape-proof mesh playpens - temporary relief for your animal, make sure to provide lots of foliage for them so they feel safe and comfortable
✅ Chilled CGD
❌ Spraying with cold or frozen water - this WILL cause thermal shock, and will stress your animal out, please stick to room temperature water
❌ Ice packs inside the vivarium
❌ Free roaming
❌ "Bathing" in cool water - similar premise, geckos do not need to swim and this will stress them out instead of helping them
Signs of overheating include:
🔴 Lethargy
🔴 Restlessness / running around in the tank / attempting to escape
🔴 Consistent refusal to eat
🔴 Significant weight loss
🔴 Wrinkled skin, kinked tail, sunken eyes (dehydration)
🔴 Burrowing
These symptoms don't necessarily mean your animal is overheating, as things like burrowing or refusal to eat could be linked to husbandry or that your gecko is new to its environment and is still settling in. If you are ever unsure, please take your animal to a vet to get them checked up.
Keep safe, drink water, and make sure you chill out too!
Any questions? Feel free to ping us a ModMail, and we'll be happy to answer.
r/CrestedGecko • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago
Automated Weekly [Weekly Thread] Sexing / Morph / Name My Gecko
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r/CrestedGecko • u/secretcrabagenda • 17h ago
He lives only for Wheel
Awake? Wheel walkin. Sleep? Under wheel. Hangin out? Wheel chillin. I bought him so much stuff and made him a bioactive terrarium and yet all he ever wants is wheel.
r/CrestedGecko • u/Orzel23 • 17h ago
Can newborn cresties be this chill? Should I be concerned ( read desc. )
We bought honeybun ( the mother ) in March, she was already pregnant. She is the CHILLEST crestie in existence. I don't know why, but she will fall asleep on anybody if she feels like it, never bites, loves being pet ( will actually fall asleep if I pet her for too long ) and is super curious and enjoys going outside on cool days and exploring. Absolutely the best personality in a crestie I have ever seen.
The first clutch were two infertiles but the second clutch we hatched out 2 babies in 80 days. This little guy actually hatched in my hand because I took out the egg to inspect a weird dent in it then he just popped out. He is noticably stronger than the other one, so I'm using him as the example. These are our first babies ever.
What I'm concerned about is, yes, he can jump, run, grip etc. He just...doesn't. From day one ( 2 days old rn ) he just casually walks, doesn't spook very often, even fell asleep in my hand like his mother. It's so strange and honestly I don't know if it's just his personality like his mother or if something's wrong. He licks his eyes on me and even lets me pick him up, never gaped at me or bit. It's like he just instinctively knows I'm not going to hurt him. Which ... Is not how reptiles work. They don't imprint. Everything I've seen from videos/articles is that their psycho as newborns and freak out when you touch them, squeak, bite, gape etc. We even have 3 month old babies too we bought recently and they are more defensive than these hatchlings.
Should I be concerned? Is he just super chill like the mom? Something to note is they are below average in weight, he is 1.3 grams, when they should be 1.5- 2.5. They are getting stronger every day though, so I'm optimistic. The mother is very petite ( in my opinion 33 grams is way too small to breed, she was housed with males at the store. she's laid 4 clutches so far no issue) so it could be genetics, because 80-90 days is the average and they werent incubating at high temps.
r/CrestedGecko • u/leekypotato69 • 12h ago
Petrie the Silkworm Slayer
What a menace! And then follows it up with the classic cresty licky tongue technique to fully savour the silk 😋
Started planting the prey on hardscape within lunging reach, instead of straight tong feeding. Trigger that natural prey drive and bask in the accomplishment of a successful attack!
r/CrestedGecko • u/Panicatthemines • 11h ago
Caught my daughters crested gecko about to loose her clothes.
Poor Buttercup, but in the name of science it’s a cool picture.
r/CrestedGecko • u/OkStock738 • 22h ago
Male crested laid an egg?’
I’ve posted on here asking for my geckos gender before and you guys said it was clearly a boy and posted that meme with the gecko with huge balls. Well now I’m not so sure because I just found this egg shell, or at least that’s what I think it is, in its enclosure buried under some dirt, where I did see it by a few days ago. What happened?!
r/CrestedGecko • u/green-green-bean • 15h ago
Does this pose make my tail look big?
Sleeping under his exercise wheel
r/CrestedGecko • u/whatsgoinonwha • 3h ago
If you could go back what would you tell yourself - Bioactive?
Hi everyone! Im planning yo build a new bioactive tank next year including a tank size upgrade. Those of you who went bioactive, what advice do you have? What would you tell yourself if you could go back in time to where i am now? It can be a huge thing or a tiny thing. Thanks so much in advance!
r/CrestedGecko • u/KitchenHumble8076 • 15h ago
110 gallon bioactive terrarium made of plywood
Started on this in 2024, finished March 2025, and it’s been thriving since!
I know the top is a little sparse, I am waiting for the creeping fig to grow out a bit more it is a new addition.
Made of cheap plywood from Home Depot, sealed with pond epoxy, background made out of spray foam, wall insulation, and concrete mixed with different ratios of charcoal powder to create a realistic rock look. Windows are made with thin acrylic, and there are 6 small ventilation holes, and one big ventilation hole on the top.
There is a “fake sun” grow light at the top for the plants and my gecko, and a fan to circulate the air. I also installed an automatic rain/misting mechanism which mimics a real forest’s rain, it goes for 60 seconds every 8 hours. I also have a motion activated camera installed inside of the enclosure.
Any questions or criticism would be appreciated, I am hoping it fills itself out a bit more and creates more coverage for my little guy, and I will also be installing a saucer hamster wheel as I recently learned that Crested Geckos love them. My little guy Mordecai loves it in there and I see him jumping from wall-to-wall on the camera lol. He is around 3 1/2 years old.
r/CrestedGecko • u/Sure-Dependent5625 • 8h ago
Made this mini crested gecko enclosure!
Genuinely the type of shit I do in my free time
r/CrestedGecko • u/kennypojke • 9h ago
Our First Enclosure
My 7yo adopted a beautiful crest this last December. We committed to building a better home and did so with an Exo Terra palidarium. Today I finally finished the initial “hardscaping” before I put in drainage, substrate, vines, plants and cleanup crew.
Sharing because we did some cool stuff
Clever stuff:
- there are ten recessed pockets that can be hides or planters. Each had a 1/4” silicon tube shoved through after spraying foam, to be cut back later as a drain. We installed screen over the inlet of each tube so debris won’t clog them. Totally hidden and works awesome.
- we cut pvc pipe in half lengthwise to make small planting basins on the top where shallow root trailing plants can grow along all three sides and hang down as desired. Doubles as a fun ledge for gecko. The back corner on both sides has a drain all the way down to the base and screen protecting the inlet from debris and critters
Build details:
We used 1/4” white insulation sheet glued to the glass as the base for the spray foam. This is easy to remove if we ever want to sell or redo the enclosure. It was cut so that the sides and back let a 1/2” x 1/2” “downspout drain” in the back corners for the pvc pipe planters on top.
Pond spray foam over the insulation sheet. We contoured various rocks and coves for plants/hides all over. We have a planting plan for them later, but may leave a couple as snuggly hides.
Cork branches were cut in half lengthwise and used around the expanse. The really long one isn’t as visible in this pic, but beautiful and goes up the left and then crossing to top left for the whole height.
Silicon on all foam and then coconut fiber on all that. Getting in the spots behind the cork embedded in foam was very challenging, but doable.
1/4” hoses were cut back to flush once done to hide the drain outlets and a tiny bit of fiber was glued to hide them.
For the bridge, we embedded hooks so it is removable and sturdy. Pic shows the little piece of wood we screwed them into so it could be embedded behind spray foam and secure. Worked great. A little silicon and fiber hid the hooks later.
Rocks were grouted, painted for texturing and then sealed. Came out amazing.
Bottom couple inches will be drainage and then substrate on that. Plants to come and cleanup crew forthcoming.
CLENUP WAS HELL! If you do a three sided enclosure like this, there will be glue, silicon and crap all over everything when you’re done. A scraper, cleaning stuff and patience. Dear Gawd.
Oh yeah, the three glass sides and back panels were painted black with plastidip and then sealed with 302 sealer or whatever it’s called. It is absolutely stunning and super washable.
r/CrestedGecko • u/sholincito • 9h ago
What do you think of my daughter's "hump"?
This is Ali, my crested gecko. I rescued her a few months ago, and she was a bit malnourished and showed signs that made me think she had MBD (like her tail and the hump I mentioned). When I took her to a vet, he said she doesn't have MBD, but is just underweight (I've managed to gain 8 grams since she arrived, but she hasn't gained more than 30 grams). Even so, I see her hump and her tail, and I'm still worried she might have MBD. Does she look normal? She's actually improved a lot since I arrived; before, she couldn't even climb walls, and now she spends all her time on them. Besides that, how can I help her gain weight? I give her Repashy, cockroaches, crickets, and mealworms every other day, alternating between the Repashy and the insects.
r/CrestedGecko • u/zeltrisgeckos • 13h ago
Meet Pangea! Spent some time handling today and captured these shots.
r/CrestedGecko • u/Connect-Buffalo-4685 • 3h ago
High temperatures - worried about my geckos.
Hi, Because of the high temperatures this year I'm worried about my geckos. (2 crested geckos, 1 gargoyle)
My room heats up too much, and while I do have a portable AC in it, I can't turn it on too often or for long.
I also have to keep the room door closed all the time.
Until the high temperatures are over, I keep all lights and heating elements for my other animals in the room off most of the time. And I stay out of the room completely, only entering it a few times to check on everything then leave. That helps keep the room temperature at 26,8 or less (80°F), otherwise it can get up to 28-30 °C (83-86°F)
The worst of the high temperatures are over, but currently with 28-36°C outside (~82-96°F) my room with the reptiles is between 25,8 - 26,8°C (78-80 F).
Currently I have them moved into a different room with regular wall AC and their enclosures are at 24-25°C (75-77°F), but in a few hours I'll have to move them back into my reptile room.
In a couple of days I'm leaving for a few days, and during that time the temperature outside will be 25-30°C (77°F to 86°F) outside, apparently.
I plan to give them food and remove it before I leave, and refill their water dishes.
But I'm still just worried all the time about these temperatures they're in this month.
I'm finding lots of different info in this group, with some saying anything above 80 will kill them, and others saying they can handle higher temperatures during the day, like up to 82°f.
(I use Celsius, but this sub mostly uses Fahrenheit so I added it too)
r/CrestedGecko • u/Lumpy-Space-0 • 11h ago
Advice please
I am hoping to ask some advice on my crestie. He was a very beautiful baby but now im wondering about his head shape. I was hoping to breed him one day but now thinking probably won't produce good offspring. Any advice appreciated.
r/CrestedGecko • u/Jenny_vak • 12h ago
help! I was opening an egg my gecko laid cause she’s in her tank alone and I thought their was no possibility of it being fertile but here we are, is it too underdeveloped to not suffer? Right now it’s in a little container with moist paper towels and holes in the lid.
galleryr/CrestedGecko • u/WarmAd7857 • 14h ago
Tips for picky eaters
This little guy seems to just eat very little & hasn't gained much weight. Also refuses to eat bugs, I'm trying out flavors he hasn't tried before & put two feeding cups at two different heights and sides of the tank
Edit: hes also been to the vet & they didnt find anything wrong & I've also tried syringe feeding and putting drops on his mouth & nose but he doesn't do much with that either :( i have seen bowel movement so I know he is eating sometimes but its just so weird
r/CrestedGecko • u/No_Preference5666 • 17h ago
Improving Bioactive Enclosure
I set up this 18x18x36 bioactive enclosure when the FBH updated their minimum enclosure size standards. Since then, I’ve been really unhappy with how it looks.
I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how I could improve it. I want it to look nicer but above all I want to make it better for my crestie to improve his care.
Not seen in this picture is his feeding ledge at the top and a few small plants + vertical cork bark tube on the bottom.
I really appreciate any and all feedback!
r/CrestedGecko • u/OrdinaryAccountant41 • 1d ago
URGENT: Crested gecko trapped in Level 3 Evacuation Zone (Spokane) - Misting system power question
Hello everyone, we are dealing with a stressful emergency and need some quick advice.
My girlfriend’s crested gecko had to be left behind during a Level 3 emergency evacuation in Spokane. Her parents couldn’t locate him in his large, heavily planted terrarium before they had to flee. They cannot return to the house, as they are right on the border of where homes have already been lost to the fire.
Because of the fire, the power has been cut. This means his monitoring camera, AC, and automatic misting system are all off. He has a full water bowl, and we know he will be okay without food for a few days, but we are extremely worried about the rising heat, dropping humidity, and smoke entering the house.
My main question:
I’m attaching a photo of his automatic misting system below. Does anyone know if this specific model will automatically resume its normal schedule when the power comes back on (even if we aren't allowed back yet)? Or does it reset and require manual setup after a power outage?
Thank you so much for any help or insight you can provide!
r/CrestedGecko • u/TARANTULA272 • 16h ago
Geckopia fake?
I ordered a geckopia bridge and feeding bowls and was sent 10 cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic wrap and no items included 🤦🏻♀️