A question about misting/heating.

[Phelly]

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Hello everyone, me and my boyfriend decided to get a reptile for his son's birthday and we decided on a crested gecko. I've spent many hours reading about cresties this autumn and on saturday we bought our first crestie called Spike!

Even though I feel like i've alot of research, it's different to read something and actually do it correctly. He seems to settling in nicely, not afraid of exploring his hides and branches. Now to the question - I mist heavily at night before bed, and in the morning it's around 40% - 50%, so i mist it up to 70% - 80%, but because of the heating (stays between 70-80 F degrees) the humidity drops quickly. I use an infrared heat lamp. Is this normal? If so, how do you deal with it - misting throughout the day? So far I've let it drop down to 40% before misting again. But there will be days I'll be out for longer and don't want to worry about the humidity level.

[aquamentus_11]

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I'm also new to cresties, but not to heating and keeping up humidity. if you're using a bulb, chances are you have it set up so that the heat is coming in from above. this tends to dry things out. if you're using a glass tank with a screen lid, try draping a towel over half of the screen or covering half of it with plastic wrap. you can cover more, but you obviously need to make sure your lamp isn't touching the towel or plastic......

another option is undertank heating with a heat mat. a lot of people like to stick the mat to the side of the tank, but i've never had success with that: at best it's only ever heated that wall. sticking the mat underneath 1/3 of the tank will allow the heat to rise and warm that side of the tank. there are a few brands to choose from. regardless of your heat source, make sure you have things running through a thermostat, especially with a heat mat. try getting your paper towel fairly wet when you mist, putting it down on the floor of the enclosure and letting the heat mat warm it. this will cause the water to evaporate up into the foliage and increase humidity. i'm sure some expert probably has a problem with that, but it's worked for me in the past.

adding live plants (replanted in fertilizer-free potting soil) really makes a difference in my experience and every animal i've kept has preferred them over the fake ones. if you do decide to stick with fake plants, the more you put in there, the better they'll hold moisture. (i'm personally sticking with fake until mine is a few months older)

again, i don't know what sort of enclosure you have for your little guy, but everything i've read says that smaller is better when they're young. i have mine in a medium plastic kritter keeper and i have a lamp laid on its side pointed at one of the ends (you can see what i mean in my latest post "new crestie...no questions!"). i cover the other end with a towel (this theoretically also helps to make him feel more secure) and spray twice a day.

hope some of that helps