Humidity Help Please - Crested Gecko

[Buttons]

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Hello, I have recently come across an issue where the humidity in my home is dropping to much while im asleep and such durring the mornings. I have an alarm set for 8am where i wake up and mist the tank then i go back to sleep although when i wake up the humidity will be at 45 or 40% which i am fully aware this is to low. Now i have tried moss and such in the terrarium near the bottom of it and i have tried using a fogger etc. The moss is drying up to quickly and the fogger if left on the lowest setting will make the terrarium humidity go up to high over the period of about 30minutes. I really need help figuring this out im trying everything i can like i won't even leave my house for more then 2 hours because i worry about his humidity getting to low. If anyone has a solution for this or can point me in the right direction regarding product or some sort of automatic mister that functions based on humidity levels that would be amazing!

((Please NOTE i live in Canada and if you offer up a product that is specialized please check to make sure they ship to Canada before posting it. ThankYou.))

[Elizabeth Freer]

Let's try a layered substrate. A layered substrate will increase ambient humidity 24/7.

Add "some" water through the substrate's top layer (soil, soil mix). Water seeps through the soil, through the weedblocker cloth, & into the hydroton. Hydroton clay culture marbles absorb this water. Hydroton promotes relatively constant ambient humidity without excessively watering the substrate. A "relatively" generous amount of water every so often allows these little clay marbles to increase your ambient humidity 24/7.

Bottom layer = Easy Green Hydroton Clay Culture Balls These are used for hydroponic gardening. These marble-sized balls are terra cotta on the outside. Just google Hydroton and see what you get.

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Middle layer = Easy Gardener Landscape Fabric (Weedblocker Cloth) -- This is a black porous cloth that lets water penetrate.

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Top layer = whatever soil or Eco Earth's Coco Fiber you use. Sphagnum moss can also be used as the top layer. [Coco Fiber alone is too acidic for growing plants.]



PS: Maybe once each year boil hydroton marbles to sterilize them.

[Buttons]

is it okay to put him in such an environment at such a young age? Because i was planning to go bioactive after he hits between 6 months and a year but right now he is still so small.

[acpart]

In my opinion, since the crested gecko is essentially arboreal, it's not so much of an issue to use a naturalistic substrate as it would be for a juvenile leopard gecko.
There's a really nice new product put out by Josh's Frogs. It's a substrate that, when used with reptiles like crested geckos, doesn't require the whole drainage layer (by contrast, it's not recommended for dart frogs that require high humidity and less ventilation). I asked them about it in detail before getting it and am currently using it successfully for a gold dust day gecko enclosure and a gargoyle enclosure. Here's the link to this project:
https://www.joshsfrogs.com/josh-s-fr...10-quarts.html
I imagine they will ship to Canada.
I mist my eight gargoyle, crested gecko and leachie cages every evening and don't worry about it the rest of the time. I also don't worry when the temperature in my un-air conditioned house gets up into the 90's for some days of the summer. My geckos range in age from 3 1/2 to 14 and everyone is doing well. They are very hardy creatures. I think that with the use of the substrate and some plants, the humidity will be better.

Aliza

[Elizabeth Freer]

is it okay to put him in such an environment at such a young age? Because i was planning to go bioactive after he hits between 6 months and a year but right now he is still so small.

Yes

Add the layered substrate to his current 12 x 12 x 18 inch enclosure. It's the only way I know to "fix" the humidity. Cover the black landscape fabric with sphagnum moss instead of soil.

Buttons will be 3 months old November 28th. When to transfer him to a larger enclosure depends upon his size.

Are you worried about him eating the top layer -- soil? Bioactive enclosures contain substrate bugs for a clean-up crew.

Soil products can't be shipped across country borders.


PS:
How are Buttons' sheds going?

[Buttons]

Alright, Well if thats the case then i will be making a trip to PetSmart yet again. I just went there today and sadly it is a 2 hour walk so i will most likely be going next week. As for the soil and such they sell Exo Terra and Zoomed mixtures there that i can use. Now as for the Hydroton i can only order that online it seems from places like Amazon which that i will sadly have to either (A) wait until the 30th of November or (B) perhaps ask my girlfriend to order it ahead of time for me. Now as for the "Clean Up Crew" where in the hell do i get that from because no wheres in my local area that i know of sells such critters.

As for his shed, He has a bit of stuck shed on his foot although i took care of that almost right away. I haven't seen him actually shed surprisingly but i know he must have shed as every night i do take him out of his enclosure for about 20minutes and he wonders on my desk and on my keyboard while listening to Lofi Music and well i noticed a very slight bit of stuck shed on his toe which i quickly took care of that by putting him in a bowl with wet paper towel then using a Q-Tip and very very gently swabbing it away. I keep my eyes on his toes and such quiet a bit to make damn sure nothing messes up durring his shed etc.

Other then that he is eating of course he loves his crickets the most but sometimes i will feed him from my finger as i've noticed at times he will go 3 days or so without touching his food and i do make him fresh food every night very little of course but its there if he wants it but i haven't been seeing as many tongue marks so i do feed him Pangea off my finger sometimes. He has yet to say no to a cricket tho and they are gut loaded with Cucumber and Carrots. I keep between 20 and 30 at a time in an old enclosure i have laying around. The crickets also drink the Flukers Cricket Quencher Calcium Florified jelly thing so i think im doing good with his live food atleast.

[Elizabeth Freer]

Alright, Well if thats the case then i will be making a trip to PetSmart yet again. I just went there today and sadly it is a 2 hour walk so i will most likely be going next week. As for the soil and such they sell Exo Terra and Zoomed mixtures there that i can use. Now as for the Hydroton i can only order that online it seems from places like Amazon which that i will sadly have to either (A) wait until the 30th of November or (B) perhaps ask my girlfriend to order it ahead of time for me. Now as for the "Clean Up Crew" where in the hell do i get that from because no wheres in my local area that i know of sells such critters.

As for his shed, He has a bit of stuck shed on his foot although i took care of that almost right away. I haven't seen him actually shed surprisingly but i know he must have shed as every night i do take him out of his enclosure for about 20minutes and he wonders on my desk and on my keyboard while listening to Lofi Music and well i noticed a very slight bit of stuck shed on his toe which i quickly took care of that by putting him in a bowl with wet paper towel then using a Q-Tip and very very gently swabbing it away. I keep my eyes on his toes and such quiet a bit to make damn sure nothing messes up durring his shed etc.

Other then that he is eating of course he loves his crickets the most but sometimes i will feed him from my finger as i've noticed at times he will go 3 days or so without touching his food and i do make him fresh food every night very little of course but its there if he wants it but i haven't been seeing as many tongue marks so i do feed him Pangea off my finger sometimes. He has yet to say no to a cricket tho and they are gut loaded with Cucumber and Carrots. I keep between 20 and 30 at a time in an old enclosure i have laying around. The crickets also drink the Flukers Cricket Quencher Calcium Florified jelly thing so i think im doing good with his live food atleast.

You don't need soil right now. Buttons could eat soil & become impacted!

Cover the weedblocker cloth with about 3 cms of sphagnum moss. That's safer for young geckos than soil is.

Flukers products are very poor nutritionally. Try something else like Repashy's Bug Burger.

[Buttons]

Sadly they only have Flukers Cricket Quencher Calcium Fortified available locally. Although the crickets eat a lot of Cucumber and Carrots which i buy fresh and i rinse off before giving it to them.

Also the only moss they have locally is a petsmart brand called (THRIVE) and i get the Green Sphagnum Moss from that brand. Also can i put ontop of the Moss some Eco Carpet from Zoo Med? or would that be a bad idea?.

[Elizabeth Freer]

Sadly they only have Flukers Cricket Quencher Calcium Fortified available locally. Although the crickets eat a lot of Cucumber and Carrots which i buy fresh and i rinse off before giving it to them.

Also the only moss they have locally is a petsmart brand called (THRIVE) and i get the Green Sphagnum Moss from that brand. Also can i put ontop of the Moss some Eco Carpet from Zoo Med? or would that be a bad idea?.

Just have the substrate like I recommend. There is no point in placing eco carpet on top of the moss.

So:
Bottom layer = ~ 3 cm of Hydroton
Middle layer = weedblocker cloth
Top layer = ~ 3 cm of Green Sphagnum Moss

Just keep it this simple, please.

[Hilde]

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I use bioactive set-ups for cresties, right from hatching to adult.
The soil is regular potting soil, but I make sure there's no perlite (white balls).
In over 20 years of doing it that way, I've never had a problem with impaction, or anything else that I can track back to the soil or set-up.

Here's a link to my hatchling/nursery set-up.
Crested hatchling tank - naturalistic setup

I don't do it on a big scale like that, anymore, but still set up smaller tanks in a similar way.

This is the set-up for cresties, once they're a few months old, up until adult.
New crestie nursery tank


As for humidity - as long as there's a humid area, they'll be okay. The humidity in my set-ups varies, depending on location. With a bioactive enclosure, it will be more humid near ground level, drier near the top. They hang out wherever it suits them. Giving them an option is much better than forcing them to take what we think is correct.
I mist in the morning, and late evening, but I don't soak it down to a soggy mess, just misting to get some water droplets on the plants and branches, in case they want to lick if off there, instead of using the water bowl.