# How to keep a crested gecko happy in a very chilly house?



## luthera (Jan 25, 2015)

Hello everyone. 
I've had a crested gecko for several years now and she has recently passed away  I would love to get another as she was a beautiful pet but I have a suspicion she may have died due to being too cold? We've recently moved house and were struggling for money so dont have the heating blasting away all day and I do suspect it got too cold for her  before I get another (IF I get another ) I want to know how is best to keep a crestie at a comfortable temperature in really quite a cold house ?

Ideas..
- getting a lamp instead of a heat mat
- alternate heat source that's not a mat or a lamp that I'm not aware of..
- keeping her closer to a radiator ?? ( but I suspect this may be too harsh for it..) 
- keeping her in the kitchen where we cook therefore is warmer 

I believe the simple heat mat that was suffient in the summer wasn't enough in the cold winter in the new house. Maybe there is a better mat?

I would dearly love to get another if I can but I don't want to subject it to temperatures that aren't suitable therefore if there is no way to keep one correctly then I shall wait until such a time when I have a warmer house. 
Thanks in advance for your help.


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## GavinMc (Jan 9, 2013)

Heat mats don't heat up the air very much and are used primarily as contact heaters. You would be best using a Ceramic Heat Emitter( CHE ). This way you can increase the air temperature in the vivarium both during the day and night( if needed ) whilst giving a day and night cycle. Use a thermostat to make sure your vivarium doesn't over heat.



Gavin.


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## Jebb (Jul 3, 2013)

a ceramic is the est method, mats no good really, it would be like you trying to keep warm holding a hot water bottle in your hand and wondering why the rest of your body was cold!

If your house is really cold, a ceramic may not be enough, as heat rises, trying to heat a glass viv all the way down to the bottom is not easy, the temp the ceramic would have to be to get some heat near the bottom/middle would probably make the top too hot.

I had this problem in my last place, I ended up using a heating tube from toolstation (305mm) at the bottom of the viv and a ceramic at the top, the tube was jut enough to warm the bottom up, I got a safety cage made for it (around £20) worked a treat, you just need to make sure the ceramic is on a stat.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p32...heater&pmt=p&gclid=CKXAhb7GsMMCFcPKtAodAF4ABQ


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## love_reptiles (Mar 1, 2009)

You suspect it got to cold for her? Were you monitoring the temps in her enclosure at all - what was it running at? 


It's very difficult to provide proper temps to keep an animal comfortable if you don't know what their enclosure is running at. You probably already know Cresties can overheat, so monitoring the temp is a good practise to get into, mind it is with any creature. 

I say this because your suspecting tells me there was no thermometer, if you knew what the temps were you'd know for sur ewhether it was too cold or not. : victory:


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## aquited (Oct 30, 2008)

A good digital thermometer so you can check the temps accurately is the first thing you need. 

After that I would go for a ceramic heater. Aim for a good heat gradient from top to bottom so your crestie can go where it feels comfortable


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## luthera (Jan 25, 2015)

Thanks for the responses everyone. Im liking the idea of the ceramic heater but I will be making sure I've got all the correct equipment and knowledge before even thinking about buying another. 

About the thermometer I must admit, I do have one , but its not very good. I was told from the reptile centre I got her from that if I'm comfortable then she's comfortable and a mat for if i find it cold would suffice. Clearly this was not the case. When I moved here it was summer and she's been active for many years even in cold weather (that find cold !) But I must admit I didn't check the thermometer when it got colder here and I feel dreadfully guilty about it  I loved her dearly and I'm devastated to think that my lack of knowledge and actions caused her to pass away. . . she was quite old so maybe she needed some extra attention or heat I didn't provide  

May I ask for some extra info on the ceramic heater and the tube heater for the bottom ? Such as good brands, where to place, how to attach, any issues you ran into. . also I feel dreadful I have to say I've never used a thermostat.. Are you able to tell me more about them and how to use them? (I assume they work similar to a house one- you set it to different temperatures at different times of the day and night and it turns the heater on and off to maintain this temperature?) 

I'm so sorry I have to admit that I believe my actions caused my gecko to pass away.. She was a lovely girl and had a long active life up till yesterday evening when I found her curled up in the corner :'( I want to assure everyone that I will be educating myself properly on all circumstances that can arrise (even over heating in summer, humidity etc) to prevent this ever happeneing again. 

I really appreciate your responses, any extra information or suggestions would be greatly recieved


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## luthera (Jan 25, 2015)

Doing my homework but getting a little confused with the ceramic heaters. All show pictures of just a bulb and I want to make sure I'm getting the Base it screws into and plug not just replacement bulb.. Also what wattage would be suitable for a crestie in a 12/12/18 in viv? 
I've been looking at ones like this 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Komodo-Ceramic-Heat-Emitter-Black/dp/B006JWUG2A
But I'm not sure if it comes with the fixture or not..? I'm in the UK so if anyone can recommend anything that would be good. 
(Thankfully thermometers and thermostats are much simpler)


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## SilverSteno (Feb 12, 2006)

I think maybe you are beating yourself up about this too much...you have said she was old, you had recently moved so it may well have just been these factors that became a bit too much for her. If she was getting too cold she would have appeared lethargic and stopped eating, though the other factors may cause this too. With cresties, over-heating is a far bigger danger so please be careful over what extra heating you go for and please ensure it is on a thermostat. 

I keep mourning geckos which have a similar temperature range to cresties, though not quite as susceptible to high temperatures, and in winter I use a radiator to heat the room they are in to around 18-21 degrees celcius. They do also have compact lights which give out a little heat though not much and they benefit from escaped heat from my corns vivarium below them, but this covers a very small area.

There are other methods you can use to ensure you get the best out off a heating source such as a heatmat, such as using insulation to surround the vivarium to trap more heat in and covering part of the mesh lid.


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## love_reptiles (Mar 1, 2009)

The pets shop advice that they'll be comfortable if we're comfortable is half true - they're reptiles and we're mammals, so we have the benefit of homeostatis - we sweat when it's too hot and shiver when it's too cold. Reptiles can't do this so they must use behavioural thermoregulation. When it's warm, moving to a cooler area, and when it's cool, moving to a warmer area. Not only that, peoples comfort levels differ vastly. I personally feel the cold very badly, and levels others are comfortable in, I'll be shivering and possibly even teeth chattering in. Therefore I have my crestie in the coolest room of the house as the others are high 20's and can even reach thirty on occasion.

The suggestion of heating both the top and bottom of the enclosure is not what I would advise. While you can carefully monitor it, it doesn't give the animal the ability to thermoregulate. Personally I would heat one spot of the tank with bulb or similar, carefully monitored (digital thermometer) with dimming stat and not heat the rest. This gives the animal the opportunity to bask in one area should it need it, and plenty of room to escape these temperatures when needed, which is crucial with cresties. It's worth noting that since they are arboreal, I would think their natural behaviour would be to move lower in the trees and seek shade when too warm, and move higher towards the heat source when they need to warm up. The heating of the lower end of the enclosure as has been suggested therefore doesn't really coincide with this. That being said, that really depends what your night time and day time temps are.

I can't advise personally on the wattage - again I would think that would depend on your actual set up, the materials, how it holds heat, where you angle the bulb and what your temps in that area of the house actually are. Certainly what a friend might use for their animal in the same setup won't necessarily work for me. I'm sure somebody else can help advise you further on that.


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## joe1981 (Dec 14, 2012)

Whilst Cresties don't require dedicated heating like certain other lizard\reptiles I have always provided some for mine. I did the Mat thing and that wasn't sufficient and I didn't like having heat lamps either. I went with the Exo Terra Dual Top Canopy that has a built in Halogen lamp and have found that this provides a lovely warm basking area that my crestie often makes use of. It adds about 4-5 degrees to the Viv pushing the temperature up to around 24 degrees at it's hottest point.

They are a nice simple and effective solution with no need for thermostats.

Exo Terra Dual Top Canopy | Swell Reptiles


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## Sky7ine (Jan 30, 2012)

Cresties do benefit from having a heat gradient it allows them to thermo regulate, i use 75w ceramics on mine in a deep medium sized dome on a pulse stat, sat on the mesh ontop of the exo with a basking spot of 30c (84f) and a gradient down to mid 70's.


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## scottishbluebird (Jun 1, 2012)

Fudge has 2 heatmats in winter, my bedroom is freezing through the day, i put a towel that goes over the top and both sides, it covers the heatmat on the side. her temps are colder through the day,but still ok at 20, later when heater kicks in goes up. NEVER above 29
She is fine through the day as have checked on her when i first got her and winter came, she was never cold


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## Jebb (Jul 3, 2013)

love_reptiles said:


> The suggestion of heating both the top and bottom of the enclosure is not what I would advise. While you can carefully monitor it, it doesn't give the animal the ability to thermoregulate. Personally I would heat one spot of the tank with bulb or similar, carefully monitored (digital thermometer) with dimming stat and not heat the rest. This gives the animal the opportunity to bask in one area should it need it, and plenty of room to escape these temperatures when needed, which is crucial with cresties.


so you would not advise heating a viv that was 8c at the bottom, even with a ceramic in use?

the tube heater was just enough to heat the bottom to 18c, the top with the ceramic was 28c so a very good range of temps to thermonregulate.

my 75w ceramic on full could not heat the viv up enough, upping the wattage on the ceramic would have maybe heated the bottom up but it would have meant the top would have been far to hot.

as long as the temp of the bottom, middle and top are monitored I do not see a problem in my method.


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## scottishbluebird (Jun 1, 2012)

My heatmats are on the bottom, other is on the side where one of her hides is. It works out really well


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## GavinMc (Jan 9, 2013)

luthera said:


> May I ask for some extra info on the ceramic heater and the tube heater for the bottom ? Such as good brands, where to place, how to attach, any issues you ran into. . also I feel dreadful I have to say I've never used a thermostat.. Are you able to tell me more about them and how to use them? (I assume they work similar to a house one- you set it to different temperatures at different times of the day and night and it turns the heater on and off to maintain this temperature?)


For the CHEs I use HabiStat and place them to one corner of the vivarium. I guess you will be using a glass vivarium with a mesh top. If this is the case I would recommend getting some sort of bulb surround so the CHE is not in direct contact with the mesh. I personally wouldn't recommend using a tubular heater at the bottom as if it is too cold the crestie will climb to a warmer spot. Thermostats are very simple - you have a dial, which you set to the appropriate temperature, and three cables, one of which plugs in to the mains; the second is for plugging the heating device into and the third is the sensor/probe. People seem to have different ways to get the correct temperatures but as long as there is a minimal chance of over heating them it shouldn't matter, as long as it works for you and your animal/s. For a CHE I would recommend a Pulse stat.



luthera said:


> I'm so sorry I have to admit that I believe my actions caused my gecko to pass away..


If you still have the body you could have a PM done to find out exactly what the cause of death was.



luthera said:


> Doing my homework but getting a little confused with the ceramic heaters. All show pictures of just a bulb and I want to make sure I'm getting the Base it screws into and plug not just replacement bulb.. Also what wattage would be suitable for a crestie in a 12/12/18 in viv?
> I've been looking at ones like this
> Komodo Ceramic Heat Emitter, 100 Watt, Black: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies
> But I'm not sure if it comes with the fixture or not..? I'm in the UK so if anyone can recommend anything that would be good.
> (Thankfully thermometers and thermostats are much simpler)


That one you are looking at doesn't come with the fittings, most don't. I would think something like THIS would be the best fixture to use as it will sit on top of your mesh top. As for wattage, it really depends on the heat of the room so can be difficult to recommend a wattage, but a 100W would probably be best. You might even need one for winter and an other for summer.


As Sky7ine has already said a heat gradient is best for cresties. Yes they can survive in a vivarium with a constant room temperature of 24ishC but in the wild they are exposed to temperatures above 30C and they will freely bask in temperatures this high in captivity.






Jebb said:


> so you would not advise heating a viv that was 8c at the bottom, even with a ceramic in use?
> 
> the tube heater was just enough to heat the bottom to 18c, the top with the ceramic was 28c so a very good range of temps to thermonregulate.
> 
> ...


There is no problem with your method, it's just unneeded. I wouldn't advise using a second heater if part of the vivarium is warm enough. That is a thermal gradient and that is all we need. Also 28C at the top and only 8C at the bottom? That is strange, how big is/was your vivarium and how low did the temperatures in the house get? 



Gavin.


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## Jebb (Jul 3, 2013)

> There is no problem with your method, it's just unneeded. I wouldn't advise using a second heater if part of the vivarium is warm enough. That is a thermal gradient and that is all we need. Also 28C at the top and only 8C at the bottom? That is strange, how big is/was your vivarium and how low did the temperatures in the house get?


the temp would go as low as 7c.

Viv is 45x45x60, heat rises, a 75w is plenty to heat the viv a few inches away from the ceramic to 28c but just wasn't enough to raise the bottom more than a degree at most.

The gecko would have a very small useable area if I had left the bottom of the viv at 8c. It's body temp would drop as soon as it left the top of the viv
.
Ceramics are good but a bit more is needed to raise the temp by 10c, in an open topped glass viv, just to get to a basic 18c.

You say it wasn't needed, so what would you have done? keeping the heating on 24/7 was not an option for me.

I really do not see how is was not a good fix for the situation.

Instead of having a viv mostly below the recommended levels, I ended up with a viv 18c-28c.


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## GavinMc (Jan 9, 2013)

Jebb said:


> the temp would go as low as 7c.
> 
> Viv is 45x45x60, heat rises, a 75w is plenty to heat the viv a few inches away from the ceramic to 28c but just wasn't enough to raise the bottom more than a degree at most.
> 
> ...


You ask what I would do? I would probably catch hypothermia, a house should never be anywhere near that temperature. I know people are living in hard times but holy s**t that is far too cold for the gecko and yourself. 

I would use a wooden vivarium from day one but with a glass vivarium I would insulate it with polystyrene, all round and over most of the mesh. This would keep a lot more heat in and would certainly lift the temperatures all around the vivarium.

I didn't say that what you done wasn't a good fix, I said it was unneeded and I also think it's a tad extreme costing far more than other potential fixes.



Gavin.


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## Jebb (Jul 3, 2013)

gavgav04 said:


> You ask what I would do? I would probably catch hypothermia, a house should never be anywhere near that temperature. I know people are living in hard times but holy s**t that is far too cold for the gecko and yourself.
> 
> I would use a wooden vivarium from day one but with a glass vivarium I would insulate it with polystyrene, all round and over most of the mesh. This would keep a lot more heat in and would certainly lift the temperatures all around the vivarium.
> 
> ...


of course I had other options, but with them comes other problems to solve, I chose a glass viv for a reason,a wood viv has it's issues too and I would still want an open top on it, covering it on top didn't sit right with me,when all I had to do was add extra heat.

I also didn't want to wrap it up (did consider it), I enjoy viewing it.

Thanks for the concern, I agree it was far to cold, glad to say I've since moved and my new place is well insulated, I can have the window open even in this cold weather and still be at 16c...the tube heater is no longer needed.


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