Temperatures

Crested Geckos will do fine at room temperature, but a little extra heat (in most homes) is usually helpful in achieving optimal breeding results.

In my facility, the daytime high is about 74-76 degrees in the summer and 70-72 in the winter, with night time temps about five degrees cooler.  Because I have breeding groups going year round, I provide my breeding adults with a basking area of 80-82 degrees. I leave the opposite end of the cage, where the nest box is, at room temperature.

The basking area mentioned above is provided by placing a strip of heat tape directly beneath one end of the enclosure.  The heat tape is controlled by a thermostat.   If you're only heating one cage, a commercial undertank heater will work, but you must control it with a rheostat.  If heating a tank with a screen top or a screen cage, a dome lamp with a 15-25 watt bulb will do the trick.  The idea here is to provide an area with gentle warmth.  This way, the other end of the cage is still in the mid-low 70's. 

UPDATE - Now that we have a separate facility (not in my home), we can keep the room temperature a bit warmer and avoid heating each individual cage.  This is a call that you have to make based on the size of the room and the number of cages in it.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT YOUNGER GECKOS
Younger geckos and off-season adults are not provided with any supplemental heat.  In fact, I find that when taking heat away also helps my breeders' bodies realize that it's time to lay the last clutch and quit making eggs.  If you do provide supplemental heat, be sure that the basking spot doesn't get above 82 degrees and that there is always a cool spot to retreat to. 

PLEASE READ IF YOU ARE USING A LIGHT BULB TO HEAT YOUR CRESTED GECKO CAGE
Crested geckos cannot handle temperatures over 82F. If you must provide supplemental heating, do not use anything hotter than a 15 watt light bulb for smaller cages (12x12x18 or larger) and a 25 watt bulb for anything larger than 18x18x18.

Humidity

A popular misunderstanding about humidity and reptiles is that the humidity needs to never drop below a set percentage.  This is not true.  You actually want the cage to dry out and humidity to bottom out at whatever it is in your reptile room, creating a humidity cycle. 

If the humidity stays too high for too long, bacteria and fungus will start to grow, creating an unhealthy environment.  This is why it's important to have plenty of ventilation and to let the cage dry out every day.  I typically spray cages at night and let them dry out as the day gets warmer.  As a loose rule of thumb, I try to spray the cages so that the water has mostly evaporated within 6-8 hours.

While Crested Geckos do not need constantly high humidity, babies dehydrate more easily and should be misted more regularly to make sure that they don't have shedding problems.  On the other hand, I've noticed that reptiles that are kept too wet for too long can have shedding problems as well, so you still want baby cages to dry out periodically. 

So "what percent" you ask?  There is no set percent.  The temperature has a direct bearing on relative humidity and so do many other factors.  As a rule of thumb, I try to lightly mist (not soak) everything in the cage every evening.

In my experience, humidity is not at all vital if your geckos are adequately hydrated, by way of drinking.  Water bowls are not always noticed, so it's best to provide drinking water through daily misting.

The Humid Hide

In the winter, when the furnace is warming and consequently drying the air that's pumped throughout your home, it may be difficult to keep the humidity even at a moderate range...meaning you have trouble keeping the cage from being either too wet or too dry.  If this is the case, you can try giving your gecko(s) a humid hide.  A humid hide is essentially our way of reproducing the humid underground retreats that a lot of wild reptiles will take shelter in during dry spells. 

We usually use a plastic container (like a deli cup or gladware container) with a hole cut in the lid and then we fill it almost full with the same mixture that we use for nest boxes.  If you don't like the look of a plastic container in your cage, you can cover it with foliage.  Another good option for filling the humid hide is sphagnum moss (not sphagnum peat), which is also resistent to bacterial/fungal growth.  Paper towels are not a good choice here. The idea here is to find a humidity solution that doesn't require a lot of work...an area that stays damp without going moldy is ideal.  Remember to just give the gecko enough room to fit into the hide...the more air in the container and the less substrate, the faster it will dry out.  Also be sure to place the humid hide in the coolest area of the cage.  This will prevent it from drying out.

Again, you just want to give the gecko enough room to squeeze in...meaning maybe fill the humid hide to within 1/2" to 1.25" of the lid.  One you have to remember is that the tighter the area, the more secure the gecko will feel and the more likely they will be to use it.  Animals are hard wired to seek out hiding areas that are too small for predators to fit into...it's as if they're thinking "If I can barely squeeze in here, then there's no way something big enough to eat me can get in."   

How Many Geckos Per Cage?

Adult Breeding Groups
My Crested Gecko adults are housed in groups of one male and up to three females, in rack systems which house 66 quart Sterilite containers (found at Target stores).   Sterilite also makes a very similar sized tub (58 quart) which is available at Wal-Mart.  I prefer the Target version because its outside dimensions are almost identical, but it has 8 quarts more volume simply because it's not nearly as tapered at the bottom.  More usable space is always good in my book.

Single Adults
and groups of juveniles and sub adults are kept in 20 quart (12"x16"x9") Sterilite containers, which are available at Wal-Mart.

Hatchlings and small juveniles
Geckos up to about 10 grams are generally kept in size Small "Kritter Keeper" containers (aka Herp Haven, Faunarium, Pal Pen).  I've found these to provide excellent visibility, which is a major concern when rearing hatchling cresteds.  As the geckos grow, we reduce the number of geckos per container.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON REARING HATCHLINGS
Hatchling crested geckos are especially prone to having incomplete sheds, which can be caused by minor dehydration and low humidity.  When unshed skin starts to lose its moisture, it starts to shrink.  This will start to cut off blood circulation to the extremities (limbs and tails).  If the shed isn't removed in time, this can actually cause the tip of the tail and the toes to basically die and fall off.  At that point, if not corrected, the gecko's life will be in immediate danger.  This is why it's important to make sure you're able to view them easily.

Caging Efficiency
As my collection grew, I started to look for a rack system to house large numbers of hatchlings.  I started looking at commercially produced lidless reptile racks, but I didn't come up with anything that met my needs.  I began working with a manufacturer to develop a rack system to make my day to day work as simple as possible.  I like the visibility that the Kritter Keeper tubs provide, so we designed a rack to hold them.


These racks are now available through my online store at www.acreptiles.com/store.

Naturalistic Housing

Crested geckos seem to do well in naturally planted and decorated vivaria. In the wild, they tend to hang from thin branches rather than flat against the trunk of a tree. Plants can include ficus trees, pothos, etc.  It's important to make sure that the plant(s) you use are not toxic to reptiles and that they have been rinsed thoroughly, in order to remove any pesticides that may be present.  Several keepers and breeders have had much success keeping their animals on bioactive soil substrates (a mixture of soil, sand, etc.), which require little work and theoretically never need to be replaced.  Other keepers say that ground coconut fiber works well.

To be truthful, I've never really kept Crested Geckos in a naturalistic style cage for any length of time (although I'm now experimenting in my new facility), so I don't really feel qualified to write a full section about this topic.  However, there is a comprehensive section about naturalistic vivaria in the book Rhacodactylus: The Complete Guide to their Selection and Care by Philippe deVosjoli, Allen Repashy and Frank Fast.

Nest Boxes for Females

In addition to the egg crates, I provide adults with a nest box filled with a moistened peat moss/coconut husk/sand mixture.  I place something heavy (like a hide box) on top, which the females seem to gravitate toward when depositing their eggs.

Nest boxes should always be placed on the coolest end of the cage, in order to keep them from drying out too quickly.

Substrate

I use newspaper or paper towel as a substrate to simplify the cage cleaning process.  I do not use loose substrates (like bark chips, mulch, etc.) because babies may choke by accidentally ingesting them.  With adults, this is not so much of a concern.  However, when given a loose substrate, adult females may deposit their eggs anywhere in the cage, making my job (collecting eggs on a daily basis) more difficult.

Artificial Foliage

I use artificial foliage (the bendable vine type) for hatchling geckos, as I feel this provides them with ample cover, plenty of drinking surfaces (with regular misting), but it's still easy for them to find crickets in their enclosure.  Crested geckos are naturally inclined to "hang out" on thin branches as opposed to resting against the trunks of trees, so this has become my cage furnishing of choice for young geckos.  Six foot strands of artificial vines are relatively inexpensive (Wal-Mart sells it for around $3), so it can ben thrown away and replaced. 


Due to the sheer volume of foliage we use, we typically soak soiled foliage in bleach water for 10 minutes (1 part bleach to 10 parts water) and then rinse it off and re-use it.

Water

Rather than providing water bowls, I used to just spray the cages every day to provide humidity and drinking water. Now that we have a larger collection in a more humid facility, water bowls have become our method of providing drinking water, while the large humidifiers keep the humidity just high enough (remember, humidity isn't a big issue with these geckos).