Although many people believe their crested gecko is a tropical lizard that needs high temperatures and humidity, they are subtropical animals that love a humid terrarium for optimum growth.
Humidity is among the important criteria in a crested gecko’s terrarium, just like temperature and lighting. It can easily fluctuate and several factors can determine the humidity of a crested gecko tank.
However, you need to aim for an average humidity that is at an optimum range. But humidity usually fluctuates throughout the day.
In this post, you will get an insight into the good humidity level for crested gecko enclosure and how you can create a not too humid or too dry enclosure for them.
You will also learn how to use the different factors to determine and keep your crested gecko enclosure humidity at an optimum level.
This article has been reviewed by Dr. Gospel. Read more about our knowledge control process here.
Contents
Do Crested Geckos Need A Proper Humidity?
The relative humidity needed by crested geckos in captivity is between 60-80%.
If the average humidity of your cresties terrarium is higher than 80% for a long time, it can lead to health problems.
However, if average humidity is lower than 50%, it can lead to dehydration and shedding problems for crested geckos.
Understand Crested Gecko Habitat The Right Way
Cresties are known to be native to the south of New Caledonia. Their population is spread over three separate locations, such as the Isle of Pines, South of Mount Dzumac (Grand Terre), and Blue River (Grande Terre).
Check our complete guide about crested gecko habitat here
You can determine whether crested geckos need a humid environment by determining the humidity of the crested gecko’s natural habitat. The relative humidity of New Caledonia is usually between 76 to 80% during the wet season and 70% during the dry season.
Just like the rest of the world, the humidity of New Caledonia usually fluctuates throughout the day. You can get a humidity range that is as low as 50% from morning to afternoon. However, the humidity level can then rise to about 90%.
Importance Of Humidity for Crested Geckos
Crested geckos love high humidity levels and will thrive well in a humid environment. To keep your crested gecko happy and healthy, there is a need to keep its enclosure at optimum humidity level. Some of the importance of humidity for crested geckos are:
- High humidity helps to keep your crested gecko hydrated.
- It helps crested geckos to shed properly.
- Crested geckos depend on high humidity to smell their food.
Low humidity levels in their terrarium cause several problems like shedding and dehydration in crested geckos. If your crested gecko does not have underlying health issues, you can easily avoid these problems.
Humidity Levels for Crested Geckos
In this section, you will get an insight into the ideal humidity for crested geckos and how you can measure the humidity levels.
What is the Ideal Humidity for Crested Geckos?
The average humidity levels for cresties are usually between 60-80%. However, they can tolerate humidity levels around 50%. This is why it is recommended to allow their terrarium’s humidity level to drop to 50% gradually.
Humidity And How It Affects Crested Gecko Health
Gradually dropping the humidity helps in preventing bacterial and fungal growth in their enclosure. There are times when humidity levels above 80% are recommended to help with shedding problems. However, it can hurt your cresties’ health if exposed to such high levels for a long time.
Measuring the Humidity Levels
One of the major accessories needed for keeping crested geckos is the hygrometer. A hygrometer is a device used for measuring the humidity levels in a terrarium. It helps to determine the percentage of the relative humidity in the air.
New to crested gecko? Check out the crested gecko care sheet now! We had listed out all the things you need to know about crested gecko as pets. Check it now!
You will find a hygrometer in an analog or digital version, and you will even find some devices with both a hygrometer and a thermometer. It is best to choose a digital hygrometer or the two-in-one version for your crested gecko’s enclosure.
You can opt for crested gecko kits that come with a hygrometer as a beginner.
Do Baby Crested Gecko Require Different Humidity
Like an adult crested gecko, the baby crested gecko will do well in humidity levels between 60-80%. However, a baby tank should not be constantly wet. You will need to provide a brief drying-out period during the day.
Baby cresties normally dehydrate very quickly. There is a need to provide regular misting to keep their health at an optimum. You will also need to provide a shallow water bowl for them to drink from.
How To Create a Humid Vivarium
There are different factors that you will need to consider when creating a humid terrarium for crested geckos. Although some of the factors can be easily influenced, others require advanced knowledge.
The humidity of a crested gecko’s enclosure can be determined by:
- The general humidity in the house.
- The type of enclosure used.
- The type of substrate that you use.
- The kind of vivarium plants used.
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to increase your terrarium’s humidity is misting. However, if you have a problem creating a high humidity terrarium, you can invest in a humidifier. But this is usually not necessary for most crested gecko keepers.
Different Types of Enclosures Need Different Humidity Maintaining Effort
You will find a wide range of enclosures suitable for crested geckos. However, if you have a problem choosing one, you can check crested gecko housing guides to learn each type’s pros and cons.
The widely used enclosure for crested geckos is tanks and terrariums (also known as vivariums). The best thing about them is that they can hold the humidity well, but you will ensure good ventilation to lower the humidity levels.
However, you can use a screen or mesh cages for crested geckos, but you will have a problem keeping the humidity levels high throughout the day. This is because water vapor can easily escape through the mesh when there is high ventilation on all parts of the enclosure.
The best enclosure for crested geckos based on humidity level is a terrarium or vivarium. Most terrariums can attain an ideal humidity level, and they provide good ventilation.
Vivarium Plants
During the photosynthesis process, live vivarium plants and mosses can give off water vapor naturally. Transpiration is the process whereby water vapor will be released into the air. Transpiration will then help to improve the humidity in a crested gecko tank.
Some of the factors that can influence the transpiration rate of plants are:
Temperature: The higher the temperature in a terrarium, the higher the transpiration rate of the plants. This means keeping live plants in a hot terrarium can lead to a more humid terrarium.
Humidity: Higher humidity will decrease the transpiration of the plants. This is kind of an autoregulation mechanism, and it causes the humidity level to drop less when there is a live plant in a terrarium.
Availability of water: The evapotranspiration process needs water. This means if there is less water in the soil, there will be no evapotranspiration.
Ventilation: The higher the ventilation the higher the evapotranspiration rate. This is because ventilation reduces the humidity in a terrarium. This then causes a high rate of transpiration.
Soil type: The type of soil used in a terrarium will determine how water retaining the soil will be and how plants can draw water. However, when the ground is covered by vegetation, the transpiration rate will be higher than the soil’s evaporation rate.
Plant type: Some plants can naturally hold water and will not transpire much. However, some plants cannot hold water and will release more water.
Note: You can use both live and fake plants for your crested gecko terrarium. However, live plants help in increasing the humidity in the terrarium. You should ensure that the plant is safe to use and will not grow too big.
Substrates
The type of substrate that you use for your crested gecko terrarium will greatly influence the humidity of the tank.
Some of the best substrates for your crested geckos with the best moisture retention ability that can help maintain the humidity level in a terrarium are coconut husk, orchid bark, cypress mulch, etc.
Misting and Humidifiers
Misting
Misting is a popular way of improving the humidity of the crested gecko terrarium. This process is similar to using a spray bottle for increasing the humidity in a tank. It is one of the easiest and cheapest ways of increasing humidity, especially in a dry region.
However, you will need to use a hygrometer to determine the humidity levels in the terrarium. You can mist your terrarium in the morning and evening. You can allow the humidity levels to be about 80-90% during the evening.
You can then allow the humidity to drop for 12 hours to about 50% before you mist again. However, if you notice that the humidity levels of your terrarium drop faster to 50%, you will need to mist more often than normal.
Ensure that you use tap water to mist their tank. This is because tank water contains minerals that are important for crested geckos. Avoid using distilled, filtered, or softened water.
Humidifiers
You can opt for a humidifier if you do not want to spray your crested gecko every day with a misting bottle. Or if you live in a dry area and find it hard to keep the humidity levels up. You will find a humidifier that you can use in a room or for the enclosure.
However, you should keep in mind that tank humidifiers are not cheap, and you should budget over $100 for one.
Extra Tips
Some of the following tips can be used for keeping an ideal humidity level.
- Avoid misting directly on the hygrometer. Misting on the hygrometer can cause a wrong reading of the humidity. Whereby the humidity levels in the tank are lower than indicated on the hygrometer.
- It is best to use a water bowl. Although crested geckos lick up droplets from the terrarium plants instead of drinking from a water bowl. However, it is recommended to provide them with a water bowl. This helps reduce the evaporation rate and slightly increases the humidity level of the tank.
- It is best to mist both terrarium and plants. Misting both the plants and terrarium helps water droplets form on the leaves and the terrarium walls. Your crested geckos can then easily lick the droplet.
- Substrates cannot always control the humidity. Some substrates can retain moisture and help keep the humidity up. However, you will need to combine substrate with other factors to control the humidity in a tank.
Ways of Increasing the Humidity in your Crested Gecko Tank
There are different ways that you can increase crested gecko tank humidity. Some of the ways to improve the humidity are:
Misting of Crested Geckos Cage
Misting is the easiest and cheapest way that you can use to increase the humidity of the crested gecko terrarium. If you notice that the humidity level is dropping beyond normal, then you may need to mist the tank more than usual.
New to crested gecko? Check out the crested gecko care sheet now! We had listed out all the things you need to know about crested gecko as pets. Check it now!
Add Moss to the Terrarium
You can increase the humidity of your crested gecko tank by adding some moss. All you need to do is spray or soak and ring it before putting it in their terrarium. Moss will help improve the humidity; it will also help the enclosure look more natural.
When the moss starts to look dry, you can spray it or just replace it.
Change the Substrate
You might need to change the substrate you are using if you have a problem keeping your crested gecko terrarium’s humidity level.
Add Foil on the Top of Their Tank
If you follow different steps and the humidity is still dropping rapidly, it may be that the humidity is escaping very quickly from the enclosure top. You will need to add foil to your crested gecko tank with a screen mesh top.
Adding foil helps to prevent a lot of the humidity from escaping.
Use a Reptile Fogger
Last update on 2022-12-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
If you are living in a dry climate, it is best to use a reptile fogger. However, you will use a reptile fogger with misting of the tank. But you should be moderate with using the reptile fogger.
This is because you will need your terrarium to dry to around 50% during the day. Exposing crested gecko to high humidity for a long time can lead to upper respiratory infection.
What you Need to Create a Perfect Habitat
Since you will need a habitat for keeping your crested gecko, it is best to use a relatively small but high cage. This is because crested geckos are semi-arboreal animals and love jumping and climbing.
They also need a place where they can hide during the day. Some of the things that you will need to create a perfect habitat are lighting, heat source, plant, mosses, feeding ledges, water bowl, humid hides, etc.
Best Reptile Humidifier
A reptile humidifier can be used for improving the humidity of a crested gecko enclosure. Some of the best reptile humidifiers that you can use are stated below.
Zoo Med Reptile Fogger Humidifier
Last update on 2022-12-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Zoo Med humidifier helps in creating the most suitable moisture content for both the crested gecko and plants.
It comes with a timer to set the misting time, and you don’t have to bother checking the humidity every time.
It also allows you to easily adjust the humidity level the way you like.
Another good thing about the product is that you can adjust its fog output.
This means the humidifier will not need a lot of space in the terrarium.
All you have to do is put the humidifier in while you adjust the output straight to the enclosure.
The product has a no-spill valve, making it easy to remove and refill the water bottle whenever you want.
It comes with a hose that you can easily take off if you’re going to empty the water in a sink.
Overall the product is lovely, and it will produce thick mist wherever you direct the humidifier.
Pros
- Easy to clean
- Cheap
- It works fine even with all three valves running
Cons
- The units can be loud at times
- The disc wears off easily
- The on-switch light is too bright and can lighten up the room at night.
- Sometimes when the tubes get filled with water, it stops working.
Pravono Reptile Fogger Humidifier
Pravono reptile humidifier comes with two mist work modes for spraying the tank continuously and will power off after 3 hours. You will enjoy it since it is very silent when running. It is also portable, and you can use it for a long time without adding water.
It has multipurpose use and can be used as a crested gecko humidifier, aquarium fogger, snake terrarium humidifier, reptile tank humidifier, etc. If you place the humidifier at a slight angle, it will produce a heavier mist covering 2/3 of the bottom and middle part of your terrarium.
Pros
- It is safe for your pet
- It is very portable
- Cost-effective
- Has multipurpose use
- Easy to clean and refill
- It is not noisy
- Can easily be disguised with other decorations.
Cons
- It is small and cannot be used for a big terrarium
- The wire connecting the device to the power button is not long.
- It can be hard to determine how it works, as there are no proper directions.
Wrapping Up
Humidity is among the major factors that you need to consider for the optimal growth of your crested gecko. You can maintain stable humidity in your crested gecko terrarium using some of the methods stated above.
i need to lower my humidity this is my first gecko and the humidity isn’t dropping i have a mesh top and I need help plzzz
Shayla, don’t rush! Firstly, can I know how big is your terrarium size and are you using any humidifier? Which brand?