Cooling a portion of a warm house?

[Daybreaker]

Thought I should get some input as the 19th is coming up fast....

As mentioned in the Rhacodactylus Geckos forum, I'm looking to add a little Crestie to the big herp family at the Phoenix Expo on the 19th. My only concern with adding this type of gecko to the household is the ambient house temperatures.

The bf and I keep the house to ~80 or so since the living room consists of the quarentine snakes and the one bedroom is full of our established collection. We have a second bedroom that I have my indoor rabbits in.

I know that it's recommened to not keep cresties at temps above 80 degrees, and usually the house ambients range from 80-82 (I haven't seem it go over 82 so far this summer/fall and I've been using digital acurite thermometers to measure these ambient temps). The bedroom with the established collection usually is a little cooler (in the mornings its around ~75 while the living room stays closer to 80).

Is it possible to essentially "cool" the air around the tank in which I will keep the crestie without making the whole house/the snakes cooler? Wet washcloth on top of the screen, a frozen water bottle near the tank, a fan on 24/7 blowing air on the tank, etc?

What are the lowest ambient temps that cresties can be comfortably kept in?

I'll be seeing if maybe the closet in the bedroom or the second bedroom with the bunnies will be cooler but if not would a constant 80 degrees be detrimental to the crestie's health? I don't want to run into problems when I have the gecko in hand hence why I'm trying to get this figured out beforehand.

Any ideas?

[Alexandra V]

I don't keep cresties, but I've been doing research because my school science department wants some as class pets and came to me haha. I think that if you're keeping them at a room temperature of 80 F, although it's on the high side, they should be okay, though lower with a basking spot would be more ideal I think it could manage.

You could try offering a high-up water dish, because these guys are arboreal (think MagNaturals bowls) so that at least if they get way too hot they can drink/sit in their water to cool off a bit and allow you some time to notice the problem and adjust accordingly. Or you could try a small fan blowing into the cage to circulate and cool the air as well, or the frozen water bottle idea is cool too, but would take a lot of replacing if you're going to keep that up. As far as minimum temperature, I'd be weary of going below 70F, room temperature seems to do them fine as an ambient.

[Ezekiel285]

These are more expensive but it would be easier than freezing and switching out water bottles every day.

[Ezekiel285]

One of those would cool the whole room though so i guess that would only work if you kept the crestie in your rabbit room or bedroom.

[Daybreaker]

Thanks for the suggestions both of you! I did a little experiment last night and it looks like the "bunny room" averaged ~70 degrees while the living room stayed at a good 80 (I leave the window cracked a little in that room) then the closet in my bedroom averaged ~72-75 while the rest of the room was at a 79 so it looks like that might work pretty well!

[Ezekiel285]

Nice! sounds like you have some options. I hope it works out for you, let us know what you end up doing.

[blushingball419]

My apartment stays at a pretty constant 78-80 and my crestie is doing wonderfully, not stressed at all. I would only worry when it starts getting up closer to 85, and if you're only keeping it in the warmer room for a couple weeks for quarantine then it should be fine. Tiny babies can be more delicate, and if you're really worried then a wet towel/wash cloth over a fan or a frozen water bottle would work, just make sure to monitor the temps so it doesn't get much colder than 70.

Honestly though, my ambient is constantly ~80 and I haven't noticed any issues