u/Ace_of_hearts2233

At least I hope I did. I had made a post yesterday about how I had “revamped crumbs enclosure” I had thought I did pretty good. And wanted to show it to the world, I was fairly proud of it. Until literally everyone who had commented were all saying the same 2 things

Needs more foliage cover, because it was barren of green besides a few wimpy spider plants.

Another concern was the Thrive water feature I had in the enclosure. It was unsafe unsanitary and honestly just took up way to much room in her enclosure

So instead of letting pride get the best of me I put my self in my geckos shoes and thought “I can definitely do better for her”

I literally stayed up all night researching proper plant I can house with her. I Made a list of plants i could get at a nearby nursery.

This morning I had to run some errands anyways so on my way i stopped by a big box pet store that shall not be named and spent way too much money on a bioactive setup that came with Lava rocks, drainage liner, a soil mix, and leaf litter. I also picked up a 35w infrared heat protector, (as i live pretty far north, the temperature drops a lot at night and in the mornings. Like 40°F-50°F)

As for plants specifically I got

Golden Pothos

Birds nest fern

Creeping Jenny

Dorado Dracaena

These are the plants the internet suggested so if any are unsafe to use please let me know and will take it out immediately.

I made sure to wash the roots before planting (I had heard I need to quarantine them before planting them in the enclosure. Not sure if I do need to worry, please let me know)

100% removed the water feature and going to mist both in the morning and evening until I can buy a automatic mister.

I believe the only thing I’m really missing is isopods and springtails. Absolutely nobody has them where I live. I’ll most likely order them online. Please leave links to respectable websites to get isopods.

If there is anything I missed please let me know

The enclosure was fairly sparse before with the a big cork round in the center and a artificial “flexi” vine I got from pet co or pet smart wrapping around the cork round , as well as the “water fall feature” (not a huge fan of how it looks or how much room it takes up, however Crumb loves her waterfall.)

First thing I did was use vinegar to scrub all the hard water stains off the glass (when u upgrade her enclosure size I’ll get a pvc enclosure so hopefully not as calcium build up). I was using normal tap water to mist before hand and obviously that’s what caused the white spots on the glass. I’ve recently switched to strictly R.O. water for misting and her waterfall.

For the hardscape I sawed the cork round in half and stuck them on both sides so she still has hiding spots but I can still find her. (Probably still won’t be able to find her most of the time) also went outside to collect some sticks and bark, pretty sure they came from an oak tree, dead ofc. I put them in the oven at 170°f for about 30-40 minutes (maybe I was impatient. Longer would probably been better) I did drill a 2 3/4 inch holes halfway into one of the branches to place make shift feeding cups

Finally i wanted to give her and the spider plants i planted on the floor some better lights. I asked my green thumb sister if had any small grow lights i could use for the enclosure and she gave me a set of small USB grow lights. I made a fairly rigid bracket using some scrap wood I had laying around and sawed in half, I screwed the grow lights to the 2 half’s so that the lights are running parallel with each other. I don’t plan on using them at max brightness, as they are more for the plants.

Anyways I mostly wanted to share how easy it is to go from a honestly pretty boring enclosure to something that my baby can actually thrive in. Btw i didn’t spend a dime on this “project” so I’m fairly happy with it and I hope Crumb loves it.

Any advice and ideas are appreciated.

Please be nice as she is my first crested gecko and I’m really trying to give her the best life possible.

I want her to thrive, not just survive