A coin-sized disc that changes color when a cage gets too hot. It doesn't replace a thermostat, but it lets you check every cage at a glance.
Video · 11 min watchWritten by Brian
These products come from Crickets Custom Design. Jason there sent them to me. This is not a sponsored video and I'm not paid for it. I also picked up a 3D printed Cubone skull hide, purely because breeding crested geckos is basically Pokemon for adults.
Magnetic food dishes
Custom 3D printed food dishes are everywhere now, but these are worth a look for one reason: the magnets are incredibly strong. I hate suction-cup decor because it never stays up, and gluing decor in makes cleaning a pain and stops you rearranging the cage. A lot of magnetic decor has weak magnets. The Feral Creations branches I reviewed look great and my mourning geckos fill them with eggs, but even with three magnets they can't hold a mourning gecko's weight, and they keep falling off the glass.
These will never fall off. They're strong enough that Jason warned me about them. If you slam two together too many times, the magnets can break out of the plastic. If you slap one onto a cage, it can break the glass. Slide them on from the side.
I also got an octopus dish: four of its eight arms hold the food cups. It's far more interesting than most magnetic dishes.
As for build quality, they're 3D printed, so they're a little fragile and a little rough. They're smoother than a lot of 3D printed products I have seen, and well made for what they are.
The heat puck
This is the main reason I made the video. The heat puck is a plastic disc about the size of a US gold dollar coin, with ridged edges. Like a mood ring, it changes color with temperature: dark green when cool, orange at 29 °C (85 °F).
That matters. For crested geckos, 29 °C (85 °F) is basically the ceiling. At around 28 °C (82 °F), they'll probably be fine, especially if they can move down to the cooler bottom of the cage or dig into a lay box. At 29 °C (85 °F), they're in the danger zone.
Holding one in my hand for a couple of minutes turned it fully orange.
How I'd use it
Stick one to the glass with a small drop of aquarium-grade silicone, under your heat source if you use one. Do that in every cage, and you can walk into your gecko room and see at a glance whether any cage is too hot: a failing thermostat, a cage too close to a heating vent when the heating kicks on, a dome lamp that slipped lower, or the wrong wattage bulb. If you heat the whole room rather than each cage, one in every few cages would do.
It does not replace a good thermostat and a good temperature gauge. You still need both.
Verdict
I love the heat pucks. They cost $5, which is worth it, and I think everyone with a gecko should have one. I think they will save geckos' lives. The magnetic dishes are excellent too. The company has no website yet; for now they take orders through their Facebook page.