Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I just got a beautiful dark brown crested gecko with alot of orange stripes yesterday and I have a few questions. I have aspen shavings on the bottom with a thick layer of moss that I keep moist. My question is when to feed him and how do I know he ate. When I put the crickets in the cage they just go under the peat moss and he usually stay up at the top. I watched one climb up the back wall and then he ate it but other than that I dont know if he got the other 3 I put in there or if they died.
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1.0 Miami Phase Corn Snake
Hope to soon be a new owner of a Crested Gecko

best thing to do is put the crickets into a glass bowl or similar so the crickets can't get out and hide in the substrate. Place the bowl underneath a branch so your crested gecko can see them and get at the crickets.

You can also switch right to Crested gecko diet, made by T-rex and use crickets as an occaisonal treat as well.
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PHLdyPayne

My experience has been that it's good to try both crickets and CGD and see which one the crested likes better. When we first got ours, she was a really aggressive hunter, went after crickets like you wouldn't believe, and completely ignored fruit/CGD. Now it's the reverse - she eats a ton of CGD and only the occasional crickets, to the point where I only offer crickets at every other or every third feeding now. This has the nice consequence of being cheaper, too .

It's pretty obvious when they eat fruit or CGD, cause it disappears from the bowl you put it in. If you want to be sure that she's eating the crickets, you could always feed her in a second small enclosure (like a big tupperware container or something) with only paper towels in it. Dump in 3-5 crickets, insert gecko, watch the hunting begin.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear