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Crickets Only?

yensen Feb 21, 2007 12:04 AM

I'm thinking about getting a crested, and I was wondering if I need to feed them fruit/cgd or baby food as I have a bunch of crickets from keeping Leos.

Thanks

Replies (7)

olstyn Feb 21, 2007 07:40 AM

>>I'm thinking about getting a crested, and I was wondering if I need to feed them fruit/cgd or baby food as I have a bunch of crickets from keeping Leos.
>>
>>Thanks

Well, CGD is cheaper (a bottle only costs maybe $5 or $6 and lasts me 5-6 months feeding every other night), but it kinda depends on how old the gecko is, and what the store or breeder you got it from was feeding it. Mine started off eating almost nothing but crickets (though she was offered both crickets and fruit), and gradually switched over to mainly CGD with just a few crickets a week. My understanding is that they grow faster when they're eating crickets, so if you get a juvenile, I'd try to at least include crickets in its diet.

My opinion is that it's probably good to either offer what the store or breeder was feeding or both, at least at first, and then transition to mainly CGD gradually.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Smith710 Feb 21, 2007 03:33 PM

Well, you don't NEED to feed it fruit or cgd. It can live off of just dusted crickets. But it is highly recommended to at least give it a little dish of fruit baby food with a little calcium mixed in every few days. They eat fruits and insects in the wild, so you would want to keep it how they originally live as much as you can.
-----
1.0 savannah monitor
0.4 leopard geckos
2.2.5 crested geckos 4 eggs
1.0 Rhacodactylus Chahoua
0.1 Mossy Leaftail
0.1 common boas (BCI)
1.0 ball python
0.0.1 western hognose
0.1 kenyan sand boa
0.0.1 golden tree frog
0.0.1 fire belly toad
0.0.1 Sulcata tortoise
0.0.1 desert hairy scorpion
0.0.1 texas millipede
1.2 sugar gliders 2 joeys
0.1 chinchilla
2.0 cats
0.0.1 African Giant Black Millipede
0.0.1 Pac Man frog
10 gallon freshwater
LOTS of roaches

Matt Smith
Exotic-Adventure

olstyn Feb 21, 2007 06:25 PM

>>Well, you don't NEED to feed it fruit or cgd. It can live off of just dusted crickets. But it is highly recommended to at least give it a little dish of fruit baby food with a little calcium mixed in every few days. They eat fruits and insects in the wild, so you would want to keep it how they originally live as much as you can.
>>-----

True, but the point is that CGD is actually less expensive to feed than crickets (presuming you buy your crickets @ retail anyway), and is complete nutrition for them, so if you can get them to eat it, it's actually to your advantage to do so...
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

yensen Feb 21, 2007 08:05 PM

The thing is that at the pet store I go to the crickets are quite cheap (10 cents each) and the cgd I saw there came in large bags that were like 35 bucks a pop so I thought crickets would be the easier road to take. Also I often go away so my brother sometimes feeds my leos and so its probably easier for him to just feed crickets.
P.S.I live in Canada so don't think the prices are outrageous.

Thanks

olstyn Feb 21, 2007 11:07 PM

>>The thing is that at the pet store I go to the crickets are quite cheap (10 cents each) and the cgd I saw there came in large bags that were like 35 bucks a pop so I thought crickets would be the easier road to take. Also I often go away so my brother sometimes feeds my leos and so its probably easier for him to just feed crickets.
>>P.S.I live in Canada so don't think the prices are outrageous.
>>
>>Thanks

Well, even if we assume that a canadian dollar is only worth .8 american dollars, 35x0.8 = $28 american dollars. That must be one huge bag of CGD. Kinda surprising they don't have it in smaller sizes - the bottle I buy every 5-6 months costs $5 or so, basically $1/month, or about $1.20/month canadian. Stuff's only supposed to be good for about 6 months anyway, so that bigger bag would definitely be for people who have many geckos to take care of. Of course, if smaller amounts aren't available where you are, then yeah, crickets fruit baby food calcium would be what you'd do, and certainly if you're away for a week or two or whatever, they can eat crickets exclusively for that timeframe with no problems...
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

yensen Feb 21, 2007 11:10 PM

Thanks for the advice

dellessa May 10, 2007 04:58 PM

I wouldn't feed crickets only. Fruits make up the staple part of your diet, so most likely if you did that you are not going to have a very healthy gecko on your hands.

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