Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
At the recent Tinley Park show I picked up four geckos, two Cresteds and two Gargoyles. The Gargoyles are little piggies, eat anything and everything offered. The cresteds are the concern. First of all, here are the facts.

Enclosure-20qt Rubbermaid (same as the Garg.'s) in a heated Rack. Each tub has a section of "egg crate," two paper tubes, and a hide box (that the Garg.'s love). All four Geckos are being housed seperately.

Size of Gecko-All Four are also aprox the size of my pinkie-nose to "butt" not including tail.

Temps- Warm side has been 78-81, cool side 73-75.

Water Availability-Each tub has a small shallow water bowl and the tubs are misted twice a day.

They have not been handled or bothered other than for cleaning. I'm going by the two week rule, only have had them for one week.

Now here is the perplexing thought, Is my setup wrong?? If so, why are half thriving and half are not. ???

These are things that I've tried.
In Tinley I was recommended to buy the Gargoyle MRP for both pairs since it's higher in Protein. So I obviously started with that. I place a a small "dab" in an upside down baby food jar lid in the tubs in the evening and take it out in the morning.

I've tried
- straight Garg. MRP per instructions on packet.-nothing
-mixed Garg. MRP/water mix with a "little" bit of babyfood-nothing

Then I got some TRex CGD, wondering if it was the Diet.

-mixed TRex CGD/water mix with a little bit of baby food-nothing

Dusted Crickets-SCORE!! Psycho little guys with those in the tubs. Each Crested has only eaten four crickets, twice now. A few of the mixes I wasn't able to tell if they had walked in the food or may have taken "one" bite. This is with one gecko, the other I can honestly say it has never been touched to my knowledge.

I'm avoiding and have not offered straight babyfood. Been told not to.

Now the gargoyle's are doing awesome. I don't see how if it's setup issues they would be doing well and the others not. They're in the same rack.

The Garg.'s are on a "every other" night now since they do so well. The "dab" is destroyed and only smears are left. But I have been offering the Cresteds something each evening, now in the 8 days I've had them they have been offered 6 times.

Any suggestions whatsoever?????

Thanks in advance.
Greg H.

This behavior doesn't sound hugely abnormal to me. My crested was much more interested in crickets than CGD when she was little, and ate far more of the crickets than CGD while she was growing. In order to get her to eat CGD, we had to start with fruit baby food and gradually mix in higher percentages of CGD until we were @ pure CGD. You might try that, or if you're completely against baby food at all (yes, CGD is better, but baby food does have nutritive value), you could try dusting the crickets in CGD in order to get the geckos used to the taste/smell of it as food.

Here's hoping this helps, and good luck with the little guys!
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Totally agree with Olstyn, but wanted to add, I have heard that it is common that crested geckos enjoy their CGD "aged". The bottle says take it out every day, but many geckos, including ours, won't touch it until it has really thickened up the next night to almost a foot leather stage, then eats like no tomorrow.

Also, remember, that at that small, sometimes it is hard to tell if they are eating much, just as you said, was it a step or a munch? Who know? (Unless they like painting the walls, ours is an artist.) Keep offering CGD or one of those new universal MRP from the same company, the pick your flavor ones, which would work for all Rhacs, not being specific for either breed. Definitely keep up with the crickets, I found that the little ones grow best on a combination of crickets and CGD. A lot of people have mentioned dusting with CGD as being successful, so it is really worth a try. Ok, now I'm repeating too much of what was already said.

One thing of note, can you ask the breeder what s/he was feeding the cresteds before you received them? Knowing that can help you wean them onto whatever is easiest for you. Good luck and happy keeping!
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock