Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need advice on foods & supplements for crested geckos. I'm a newbie to crested geckos - I just got my first crested at a herp show Saturday. It's a little 5-6 month old "dalmatian" baby. It was an impulse buy. I know that's awful, but it was adorable!

Which food mix do is best for crested geckos? Do you recommend the Repashy Superfoods CGD by T-Rex , or the T-Rex Crested Gecko MRP? Or smothing else? My gut feeling is to go with the CGD. What has worked best?

Supplements -- I used Herptivite & Rep-Cal for my leos, and switched to Miner-all for my chameleons, and dusted all crix with it before feeding. Which is better for crested? and how often do you supplement?

My thought is to feed crix 3x week, dusted with Herptivite & Rep-Cal each feeding, and baby food supplemented with CGD (or just CGD) 4x week. Also various other fruits on occasion (mango, berries, papaya, banana).

I appreciate your thoughts on this.

Sincerely,
Leslie

Welcome. I'm guessing you've read as many care sheets as you could find on the the internet.

The MRP and CGD is essentially the same formula, assuming I know the ones you are speaking of. The MRP is all of the nutrients, proteins and everything else, but no flavor. You choose from, I believe, one of three fruit flavors and mix them together. This has come out of requests of picky eaters and those people that have lots of different species of Rhacs, it is an all purpose diet. CGD is the original specific formula flavored for cresties, and is more often found at local pet stores and in smaller quantities. So, to be honest, it is basically the same thing.

That being said, we only have one crested and CGD has an open bottle shelf life of 6 months so we buy the small bottles of CGD instead of dealing with the MRP which usually is larger quantities.

We believe that crickets are great supplements for babies and juvi cresteds. We would tend to feed crickets about once a week until they are adults, then treats after only. To be honest, when we first got our little girl every book and care sheet was recommending that the crickets be dusted with the T-Rex Leopard Gecko Cricket Dust formula. We were using a general dust for our leo for some time (having gotten her much earlier) so we just switched both of them over to that product. I can't say I did much research at the time and now just do it out of habit, but there is a little bit more to the dust than your average vitamin supplement. Probably not a huge deal, just something we picked up on if you'd like to do your own research.

OK, I don't know if I got all your questions answered, but I hope I took a good first shot. If I missed one, hopefully someone will step in and also feel free to ask as many questions as you like, we are happy to help.

(Especially if you bring crickets)

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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

repashy superfoods CGD is just that, it is not marketed by t-rex. this and the t-rex CGD are the exact same food and both are MRP's. there is the original formula (banana/honey/fig flavored), and there is also a 2-part diet made by repashy which consists of a protein base, and a flavor nectar (there are almost 20 different flavors), mixed by weight according to whether you supplement the diet with live insects or not. if you do choose to feed crickets, which is not necessary, as the CGD is a complete and healthy Meal Replacement, be sure they are gutloaded and only feed 5-10 once a week. i prefer to dust them with pure calcium, as excess vitamin D3 is known to cause problems, similar to calcium deficiency. the CGD already has the proper amount of vitamins, including D3, in it.

feed fresh CGD every other day or 3 times per week. you can leave the dish in between feedings, just make sure it's moist but not moldy. some geckos prefer their food "aged" a day. as sleepygecko said, it would probably be better for you to buy the small jar with the purple lid at your local pet store if you only have one gecko. however, once opened, you can keep it sealed in the refrigerator for up to a year. www.superfoods.repashy.com/foods_MRP_Crested.htm

stay completely away from baby food, it is not nutritious for cresteds, and is very difficult to properly supplement. this is what happens to geckos on baby food: www.forums.repashy.com/showthread.php?t=8114
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4.1 snakes, 5.3.2 crested geckos, 0.1 gargoyle gecko, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta

actually, there are currently only a dozen flavor nectars currently being produced, 2 of which will be discontinued, but geckoranch.com is still selling nearly 20 flavors. also, the original banana flavor t-rex CGD may be changing to one of the other flavors.

www.forums.repashy.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10
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4.1 snakes, 5.3.2 crested geckos, 0.1 gargoyle gecko, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta

LOL ... I'll bring crix!

Thank you all for your replies!

I purchased a small bottle of the TRex MRP (the local petshop had this) and have started my little guy on it. I already had Rep-Cal and MinerAll, but I will probably purchase the T-Rex crested gecko supplement when I get the opportunity. I'll also decrease the amount of crix I was planning to once a week, or as treats. Today he had a few licks of babyfood apple from my finger when he was out (treat) but I won't feed babyfood except as a treat, or mixed with the MRP.

Again, thanks for the advice!

Leslie

i would highly advise against mixing the MRP with baby food, it will throw off the nutritional balance. CGD is meant to be mixed with water only to provide their complete nutrition. also, i would advise against even providing it as a treat (crickets are enough of a treat), but if you insist on giving baby food for some reason, do not do it more than once a month. a gecko may become picky and hold out for the "candy", not eating its "vegetables" and then you'll really have a problem.
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4.1 snakes, 5.3.2 crested geckos, 0.1 gargoyle gecko, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta

While I do agree mixing MRP with babyfood does indeed throw off the nutritional balance, I'm going to moderate some of th comments made.

Many babies don't take to MRP/CGD straight right away and while there are instructions on the bottle to wean them off which I won't bother repeating here, some geckos are more stubborn than most and won't eat straight CGD until adulthood, even if you are at 1/4 babyfood to 3/4 diet. I don't know what your guy was raised on, so if he takes to the MRP and eats readily of it, then you are good to go, if not, get as much MRP as you can into him, even if it takes a little baby food at first.

I haven't seen a crestie go off his diet by getting the occasional lick of babyfood, though I feed from a teaspoon, not a finger. The only thing I would say about that is apple is OK to feed, but it does contain the most natural sugar, you might want vary that with peaches, apricots, and banana natural baby food as well. We've found those to be favorites of many of the board geckos.

---Though watch out for flying geckos, one time my little one (maybe 3 months at the time) made an unexpected landing on the side of the jar of food that I was feeding her from with the teaspoon. (I was occupying her while her cage was being cleaned.) She was both confused and happy to find a pool of peaches complete with a place to perch.

Good luck.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

I rescued an 3 year old adult male cresty from an owner who was feeding dessert baby food and undusted crickets. I slowly have converted him to a diet of CGD with small amounts of mixed (non-dessert) tropical fruit baby food and 3 weekly crickets with calcium dust. I had planned to eliminate the baby food completely but he won't touch the straight CGD. I also give small amounts of mushed fruit (mangos/bananas) on occasion.
It is a miracle this poor guy is as healthy as he is---no MBD or floppy tail. He smelled like smoke for ages. I had to remove residual toe shed debris for months before my frequent misting finally resolved this issue. He is now healthy and tolerates handling very well. I love the little clown.
I know CGD is supposed to be "complete" but I do think the crickets add additional protein (negligible) and maybe more importantly fiber. I will try to back down even more on the baby food, but he really enjoys the fruit/baby food and crickets. Is what I'm doing really that bad? I know it is definitely better than what he had before but I don't know how many more changes he'll accept. Also, what sources, other than Repashy's literature, support your findings. Not trying to be rude, but I've had precious few sources re: feeding that weren't associated with him and his diet. I would love to see unbiased data.

First off, it sounds like your gecko is lucky to have found you to take care of him; you're doing a much better job than his previous owner. Second, I'll probably get jumped on for this, but his diet sounds mostly ok to me; yes, CGD is better than baby food, but it sounds like you're feeding a mix that's strongly biased toward the CGD. This is not perfect, but I highly doubt he's suffering nutrition-wise. As far as the crickets go, as long as they're gut-loaded and dusted, you're in good shape there. If you can get him off of the baby food completely, that would be good, but it's probably not a tragedy if you just keep it to low amounts of baby food/high amounts of CGD. One thing to try is gradually dropping the amount of baby food the CGD is mixed with to wean off of the baby food. If that doesn't work, sometimes it can help to dust the crickets in CGD in order to get the gecko to associate that taste/smell with food. Here's hoping I've been helpful, and my apologies for not having a rigorous scientific study to back up my opinion; I'm just going based on what has worked for me and what I've read here and elsewhere.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Well, the problem with having a lot of information is we have to remember that, I believe, 12 years ago it was recorded that cresteds were extinct...

Repashy has done the most extensive work in diet and breeding, so it is literally the starting point for everyone. With more time and more experience different options will not doubt come out, but all the books recommend the same thing, reaching back to what Repashy learned by trial and error.

Cold hard data then is really limited. None one can even agree as to the average expected lifespan in captivity of a crested. We are still flying a bit blind. This is in huge contrast to Leos who've been bred for decades. Without a ton of data, we each attempt to figure out what works for us and what doesn't. This thread has several opinions, but in the end it comes down to the owner and the gecko. Sorry there is not much out there of help.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Yeah, switching him from the dessert baby food to his current diet had to be done very gradually. I didn't realize how resistant to change these guys were---my skinks are garbage hounds compared to my cresty. I have heard some people who fed CGD only have had some health problems---even though Repashy and his colleagues have raised generations on it. Any time you put a captive animal on a "complete diet" you have to trust that it really has everything that the animal needs. In nature, their food choices vary considerably. I may switch to the CGD with occasional mushed fruits and weekly (loaded,dusted) crickets but I doubt I'll ever just feed CGD. Glad to see I'm not the only one doing this! Thanks guys!

now if the crested diet foods are complete, then why do a see a size difference, i have used different foods for them and i see a slower growth rate in crested that are JUST fed crested diet food.....why is this????, a good friend took some of his creted geckos and tested this, some with just diet food and the others with a mixed diet of different foods(i dont know all he used).....he had bigger crested and faster growth in the ones on the mixed diet

Ok, I think I understood your message to say that your friend fed one set of geckos on only CGD and another set on some mixed diet you have no idea what it involved. (Your writing is difficult for me to understand.)

Couple of things, are we talking actual growth and maturity or simply putting on weight? There is a huge difference there, I could feed waxworms and applesauce and I could get the weight of a baby gecko up pretty high pretty fast, but it wouldn't necessarily be in good condition and could suffer later.

Second thing, because of my scientific background, I have to ask if every other condition, including genetics and environment and which set of eggs was the same... all of these can change growth rate. Even the amount of food could differ.

I also posted that I believe in feeding crickets to young geckos, but it is not necessary with CGD and only my opinion. I feel it offers additional protein and some psychological stimulation.

There are breeders out there feeding nothing but CGD and if they are out to make money, and most are, I'm guessing they would use what gets them to breeding maturity in the best time frame. I don't think there is much argument that CGD SLOWS down growth, I think you may have just experienced some conditions which caused it to slow or perhaps, not offering enough of the diet or something like that.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

sorry...lol,
Group A - was fed crested diet food only (Rapashy superfood)
Group B - was fed crickets and other bugs and fruit mix with miner-all

thats what i was sayin'. I wasn't talking about getting them fat, but up to breeding size. The babies in the test were from the same breeding groups and some of the babies were brothers/sisters. As for me, i feed crested diet food and different live food like crickets, goliath worms, silk worms...ect. and yes all my babies get diet food everyday

i have been thinking of doing this test with the last catched babies to see if this is true, i will put my findings on here.

im not saying "friend" and talking about what i do, just dont need to bring this breeder into it...