Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm just wondering from those who have fed both foods, which provides the faster growth rate? And how much of a difference is there?

I've been feeding Zeek strictly CGD and he is growing but not as much as my leopard gecko has grown being fed mealworms. Now i realize they are different species and that they will have differing growth rates regardless of what food is being fed.

Can anyone give me an idea of how much growth i should expect from feeding just the CGD? Can i give him some mealworms now and then?

Thanks for the help

Red & Zeek
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1.0 crested gecko
1.0 leopard gecko
(hoping to get 1.0 blizzard, 0.2 patternless)
1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas
and 2 very annoying younger brothers LOL

Crix def result in faster growth rates. When I first started hatching crested geckos I tried different ways of raising them and the difference between crix and baby food (meat/fruit) was something that I played around with. The crix fed animals won out of course cause of the extra protein. More recently the same experiment was run by Bill and compared with some of my hatchlings at the time and the results show the same as my original findings. Try searching around for the thread. As for the CGD I expect it being similar to baby food mixtures, but a little better. Either way you should still get geckos reaching adult size within 12 months, the crix fed ones will just be larger to a degree.
-Mike

Although I have not used the CGD, I have had great results with feeding crickets. My juveniles are raised on crickets, and they are only fed baby food about once a month. My breeders are mainly fed crickets. My juveniles are sexable around 4-5 months of age, and I believe that is directly related to the fact that I feed almost exclusively crickets.

My other Rhacodactylus are fed a variety of foods, but they still eat plenty of gut-loaded crickets.

Nathan Hall
GECKOS UNLIMITED

Currently, all my adult breeders are maintained on the CGD or a babyfood mix that I use. All of the ones I'm raising to keep are on the GGD, and the ones I plan to sell get baby food 2x, GGD 2x and crix 1x a week. I gave up keeping growth rate records, because in the long run it doesn't matter for breeding purposes. On my baby food mix, I have grown 2 females so far to breeding size in 10 and 11 months. I have my first female raised mostly on CGD approaching breeding size at 11 months. I suspect if it were raised on the GGD it would already be breeding size. The GGD is almost 50% protien dry weight, this is much more than a cricket. Feeding non-prey diets to my Rhacs for me is more efficient, as I have other species I work with in relatively large numbers. One thing I can recommend if you are concerned about the growth rate is switch to the GGD and see if there is a difference.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

Red,
Here is the link I mentioned. Look it over and make a decision that you feel is best for you and your geckos . Best of Luck.
-Mike
Crix vs Meat/fruit baby food

Mike,

It is nice to see someone else who has a bit of an unorthodox approach to feeding cresteds. I have followed most of your posts on this forum regarding crested nutrition, and I have to say that I agree with 99.9% of your posts. If it ain't broke...

Nathan Hall
GECKOS UNLIMITED

Nathan,
Yeah I feel very strongly on this one and I am glad to see you are posting more. Who would have ever thought feeding lizards insects would become unorthodox, it’s beyond imagination I tell you….lol. I am curious about this 0.1% you don’t agree with me about, be sure to point it out the next time it pops up so we can go for the full 100 .
-Mike

Mike,

Yes, I have been posting more. My wife and I finally moved into our new house and have finished many of the necessary "projects", so I've been able to post more. Also, my wife recently started residency (internal medicine MD), so she is at the hospital ALL of the time.

I've dedicated two of the rooms to the geckos, and I hope to do some more research in the months and years to come. I'm trying to talk my wife into letting me use a third room, but I don't want to press my luck.

Nathan

Thankyou very much for all the responces I appreciate it!

I was feeding Zeek crickets once a week but my cricket cage got contaminated with mites (better known as booklice). I didnt' have any crickets at the time, i was about to go out and get some, and i had cleaned out the cricket cage but i left some of the substrate. This past week was an ordeal cleaning absolutely everything......so much so that i had to move my geckos out of that level of the house. All of the cleaning stuff and insecticides i used nearly moved me and my family out of the house LOL. The bugs are gone but now i'm terrified to have crickets in the house. I still have mealworms (hand cleaned each one to make sure they didn't have any bugs on them LOL) so i was wondering if i could feed those once a week instead of crickets?

So far Zeek is doing good on the CGD. I imagine that GGD is gargoyle gecko diet right? If i can find that i'll start switching him over.

Thanks again everyone
Red & Zeek
P.S. mealworms HATE being washed LOL
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1.0 crested gecko
1.0 leopard gecko
(hoping to get 1.0 blizzard, 0.2 patternless)
1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas
and 2 very annoying younger brothers LOL

yes, the GGD is the gargoyle diet and it has more protein in it than both crix and the CGD. Sandfire uses it to raise up all there Rhacs on then they switch off to the CGD or Leachie diet. You can order all the diets from LLL reptile. I was also informed that they should also be carrying the diets in bulk soon.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

I've read over the last set of posts that dived into this subject (thanks Mike ) and i guess you'd have to start off with babies all the same size then start feeding one crix, one CGD, one GGD, and one a combination of prepared diets and crix to really get an idea of growth rates.

That would be a very cool experiment. As for my Zeek, he's eating the CGD daily and is getting bigger. I don't have a scale yet so i can't tell how much he's gained but he does look healthy. In the end thats all that really matters to me.

With the little bug problem i had Zeeks cage got a complete cleaning (i didn't want to take any chances) so he's the critter keeper for now. He looks misrable.......its so tiny compared to his other cage. But he has to stay there until i either get a new top screen for his tank or figure out how to install a door. The entire thing comes off and feeding/cleaning times are stressful for me cause its a challenge to keep him in it while i try to do what i have to.

Red
-----
1.0 crested gecko
1.0 leopard gecko
(hoping to get 1.0 blizzard, 0.2 patternless)
1.0 papillion (small dog)
2.0 bettas
and 2 very annoying younger brothers LOL