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This 11 month old female was raised on a supplemented baby food mix from 6 weeks to present. She weighs in at 43 grams and is ready to breed. I will continue to maintain her on the same diet through breeding. This size and weight is right on par with a female I raised on a predominantly cricket based diet. I know it has been done before, but I'm going to be keeping laying and hatch rate records for these females. All my other adult females are on the CGD.

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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
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Hi She looks amazing I'm curious, what is the supplemented baby mix that you fed her on? I offer my little one baby food (a variety of flavours)and he doesn't seem to touch it, but throw in a cricket and its gone.

Thanks in advance
Red

I use a 2:1 ratio, fruit to meat. I always use the same mix which is, 1 peach or apricot, 1 banana, and one turkey or chicken. For supplements I use a product from herpnutrition.com called Performance plus gecko. It is a calcium based vitamin/mineral supp. I also switch up with Herptivite and minerall I.
thanks
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
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Forgot to add. If you want you gecko to eat more baby food, you need to hold off on the crix. As long as the gecko is healthy, it should accept the food in time.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
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Thankyou for the info, i'm going to try that. I'm going to have to look into finding the Performance plus gecko too, it sounds really good. So far i haven't been able to find the crested gecko food, i really wanted to try him on that.

Thanks again
Red

Hey Bill just a few questions for you . What is the length of the female pictured? How about the other female you mentioned and her weight? Was she fed all crickets or crix and fruit on alternating days? As you know I ran the same experiment a few years ago. I raised 3 on all fruit (with meat mixed in the ratio you mentioned) and 3 on all crix. My results however showed the crested on all crix were larger then the all fruit. I actually have two females now that I hatched out last year and are 8 and 7 months. They have been raised on crix only; with fruit give every other week or so. They weigh in at 46 and 37 grams. The 8 month old is a bit larger then your 11 month female and 3 months younger. Def not ready to breed though, so weight is not always the best to make the call on. How about your two leachies, have you kept track of their growth? I know we got them at the same time, although yours where about 3 months older then mine. Since magoo is my first leachie I obliviously do not have any hatchlings to compare growth rates too so I am interested in what you observed. If I remember correctly I think you where raising your leachies on the CGD, right? Magoo was on the fruit/meat for the first 3 months until I finally got him on crix. Plotted the whole thing in excel and he shot up after I cut most of the fruit out. However that could be a growth spurt thing, like I said I only have one, nothing to compare to . Right now he is 32 grams. Also didn’t you raise some baby cresteds on the CGD? How are they coming along and compare to the supplemented baby food diet? Anyway thanks for the info.
-Mike

Mike,
The female pictured is approx. 7.25", and the other female is approx 7.50" and 47 grams at 14 months. The crix eating female has laid 3 clutches so far. She was fed crix 3 times a week and my baby food mix(not just fruit)2 times a week. The other female on the all baby food diet was fed ever other day. I recall you saying that it took you almost 2 years to raise then to breeding size on a similar diet (closer to 1:1 you had said). I'm trying to figure out why there would be such a huge difference in growth rate between our results. As for the hatchlings, I have one pair on babyfood, and the other on CGD(I have yet to order GGD in bulk). The babyfood pair is growing slighly faster than the CGD, but at this stage it is insignificant. I have other hatchlings that I intend to sell that I raise on baby food and CGD, with a couple crix offered once a week. I do this just to make sure they accept crix. I have not been keeping growth rates on my leachies. They are about 8-9 months old now. I will bring them to work and weigh them, out of curiosity. They are eatong both babyfood and the CGD. I have definately noticed growth "spurts" with the Leachies(and cresteds for that matter). There are days where they don't touch there food, then days where they will eat so much to the point of looking like little leachie balloons.
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
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Bill,
Okay I think I know why you got the results you did. The two females you raised are very similar in size. The female that had fruit/meat and crix was only slightly bigger but she was 3 months older. Around 12 months their growth really starts to slow down which prob accounts for the all fruit female so close behind in weight and length of the other. You also did not start giving the all fruit female the fruit/meat mix until she was 6 weeks which also could play a role to their close size (you never mentioned if they where the same size when you started, an important thing in this experiment). In their first month they literally should double in size, so if one was larger in the beginning it would throw off your results. If not then it was prob the other case I mentioned.

Now I just measured the two females I mentioned yesterday. The 8 month old is 8.0” and the 7 month old is 7.25”, so both larger and significantly younger then yours. All my hatchlings eat anywhere from 5-10 crix every day until they hit one year, which upon I feed them every other day. That’s where I think you went wrong. You still where giving fruit/meat more then crix to the one female (fruit/meat 4 days, crix 3). She should have had just crix nothing else from the beginning. Every once in awhile I get stubborn crix feeders and they usually are on the same diet as your female. Just crix a few times a week and fruit/meat the rest. Their growth rates where similar to the ones you got in your experiment. Just a wee bit bigger then the all fruit/meat (no crix) raised hatchlings. Sill much smaller then the hatchlings on all crix though.

“I recall you saying that it took you almost 2 years to raise then to breeding size on a similar diet (closer to 1:1 you had said).” Okay that female was Muppet and Matisse is doing the same thing, she is over a year and still half the size of the others. Muppet is just ready to breed now (almost 3) and Matisse has a ways to go despite her age. However both where runts and received on that fact they always would be tiny animals because of poor starts. They pretty much only ate the fruit (no meat supplemented) and very few crix for the first year or so. After I came into the picture they started to get fruit/meat instead of just fruit with the crix, similar to your test female. Their growth rates where very poor, but it prob was do to genetics not the diet and are really not relevant in this experiment. However all fruit (no meat) and few crix would prob see similar results because of the small amount of protein. Might even be similar to the growth rates in the wild because conditions are not always in their favor.

Yes please let me know the stats on your leachies. Magoo as I mentioned is just 5 months and 32 grams, which is pretty good I believe. As I would imagine the all crix diet should see similar results regardless of species. I won’t draw any conclusions yet until you get back to me, but so far your results are on par with the growth rates of my all fruit/meat geckos and stubbourn feeders (fruit/meat 4 days, crix 3). Coupled with my two females on just crix and very small amounts of fruit (something you did not test) our data is again showing my original results that the all crix grow larger. I am really more intrested in what the CGD will show. Thanks for the info and quick reply.
-Mike

Although I appreciate your analysis, I believe it was uneccessary. The point of my post was to present a female that for the most part was raised to a breeding size in under a year on a babyfood mix. This is in stark contrast to what you have presented in your results doing the same in the past. Differances in exact size and weight are kind of irrelavant. I just wanted to prove to myself and anyone else who might be interested that it could be done, and this kind of diet or the CGD is perfectly fine. I expect similar results with the CGD, possibly better had I used the GGD from the begining. I'm certain they will be of breeding size within a year. As a side note, I have since switched the female that was raised on a mostly cricket diet to the CGD. I'll keep you posted on the Leachies.

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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
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Size, weight and age play a big part in deciding when an animal should breed, so the numbers are pretty relevant. You hit your recommend breeding weight in about a year (11 months, which I personally think is to young, but it varies depending on the animal ) my geckos hit it at 7 months with an all crix diet. So what, right? In your experiment and mine all animals where ready to breed with good weight at 14 months. So there is nothing wrong with any of the methods. However the geckos fed crix exclusively (which you didn’t try) did get larger. My current two females are also well on their way in showing the same results. Is being bigger better? Who knows it is two early to tell. Currently I think it is; being bigger is only going to benefit the animal especially egg laying females. In another year or so we can take a second look and see if things continue, but you got to keep them on the same diet . I am also curious to see the numbers with the CGD. Anyway thanks again for posting the info, post those leachie weights as soon as you can, I am interested if the trend is the same .
-Mike

Mike,
I'm not quite sure what you mean about the all crix diet cresteds growing bigger. Yours have gotten to a bigger size faster. The female I posted a pic of is still growing, and will continue to grow even after breeding. I know this because I have seen it in my other females. The same holds true for leopard geckos and bearded dragons, thay will all continue to grow more even after being bred for the first time. Honestly, I don't know the exact age of most animals I hold back for breeding. I just wait until they are what looks to be a healthy breeding size, and group them up.
"So there is nothing wrong with any of the methods."
I'm gald to see you finally feel that way. I'm not concerned with which diet results in quicker growth rates. Your results show that they have quicker growth rates with a cricket based diet. I'm happy to get my geckos to a healthy breeding size within a year on a non-prey diet. I have done that and will continue to do that. It's just an alternate husbandry method for people such as myself who want to deal with crix as little as possible. The only herps that I have that eat crix are my baby beardeds. My adults eat a mostly plant based diet supplemented with superworms, and my leopards get mealworms exclusively. Anyway, that's just what I prefer.

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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
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I am just implying when they hit a certain age the all crix fed geckos will be larger. For example your 14 month old is 47grams and my 8 month old is 46grams. With that rate she is easily going to be over 50 grams when she hits 14 months. At which point she will be done with the majority of her growth and will be well prepared to breed. However like you pointed out all reptiles continue to grow, the rate is just drastically slowed down as they get older. But the larger gecko will be further up the ladder in reaching her adult size, simply because she had more building material (protein) as she was growing. So in theory anyway females can devote more energy and nutrients to their eggs instead of their growing bodies, it makes sense anyway. The results could be anything from more eggs, less body stress or they could end up being exactly the same with one just growing faster. Who really knows it is just speculation right now but it should be beneficial. I do currently think the larger animals will have an edge but we will have to keep tabs on these things and in another year or two we should have a better idea.

Yeah my leos only get mealies or supers. However they kind of turned their tails up to them lately and most are eating crix now. I also have a couple of day geckos that need them regardless so feeding crix is no big deal to me. I actually prefer it compared to sitting their and mixing fruit every night. Easier just for me to throw a couple in a bowl and walk away .
-Mike