Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female crested has been acting really weird lately. She has been laying eggs about every 4-6 weeks, and has recently stopped, which is fine by me, but she has been eating the dirt that I have put in her egg laying box. She has never done this before. She recently started coming out in the day time and grabbing little bits of dirt. This has been going on for about the last week or so, and I would not be worried about it, but she has been increasingly eating more and more. I feed her on a solid cricket diet, which I know is a no no, but she will not eat CGD. I do put some baby food in the cage every once in a while, which I know the male eats, not sure if she does, probably not. The crickets are dusted twice a week with a calcium suppliment. Any help would be appreciated.

Jason

remove her from her enclosure and create a temporary one w/o a dirt substrate. get her used to eating something other than just crickets and go from there. i've had some very resiliant cresteds that just won't eat the cgd. i will usually mix 1:cgd:1peach baby food:1water. they will usually start eating this within a couple of days. i just had this guy at 14 grams and looking slightly skinny. after 1 night of changing the correct mixture of CGD to the one i just gave it ate almost 5 grams of it. before the change he wouldn't eat anything but crickets.

Definitely remove the dirt she's eating from her reach, and try dusting the crickets with the CGD. They get used to the flavor readily that way and will usually eat the CGD inside of a week or two. It also doesn't hurt to mix the CGD with fruit juice, such as the Bolthouse Farms berry booster. I've been able to coax the most stubborn geckos with it. Good luck!
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Terri
6:10:21 crested geckos: Bear, Goldfish, Kermit, Brimstone, WildSpatter-Spots-to-Spare, White Lips, Big Red, Olive, Smudge, Belle, Brilliant, Tina, Brick, Toni, Beauty, Shine, Randy, Squeak, Bling, Squeaker, Stripe, Redhead, Speckles, Harrys, Penny, BonusBaby, Fudgefire & BlackCherryMarble, and AAAaaaggghhhh 9 new babies since Weds, 7/20.

Sounds like she is trying to get missing minerals back into her diet. Giving that she has been laying alot of eggs, she may be low on calcium. Try putting a bit of powdered calcium in a small dish (like a jar lid), remove the dirt/egg laying bin and the male (or move her into her separate container). One thing you don't want her to do is have a calcium crash which could be fatal.

If she has eaten the crested gecko diet, offer that as well as dusted crickets. Some fresh fruits, finelly chopped or pureed will be a nice treat. i wouldn't breed her for awhile, just to make sure she isn't over stressed. Once she starts eating regularly, maybe cool her for a few months to give her a rest.