Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently aquired a Leachie and for about 4 months, and last night he checked out of the living world. He started gasping for air, had his tongue stuck out, and was real twitchy. Here is a list of what all I was feeding him:

Banana, pear, mango, mixed fruit baby food with calcium dust every two days.
3-5 small crickets dusted every third feeding.

temp was around 75-80 degrees with 8 hour lighting, half of the cage was on a heat pad when the light went off.

This is upsetting because I have a trio of crested geckos and a possible trio of gargoyle geckos and they are doing fine with the same feeding schedule mentioned above.

Any comments are more then welcome.
Brian

The problem with that diet is you are missing trace elements and minerals. Despite how balanced you think you are getting the diet it is nothing like what they eat in the wild. If you have three rhac species, why not just feed MRP? You can still supplement with crickets, but you'd be getting a much more complete diet with significantly less preservatives if you are feeding "normal" baby food. No one recommends babyfood mix since CGD/MRP have been widely accepted and proven, it is just asking for trouble. Sorry about your loss, but maybe others will learn from this post.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

What is MRP?

Meal Replacement Powder.
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Kare

"keep smiling; it makes people wonder what you're up to!"

CGD or Crested Gecko Diet works for any rhac gecko and even my day gecko seems to love it. It is formulated to be a complete diet and I know it works well for Leachies also. There is also a diet made specifically for Leachies. If you want these you can buy them in quantity and at very good prices from http://www.pangeareptile.com/products.htm. I feed all of my geckos this diet and also feed them roaches.

I am sorry for the loss of your leachie and unfortunately there can be no way of knowing exactly why it died other than having a necropsy done soon after the animal dies
Even this sometimes does not give you the answer

I do agree that the meal replacement formula is an important part of any Rhacs diet

The Leachie and the Gargoyle diets have both been discontinued and the Crested Gecko Diet is now being used for all 3 of these Rhacs

There is much controversy over mixing baby food with the MRP
Some have fantastic results and no problems with doing so and others argue strongly that you are messing with the formula by adding baby food(non-citrus stage one fruit) to it

Leachies do require more protein than Cresteds do and are usually fed more insects than fed to Crested Geckos
As for heat-with a temp in the 70's during the day and in the 60's at night-there should be no need for a heat pad on the tank

Also lights are not needed on the tank as these are nocturnal animals but they are often used in planted enclosures with no ill effects to the animals

It is important not to let the temperatures get too hot for these animals and to provide adequate humidity in their enclosures

Again-I am sorry for the loss of your Leachie-they are wonderful creatures

my 2 Leachies
Thelma

Louise