Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
My name is carlos and Im new on these forums. I've recently bought a 1 yr old male crested gecko and a 4 month old juvinile crested gecko.I have a few questions In regard to their eating,My older male doesnt seem to be eating the live creckets I put in his cage...im not sure if he is or if they are just getting out because I've seen a few roaming around the. he does however eat the cgd food as well as a mixture of goober bananna & strawberry mixed with some crested gecko diet but only when Im feeding him outside the cage, he doesnt seem to touch it while inside his cage, anything I can do to spruce up his food , maybe some honey idk...He's very active some nights and some he stays in the same spot for a majority of the night...Is this normal or cause for concern. the baby is lively and is a very good eater, He will eat some of the baby food and will eat crickets. I do dust my crickets with the calcium powder every feeding and use the calcium powder once or twice a week.
How many times would I generally feed them, Right now its 4 times a week and I cycle between crickets and food mixtures.
Any advice would be great and I would really appreciate.

thanks for hearing me out. -carlos

!!speell check!! Sorry some things I did'nt realize I typed wrong.

calcium every feeding,either dusted on crickets or mixed with baby food mixture. vitimin powder is used with calcium for dusting crikets twice a once or twice a week and crested gecko diet mixed with some gerber strawberry & bannana baby food with a pinch of calcium mixed in.

now is it true that citric acid is harmful...because every baby food with fruit i find has citric acid. the herpetoculural library book for the crested gecko shows the baby foods from gerber and the fruit ones shown have citric acid...sombody said this is harmful to them.

I have the large 1yr male set up in a 10 gallon tank right now with sythetic plants and the younger one I have in a 5 gallon tank for now with the same kind of set-up. for the substrate I have a mixture of reg peat moss and a substrate mix by zilla "FIR AND SPHAGNUM PEAT MOSS MIX".

Im not using no heating of any kind because houshold temps stay about 75 degrees.I use small damp towels to help keep humidity in the terrium up....anything im missing?

ditch the baby food completely, it's an outdated method and will only cause your geckos health problems, as it is especially difficult for a beginner to obtain the proper balances of vitamins and minerals. just give them straight CGD, mixed with water only. they won't starve themselves. it can take a few weeks for them to settle in and eat regularly anyway. until they are eating this, skip the crickets. once they are eating the CGD well, you may add a few gutloaded, calcium dusted crickets ONCE a week. since there is already D3 in the CGD and geckos can overdose on it, get PURE calcium (no D3), that's the rep cal in the green jar, not pink. there are also other brands available, or you can use leopard gecko ICB or CGD to dust with occasionally. feed them CGD 3 times a week, and leave the CGD in for 2 nights, just remoisten if it dries out.

your adult gecko is going to need a 20 gallon tank, and you could move the juvie up to the 10 gallon. since it looks like you have the room, you may also try standing the tanks on end so they are vertically oriented. create a humidity cycle by misting (with reverse osmosis water to avoid spots on the glass) in the evening and letting the tanks dry out during the next day. it should peak at about 80-90% and drop back down to around 50%. they should also have a water dish filled with either fresh filtered/treated tap or bottled spring water at all times.
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4.1 snakes, 4.6.1 crested geckos, 0.1.1 gargoyle geckos, 0.0.2 red-eyed tree frogs, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta, 0.1 sun conure, 1.0 peachfaced lovebird, 2.0 lineolated parakeets

Ok so I should get rid of the baby....But why have so many breeders reccomend it, I mean I've spoken to quite a few breeders that have used the fruit baby food mixed with crested gecko diet with good success.baby food has been used for a while and if it was harmful why would they reccomend it in all the care books written for them? I am going to switch to the regular calcium because of overdose concern.The last day I feed the adult and young one was yesterday. so what I will do Is start them fresh on monday with the crested gecko diet only and wait awile on the crickets for the adult. should I stop crickets for the young one, I mean the shop where I bought him were feeding their babys a mixture of cgd and crickets once a week? Oh and I did make different caging arrangements for the cresties and here are a few pics. I put the juvinile in the 10 gallon and got my hands on a 18 3/4" tall, 12 1/2" wide, 12 1/2 deep terrium for the larger adult male, its definatly bigger than the ten gal and has more climbing space. I hope its an improvment.

its all up to the breeder. baby food is still widely used, and many top breeders do use the baby food method. a lot of times now though, breeders do wene them off of the baby food, and use only water. i do use water for the mostpart but i do occasionally give them a baby food mixture. i feed my crested geckos butter worms as well, which are very high in calcium. again though, baby food is still widely used, and the health of the gecko is not drastically affected. the first ones i purchased were originally fed exclusively cgd mixed with baby food. you dont go through the stuff as quickly with the baby food either, just water makes it very liquidy, when youre looking for a slightly thick texture.

if your little one is already eating its CGD, you don't need to stop giving it crickets.

the 12x12x18 exo terra is actually only about 1 gallon larger than your 10 gallon, so other than giving him more height, you really haven't given him more room, and he will still need a larger 20 gallon tank.

like i said, the baby food method is outdated. keep in mind that crested geckos have only been bred in captivity for about 10 years. methods for diet are constantly being refined, and when those books were written, repashy's CGD MRP was still relatively new on the market. he is the largest breeder of crested geckos in the world, and has worked hard to test this diet over many generations, with excellent results healthwise.

as i also mentioned, it is too difficult for beginners to obtain the proper balance of nutrients when supplementing baby food or fruit mixtures, and too often, the result is a gecko with metabolic bone disease, calcium crash, egg-binding or death. i will attach this experienced reptile vet's post from another forum once again:
http://ciliatus.com/forums/index.php/topic,2039.0/all.html
the crested gecko diet meal replacement powder takes all the guesswork out of the nutritional requirements and eliminates these health problems. also, mixing baby food into CGD completely neutralizes the balance and value of its nutrition by throwing everything off. CGD is an MRP, in other words, a COMPLETE diet, to be mixed with water ONLY.

i cringe every time i hear baby food mentioned and i don't know why some breeders still insist on using it when an updated complete diet is available, especially with the new 2-part system where you can alternate flavors and protein content depending on whether you feed live insects in conjunction with the diet or not.
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4.1 snakes, 4.6.1 crested geckos, 0.1.1 gargoyle geckos, 0.0.2 red-eyed tree frogs, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta, 0.1 sun conure, 1.0 peachfaced lovebird, 2.0 lineolated parakeets

with the 2-part diet you can use baby food instead of the fruit nectars. I only use the nectars and sometimes apple sauce. But they have directions on the bag for using baby food since the CGD powder does not have the sweeteners and flavor in it for the 2part diet. Rican look at Pangea they sell the 2part diet and the orignal CGD.

i think your setups are nice. i know you are trying your best to provide the best you can. whats in the desert setup? lol i have leos and cresties. i have 15 cresties and 20 leos and waiting for 2 eggs to hatch soon. i would definitely try to get some of 2part CGD and try it i have noticed mine liking it alot more than just the regular banana flavored CGD. i have papaya, peach, fig and rose flavors. they like the peach&papaya the best.

good luck with these cresties they are truly cool animals

Danielle

only problem is with 2 geckos, it can be a bit too much food if you order the repashy. the t-rex bottle size seems to work better. good news is that eventually, the new flavor will work its way into stores, it is no longer banana but rose/mango/strawberry. =)
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4.1 snakes, 5.6.1 crested geckos, 0.2 gargoyle geckos, 0.0.2 red-eyed tree frogs, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta, 0.1 sun conure, 1.0 peachfaced lovebird, 2.0 lineolated parakeets

from the 2-part label instructions:

"The MRP Base may also be used in conjunction with fresh fruit, babyfood, and fresh honey to create a complete diet or supplemental diet. There is no way to be precise with this method because different fruits have different levels of moisture , sugar, minerals, vitamins... These are only guidlines, and if using this method, careful monitoring must be used, and results may vary. Use this method at your own risk."
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4.1 snakes, 5.6.1 crested geckos, 0.2 gargoyle geckos, 0.0.2 red-eyed tree frogs, 2.0 devon rex cats, 1.0 betta, 0.1 sun conure, 1.0 peachfaced lovebird, 2.0 lineolated parakeets