Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was given a baby crested a few weeks ago. Ive put the crested diet, baby foods, apple sause, even crested bites in theres and ive never seen any indication that he touches it. ive also put in tiny crickets which do seem to be dissapearing. Is this normal? i did see a post about hand feeding, should i be doing that? I have seen him moving around in the evening normally, and i believe hes about to shed. Any information is helpful thanks.

Baby cresteds often prefer crickets to other foods. Also, they sometimes eat *very* small portions of their CGD/Fruit Baby Food/etc, such that it's hard to tell they've had any. For now, I'd say keep offering both, but also make sure your temperature & humidity are correct and that there are adequate hiding places in its enclosure. They like lots of leaf cover to hide in, and basically room temp is comfortable for them - 65 to 80 degrees F. Do not let them get over 80 F, and make sure they're getting misted enough to maintain them at fairly high humidity.

Beyond those things, there's not too much you can really do. If the crickets are disappearing, s/he is probably eating them and you therefore probably have nothing to worry about. You can dust the crickets in either the leopard gecko cricket dust or crested gecko diet in order to supplement them. The leo dust is good for balancing out the nutrition in the crickets, the CGD for getting them used to the smell/taste of CGD as food, and it of course adds nutrition as well.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

Listen to what olsytn said about temperatures.

But you have way too much going on in that tank. Why are you feeding baby food and apple sauce and CGD? Really all babyfood and applesauce are are sugars and good tasting stuff, it's like offering candy, and really shouldn't be part of their normal diet. I have also never heard of crested bites, could you explain what they are or provide a link?

CGD is the best thing out there as far as I know, and you can even feed your little one only CGD, and no crickets, it's that good for them.
While it is ok to feed them properly gutloaded and calcium dusted crickets, they cannot have a healthy diet just eating crickets (unlike most geckos), and will often ignore other foods if they are being fed crickets too much which is unhealthy. I would only feed 3-5 properly sized crickets maybe once a week, and offer CGD in a bowl the rest of the week.

You have to remember that your little guy is small, and so they don't eat a ton. If you spread out the CGD thin in the bowl then you might see some lick marks, if not you might not see any indication in the food.

If you have him on paper towels it is very easy to check for poops, if something is coming out it means something is going in and he is eating.

Hope this helps!

I dont have all of that in the tank at once. I tried the CGD when that didnt seem to temp i tried different things each time. A local pet store that carries them reccommended that i try baby food and applesause to temp in into eating. Crested bites are something ive seen 2 local petshops carry especially for fruit eating geckos. i guess i'll just keep the CGD in there and keep putting crickets in there so he eats something at least. maybe as he grows he'll start eating the fruit stuff. link...

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754870&utm_source=cse&utm_campaign=2754870&utm_medium=nextag&mr:referralID=7f1c3a00-cd8a-11dd-9f5b-000423c27407

Sorry to say, but I don't think he'll grow much on a diet of just crickets, in this case the "something is better than nothing" doesn't quite work.

A lot of people who use CGD will just leave CGD in the cage with their new gecko for a while, sometimes it takes them a while to get used to the climate and decide to eat something that is not moving. They do not die if they don't eat for a while and they also do not starve themselves. My first suggestion would be to leave just the CGD in with him for a week, no crickets. If you see poops in that week, then he's eating it!
If you are really worried about it you can also hand feed him some, which is taking your finger or a dropper and dabbing it on their nose for them to lick it off. The only thing with this is sometimes it is stressful for new geckos who aren't used to their owners.

I agree with all that's been said. I've found some cresties are fine when moved into a new home, and start guzzling food into them as normal, others can take a while to adjust to their new surroundings, but the main thing is to keep offering the food and provide the proper temps, humidity and loads of hiding areas so they can adjust to their new homes.

I spread the CGD out on a small flat dish, and next morning you see lick marks.

It will be useful to know more about your setup and your crested gecko. How big is the cage you have him in? How do you have it set up? What is your substrate? Do you have alot of fake or real plants inside to provide security and cover? Branches etc? What type of cage (glass tank, screen etc?) What are the ambient temperatures in the cage? Humidity?

How much CGD are yo offering each night?
How big is your crested gecko and how old?

Unfortunately 'baby' could mean newly hatched to nearly a year old...though typically they are sold at around 3-6 months of age...but some places sell them younger.

When I bred crested geckos I kept babies singly in small 'dry storage' containers (used for pastel) that I bought at the local Dollar store. I drilled a few holes in the top, put paper towel on the bottom, a fake leafy plant and thats it. It was great for rearing babies till they were about 4-5" long, then I moved them into their adult cage. I fed them CGD in a bottle cap, about quarter to half a teaspoon of the diet. I increased the amount based on how much was left each morning. (fed in evening, removed uneaten food next day). If very little to none was left I add more in their next feeding. If there is lots left I reduce how much I offer.

Keep in mind these are small geckos as youngsters and thus have small stomachs, it doesn't take long to fill up.

The diet is nice as you can just mix a very small amount and use over the week if you keep it refrigerated. For a single gecko I wouldn't make more than a teaspoon of diet (half a teaspoon of powder, one teaspoon of water).
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PHLdyPayne