Maybe I am not understanding what you explained, but it sounds like you buy a couple dozen crickets and toss them all into your gecko cage for him to eat at his leisure?



Crested geckos are not full insectivores, a steady constant diet of insects isn't a healthy diet for them, they need a good portion of 'nectar' fruits as well. The benefit of the crested gecko diets is they were designed specifically to meet all the nutritional needs of crested geckos and is a complete diet. Before this product came along the options available for crested geckos was a mix of insects and pureed fresh nectar fruits or fruit baby food. Even this wasn't a balanced diet and if baby food was used, often too high in sugars. (the bottle may say no sugar added but that is often very misleading, as they just end up adding other sugar types (ie glucose, fructose etc).



I also don't feel its just the company trying to sell more products...as properly portioned out, a small 2.75 oz jar of powder can last several months feeding a couple crested geckos. With it now available in 4, 8 and 12 oz packages, it is easy to feed several adult crested geckos for a year for around $20.



How I mix the powder is just using a measuring spoon. For a single adult gecko, a quarter teaspoon of powder, with 2-3 1/4 teaspoons of water (or 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoons if you wish to add up the quarters) fed every other evening is really all the food they need. For extra calcium for my egg laying females, I just shake some powdered calcium into a small lid and set it into the cage to let the gecko lick up as much calcium she feels she needs. Never had any problems with poorly shelled eggs or calcium crashes during the time I was breeding crested and gargoyle geckos. My gargoyle geckos continual to lay eggs even without being mated, but even these infertile eggs are well shelled and healthy (though still very much infertile).



There is a reason why most crested and gargoyle gecko owners/breeders use the complete meal replacement powders. Its not because the manufacturer (in the case of the Rhapeshy diets, it was designed by a long time breeder, not must a generic pet food manufacturer looking for a way into the market to make money) is brainwashing people to buy the product, it is because it has been proven as the most effective way to raise, breed and keep these geckos.
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PHLdyPayne

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