CGD vs. Baby Food

[Northstar Herp]

OK, so I just back home from the Manchester NH expo where I actually heard this from a crestie breeder when some folks remarked how big their cresties were.

"I feed them baby food, and these are the siaze they are supposed to be. Most people feed them Rapashy diet or something like that, and that's why their's are so small. DO NOT feed them Rapashy diet, it actually kills them. They get MBD and die."

And yeah, their cresties were just that big. Probably averaging as big or larger in weight than most leos.

I'd like to hear some responses from crestie breeders about this.

 

[Srt14292]

Babyfood is one of the worst staples you can feed, the repashy superfoods 2 part diet works a treat. My geckos are growing perfectly normal, the guy has more then likely overfed his geckos with the babyfood and are overly fat.

 

[T-ReXx]

+1. Baby food is notoriously unbalanced nutritionally and is known to cause cresteds to get obese. Healthy adult cresteds should be in the 35-45 gram range, a bit larger sometimes. A crested the size of an adult leopard gecko(55gs+) is definately overweight. In any event, Allen Repashy knows what he's doing. I've been feeding CGD(and Repashy as well) for years and have NEVER had a case of MBD. Baby food, on the other hand, CAN cause MBD if it's not supplemented at all because it's unbalanced.

As a side note, I do find that young cresties fed insects(specifically roaches) along with CGD tend to grow faster and more robust than young geckos raised exclusively on CGD. I suspect the extra protein is behind that. So, although CGD reportedly is fine as a dietary staple with no other food items, I feel feeding insects 1x a week adds to the health and growth of the animal and they also enjoy it.

But yeah, IMO, that guys full of crap.

 

[Srt14292]

I forgot about insects Ted nice one, fair point though, i feed mine a couple of locuts once a week and they get on nicely.

 

[acpart]

I also feel that CGD works well for cresties. That's what I feed my single crestie and Spencer is in good health. He also eats dusted crickets a few times a week. If for any reason anyone was concerned about CGD causing MBD, they have only to add some calcium to the CGD. That said, I keep my day geckos according to Gregg and Leann Christensen's recommendations and they use baby food with calcium mixed in. So I feed my crestie CGD and my day geckos peach baby food with calcium (everyone gets dusted crickets as well) and I have healthy 4 and 5 year old animals.

Aliza