How and what do you feed your crestie?

[Mr Wilson]

Since we are new to Cresties (we own a Panther Chameleon as well!) I just wanted to see what and how everyone else is feeding their Crestie.

We are currently using a feeder cup and phoenix worms which we place on the ground. Is this appropriate for geckos? Should the cup be higher up? What other types of food do you all suggest?

Thanks!

 

[darkridder]

CGD hands down. Baby food is not correctly balanced and will end up causing the gecko to get MBD. If you feel your gecko deserves a treat, I do occassionaly do 1 of 2 things. Sometimes I will get a fresh ripe mango, peach, strawberries and puree it then offer it to the geckos. Other times I will get the fruit already pureed from the grocery store and mix it in with CGD. Instead of just doing CGD and water, I take the water portion and do half water and half nectar. I do this mostly when I am e-fixing the colony, but it works really well when you have a stubborn new gecko that isnt taking to CGD well, mixing it with fruit nectar they will normally eat it, then you can slowly decrease the about of nectar in it.

What I feed in honestly varies a little bit. All babies-juvies get fed in pop caps, anything larger the food is quite simply just wasted. For lone adult males they get fed in large gatoraid bottle caps, again for the same reason as the babies. For the females since all are in groups except for 2 of them (they get gatoraid lids also), the female pairs I use 2 different things. Most have the Pangea mushroom feeding ledge http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/pangea-magnetic-mushroom-ledge-cup-holder.html
It holds 2 2oz feeding cups, I normally just fill 1 cup half way for the girls. The other cages I use something like this
http://www.amazon.com/Oxo-Good-Grips-1213700-Suction/dp/B00179DLZ4
This suction cups to the side of the tank and is very strong. With this I use a shallow reptile dish to offer food for the girls.

All of the babies and males get fed from the ground, all of the girls get fed up higher, it isnt really like a preference thing for me, just how I do it. Eventually everyone will be switched over to one of these types of "ledges". Although the suctioncup is very strong (seriously you cant just pull it off, it has this little tab you need to pull on as it is spring action) I wouldnt use it in a tub, so the girls that do use it are in an aquarium. All girls in the tubs get the Pangea mushroom ledge and that thing isnt going anywhere either, the magnets are very very strong.

 

[redsman]

I feed my cresties cgd too.I am new to them as well but everyone that I have talked to said cgd.My pair had no problems coming out of the wood work to come eat it.And it smells so good it's like you could eat it yourself.

 

[sunshinegeckofarm]

Yep Crested Gecko Diet for sure
You can also feed insects such as crickets and phoenix worms and roaches, im not sure on mealworms and superworms.
but i would not add insects until you know the cresties are eating well on crested gecko diet once you have estabished they are eat it then you can add insects about once a week that are well gutloaded and dusted with calcium.

 

[darkridder]

lol CGD honestly doesnt taste that bad....

 

[LIZARDLOVER]

I think it smells like bananas...but I've never had the nerve to taste it!

 

[darkridder]

awww come on it isnt that bad!

 

[Mr Wilson]

Thanks!! Where do you all get your CGD? What exactly is it made of? Also, how often and how much do you feed? Our Crestie (Doc) is I believe about 5 months old (according to the store). Sorry about so many questions. We are just new to geckos and want to make sure we do everything right!

 

[LIZARDLOVER]

We are just new to geckos and want to make sure we do everything right!

Goood to hear! I get mine from PET**, I think it's seven dollars. For now I've only got two cresties, but that will soon change so I might start buying in bulk from Pangea Reptiles: http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/crested-gecko-diet.html

As far as feeding goes, I try to always have a constant supply in there for them. I usually put it in a small cap, like the ones from a soda, water, or gatorade bottle.

These are the ingredients: Honey Powder, HempSeed Meal, Bee Pollen, Whey Protein Isolate, Fig Powder, Wheat Germ Meal, Alfalfa Leaf Meal, Brewers Yeast, , Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Yeast Culture, Spirulina Algae, RoseHips powder, Kelp meal, Haemotococcus Algae, Marigold Extract, Rosemary Extract, Yucca Extract, Natural Mixed Tocopherols (as a preservative), Vitamin A acetate, D-Activated Animal Sterol (Source of Vitamin D-3) ,Vitamin Premix, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, and Probiotic Premix.

 

[Mr Wilson]

I bought Doc the CGD and so far he has not even eaten it. I have it placed in a small cup that I cut (no sharp edges, I promise!) so that it was the height of a gatorade cap (which someone suggested) and it is on the ground. I don't know if he is still trying to get use to his new surroundings (got him Monday afternoon, close to I guess 2:00, my boyfriend surprised me for my bday with him!) or if maybe he just has no idea it is there!

Any suggestions?

 

[Shadraak]

I bought Doc the CGD and so far he has not even eaten it. I have it placed in a small cup that I cut (no sharp edges, I promise!) so that it was the height of a gatorade cap (which someone suggested) and it is on the ground. I don't know if he is still trying to get use to his new surroundings (got him Monday afternoon, close to I guess 2:00, my boyfriend surprised me for my bday with him!) or if maybe he just has no idea it is there!

Any suggestions?

yeah put some on your fingertip and put it on his nose when he starts licking put it there and he'll start licking it off your finger, coudl also try a spoon etc.... i've got 2 now that are SPOILED and only spoonfeed for me , so be careful HAHA.

 

[Trunks]

I bought Doc the CGD and so far he has not even eaten it. I have it placed in a small cup that I cut (no sharp edges, I promise!) so that it was the height of a gatorade cap (which someone suggested) and it is on the ground. I don't know if he is still trying to get use to his new surroundings (got him Monday afternoon, close to I guess 2:00, my boyfriend surprised me for my bday with him!) or if maybe he just has no idea it is there!

Any suggestions?

They honestly don't eat very much and usually new cresty keepers think their lizards aren't eating. However, if you're sure he isn't eating it, you could by some natural baby food (Peach seemed to work very well for me) and mix a bit of that into the CGD to try to get him interested in it, and ween out the baby food as he gets used to eating it.

 

[hutena]

Hello

My geckos really liked pin head crickets when they were little (very small crickets) too big and they could choke on them. I always call them pin head crickets at stores and they know what they are. I would alternate between crickets dusted with powder and cgd.I used to dust them with Rep -cal calcium with Vit.D3 and Herptivite, but now I just use Repashy superfoods calcium plus ICB(insect cricket balancer) Pangea has it on their website. I put crickets in a small ziplock w/ a small amount of the powder in there and shake the powder onto the crickets like a shake and bake package.I don't put too much on them as it seems to suffocate the crickets if they are too coated. I also gut load the crickets with cricket food and blue cricket gel as a substitute for water. I keep the crickets in a little container with a piece of egg crate and their cricket food and water gel. The crickets have a pretty good set up. I don't feed my geckos crickets as much as when they were babies and my geckos didn't like the cgd at first either. Give them time. I would blend or crush up some strawberries and mix with the cgd and a little water they'll like it. I thought my geckos hated the cgd until I saw little cgd gecko foot prints up the side of the glass.